After months of recession, it’s survival of the fittest among manufacturing and telecommunications contractors as they fight this summer over a few hot spots of demand in the consumer markets on which they rely. “We’ve been in the doldrums, but owners expect that we’ve used the recession to sharpen our pencils,” says Bart Eberwein, vice president at Portland, Ore.-based Hoffman Construction Co. Looking for value in an acute buyers’ market, owners are demanding contractors be sharper, faster and more flexible. While there are fresh rounds of investment in sustainable energy products, auto plants and data centers, only the top dogs are winning those contracts. “[Owners] expect that construction practices at least mirror their own internal zero-defect culture; at best, they would like to see continuous quality improvement and monitoring of metrics leading to flawless projects,” Eberwein says.
That’s a tall order and good for some firms but not for others. “Owners who are used to working with smaller firms have started looking to bring in competition on bids looking for additional services, and so we’ve landed some first-time clients in this market,” reports Matt Gray, president at Homewood, Ill.-based Graycor Construction Co. “They’re looking much harder at your financials, which has been a good thing for us.” The dynamic sees firms jumping across market sectors, sometimes stepping beyond experience levels and into unfamiliar terrain—vertical builders taking on process projects, for instance. “We have not yet seen the fallout that may come from that,” Gray says.