Burton Construction Inc.
Specialty: Public projects
President: Jerry Burton
Year founded: 1978
Headquarters: Spokane
2004 revenues: $19.2 million
2005 projected revenues: $14.5 million
Current significant project: $4.8 million Fairchild Air Force Base concrete taxiway replacement
In three years Burton Construction has nearly tripled its revenues, growing from $7 million in 2002 to just over $19 million last year.
General Manager Ron McInerney credits “hard work, good marketing, good reputation and a lot of referrals and repeat work” for the spike in income.
The Spokane firm got its start as Jerry Burton Construction in 1978, taking on an assortment of residential and commercial work. That formula changed in the late 1990s after Burton hired Controller Debby Nelson, who had experience with government contracts. The firm changed its name to Burton Construction Inc. — or BCI — around the same time.
BCI’s client list grew to include numerous federal agencies: the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Defense, the Department of Agriculture, and others. One job for the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health required “extreme safety procedures,” McInerney joked.
Most of the contracts have been for facilities work such as renovations, additions and new buildings.
Though the focus on government work has enabled BCI to grow from four employees in 1996 to 45 today (and more than 60 during the busier months), shifts in federal spending priorities can inject an element of uncertainty.
The firm has coped by expanding its customer base and looking for work further from home.
“Funding is always in cycles,” McInerney said. “Somebody always has money, so you have figure out where the money is and market yourself.”
In August, BCI signed an $8 million job order contract with Spokane Public Schools, the first such arrangement in the state with a school district. Spokane Public Schools will rely on BCI for all of its minor contracting work for three years.
For 2005, BCI plans to rein in its growth to give itself some time to stabilize, McInerney said.
“We’ve very comfortable at the size we’re at and with the customers we have,” he said.
The firm’s president, Jerry Burton, is a registered tribal member of the Creek Nation in Oklahoma, and BCI is a certified minority contractor in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.