Loading...ENR Top Contractors 2012 List
Welcome to another feature here on ElectricTV.net, your home for video news, information, trends and entertainment in the world of electrical construction. Powered by the NECA/IBEW team.
ENR’s annual list of top contractors is out, and 30 of the top 50 in electrical are NECA members.
In this story, we’ll talk to a few of them – as well as the principals of NECA and the IBEW themselves to shed a little lights on what it all means – and why being affiliated with NECA and the IBEW plays such a big role in this recognition.
While this news might not make the front page of the Washington Post or the lead story on the nightly news, its relevance and importance shouldn’t be overshadowed by its headline potential.
The ENR Top 600 is not an award. There isn’t a red carpet. Speeches aren’t required.
Rather, the ENR Top 600 shines a light on the most successful companies in the business. Puts a face to the name. Shows others who the biggest and best are and how they got there.
Firms on “the list” have staying power. Their business models are tried and true. They innovate while others are stuck in neutral. They succeed in spite of challenges.
Take, for example, the post-2008 economy. It was, and for many continues to be, the biggest challenge to growth since the great depression.
In spite of this, those on “the list” are now reaping the benefits of what ENR calls a “pent-up demand that has forced owners to start spending on capital projects.”
Those on “the list” collectively cleared revenue of more than 72 billion dollars in 2011, up 8.9 percent from 2010.
Just about 33 percent of that amount went electrical, more than 12 of the other 14 specialties combined – and the most by more than 12 points.
The best of the best make up ENR’s list. Those with the biggest share of the pie are electrical contractors. And the majority of them are affiliated with the National Electrical Contractors Association.
Qualified people ready to do work in traditional electrical installation and maintenance, as well as telecommunications work and outside line construction.
John Grau – Chief Executive Officer, NECA
“ENR has been doing this for many, many years—giving a publication on who the top contractors are in many different fields, and I have to say that over the years NECA members have always represented the majority of those kind of contractors. And it’s something we’re proud of –the success of those contractors, and I think it reflects on the success of what we do as an industry as well—to have that kind of representation.”
Ron Autrey – Chairman, Miller Electric Company
“There are just so many things that we have to be really good at to be successful as electrical contractors, and NECA, over their 100+ year history, has developed a program to support contractors of all types and sizes as they grow their own companies.”
Ed Hill – International President, IBEW
“We, along with NECA have training programs all over the country…and our local unions are situated all over the country as well. And anywhere they have a job, or want to bid a job, they know that they have qualified people waiting in the wings—if you will—do to the work that they bid.”
Clayton Scharff – CEO, President & Chairman of the Board
“We do work for the FAA, and right now we’re working in about 15 different states, and literally have opportunities across the US. We’re doing work in Canada, as well. Having the ability to go where the work is, where the client needs us, at a time that they are looking for our services, we’re able to go there and know that we can rely in the IBEW and the craftsmen that we’re going to find are quality and safe.”
Tom Parkes – CEO, O’Connell Electric Company
“NECA has always helped us regarding marketing there and they’re always ahead looking at the next horizon, the next marketing opportunity for us to get into. Meeting with your peers and other contractors on the East Coast and the West Coast, finding out how things are done or not done, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time we go to market here. It’s been huge for us.”
Ron Autrey – Chairman, Miller Electric Company
“For many years we lived off of our long history, but today, customers are more dynamic, and they’re more interested in what our workforce looks like today, the training levels that we’ve achieved through the NECA/IBEW during our apprenticeship training program. They want to know who’s going to build their job and what proficiencies they have. So we’ve been able to develop a core competency on a number of different fronts, whether it’s institutional work, private commercial work, government work, transportation projects, health care projects. Together with NECA and the IBEW, we have developed a trained workforce in all of those specialty areas.”
The NECA/IBEW team continues to look out for what’s next, what’s ahead of the curve. This commitment to innovation combined with the training, education and safety found at the core of the partnership – t’s no wonder so many of the top electrical contractors are on the ENR Top 600 are NECA members.
In a way, congratulations are in order. But rather than to the NECA-affiliated contractors themselves who are on “the list,” to the owners and end users who hired them and realized the full potential of what an electrical contractor can be.
�
By putting your trust in the NECA/IBEW team, you’ve helped demonstrate to the industry as a whole, that it’s not enough just to build, but that building right is always a better buy.
Thanks for your time here today – be sure to check out our archives dating back to 2007 for more evidence that the NECA/IBEW team is the best in the business.
Follow us on Twitter and be sure to sign up for our newsletter above to always be kept in the know.
See you next time throughout 2013 and beyond, here on ETV.
�