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No. 6
Revenue growth FY 2021 to 2023: 151.7%
2023 revenue: $38 million
Revenue is up more than 150% over the past two years for Custom Concrete Commercial, and the future is still looking up. Literally. Vice President Dan Bulger says the next area of expansion for the commercial and industrial concrete services provider is likely to go vertical, such as heavy highway and bridge work. The company acquired a competitor about a year ago and is expanding into the Cincinnati area.
Warehouse boom: The warehouse boom in central Indiana has been good to Custom Concrete. Four years ago, the company did work for its first 1-million-square-foot warehouse. Last year, the company did four. Construction overall is surging. “The work is here. Indianapolis, and Indiana as a whole, is a great place for construction right now,” Bulger says.
General contractor know-how: “My philosophy was to build a team that can relate to our clients and customers better than anybody else,” Bulger says. His approach: Hire former general-contractor project managers as subcontractor project managers. They know how to write subcontracts. They are familiar with purchase orders. They understand RFIs. “Having sat on that side of the table for most of my life and seeing the good, the bad and the ugly of the subcontractor deliverable, I wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t do that with our clients.”
The next generation: Bulger says one of the biggest challenges for his company is an aging workforce. As experts in the field approach retirement age, the company wants to provide opportunities for growth for its younger workers—“to be the craftspeople that we need them to be.” Generational differences also are something the company is mindful of. “In the construction world, it was just a culture we were raised in: If you want to do well, you’re going to have to work Saturdays, right?” Bulger says. “The new workforce is not like that.”
A new office, a new mindset: Custom Concrete Commercial is a division of Custom Concrete. About 3-1/2 years ago, the commercial division moved into its own office and warehouse space. Bulger credits the move with fueling even more success. “That was the spark for the team, right? The team felt like, ‘OK, I’ve got room to grow. We can add people.’ Mentally, it instilled the belief in my team that we can do more.”•
Check out more of IBJ’s ranking of Indy’s fastest-growing companies.
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