Landau Associates

Specialty: Site remediation services, geotechnical engineering, natural resources and environmental permitting
Owner: Privately held, employee-owned
2002 revenues: $9 million gross, $7 million net
2003 revenues: $7.5 million net
Location: Headquartered in Edmonds with offices in Washington and Oregon

CEO Steve Johnston says that despite the economic state, his company is shaping to come out of the 2003 fiscal year up 10 percent in both net and gross.

“We’re in very good shape, all things considered,” he said.

The company has grown from 70 to 80 employees since the beginning of the year.

“Frankly, we’ve been lucky and good,” Johnston said. “One of the company’s strategies is to spend money and effort attracting the best employees and do our best to keep them.”

Recent projects include the reclamation of an in-river mine on Ross Island for Ross Island Sand and Gravel Co. in Portland, environmental permitting for the Pacific Rim ethanol plant in Moses Lake and Brownfield remediation studies in Spokane.

Johnston said the firm became involved with some resistance during the Pacific Rim project.

“(There were) negotiations with the opposition for both mitigation and providing jobs,” he said. “The project is now going forward and should be a great boon to the city of Moses Lake.”

Johnston said that the firm has had a total of 800 clients in its 21-year history, and adds 50 to 60 clients a year on average.

The firm’s clients include the Boeing Co. and the state Department of Transportation. The firm is also working with CDM, a global geotechnical engineering firm, on the Brightwater project, and for the city of Seattle on the Chester Morse Reservoir.

Although life’s good for Landau, Johnston realizes that may change. He said that due to the recession, development and transportation projects have been slow.

“How much longer can we hang on in a continuing weak economy, that’s our big question,” Johnston said. “Of course there is a concern that the perfect storm of financial issues will collapse on us like it has on others, and we’d have to cut staff, which we haven’t had to do yet.”