By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Two months ago, Rockford Construction was working on projects in 18 states and had added 13 field superintendents. This summer they took on projects in two new states—Florida and Oklahoma. And, this month they hired four more people, including a VP of Information Technology.
Now they're looking to hire three more field superintendents by the end of the year, and project 2007 gross revenues of over $300 million.
"Residential construction is down, but other places are building and we're diversified enough to take advantage of that," says Dan Clappison, VP of operations. "We do higher education projects, we do a lot of retail work, we do a lot of renovation work. When you diversify yourself you're not tied to the housing market."
About half of Rockford's 200-plus employees work in the field. Many of those work out of state when projects call for their expertise. Even so, Clappison says some 90 percent of the company's workforce comes from West Michigan.
"We don't hire by the job—we hire individuals to give them career opportunities with Rockford," Clappison adds. "We anticipate that some of our clients we do repetitive work for will have continued building needs and we'll need to add staff to accommodate those needs."
Clappison says entry level field superintendent positions may pay around $40,000 a year; more experienced personnel will earn more, depending on their skill level and the complexity of the projects.
Source: Dan Clappison, Rockford Construction
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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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