Despite the headwinds of higher interest rates, labor shortages and inflation, many companies in the 2024 ENR Southeast Specialty Contractors rankings found ways to strengthen their businesses and increase revenue last year . The 60 companies that participated in this year’s survey reported a total of $8.1 billion in revenue by 2023 in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Puerto Rico, more than 1,000 million dollars from last year’s ranking. Among the top 25 companies, revenue reached a total of $6.18 billion, up 17% from last year.
Graph by ENR
Institutional and public sector opportunities
Ackerman Plumbing reported a record year in 2023 with $74.83 million in revenue, up nearly 70% from 2022. Eric Ackerman, president, attributes some of this improvement to the launch of a new division of services in 2022. Even after a remarkable 2023, Ackerman says the company is on track for another record year in 2024.
Ackerman attributes the bulk of this growth to the strength of his public and institutional work. “We’ve experienced an uptick in aviation, healthcare and municipal projects,” he says. “We see no slowdown in our markets and expect a strong backlog of work for the coming years.”
The company’s activity in aviation, in particular, has taken off. The company is currently working on multiple projects at Sarasota International Airport, Tampa International Airport and Orlando International Airport.
“We haven’t seen this kind of activity in this market before,” adds Ackerman.
The company’s recent growth came despite struggles in the commercial sector, where project delays hit material costs and squeezed margins. Still, the company saw some of its most notable work in the commercial sector in 2023, such as The Residences at St. Regis in Longboat Key, Florida, a high-end project that replaced a long-stalled redevelopment of the property.
“We see no slowdown in our markets and expect a strong backlog of work for the coming years.”
— Eric Ackerman, President, Ackerman Plumbing
The company also worked on 400 Central in St. Petersburg, Florida. At 515 feet tall, the project, led by Suffolk Construction, is the tallest residential building on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The $400 million project, which began in October 2022, ended in May.
Like most contractors, Ackerman says the company’s biggest struggle is finding enough skilled labor. “We are a union plumbing contractor, so we hire our workforce from local unions located throughout Florida,” he says. “Salaries must increase to attract new talent. The pool of available workers is aging. More people retire than enter the workforce. That has to change.”
Ackerman Plumbing is working on the 46-story, 515-foot-tall 400 Central multi-use tower in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Photo courtesy of Ackerman Plumbing
Labor issues persist
Brett Clark, vice president of Dunn Building Co., agrees that labor availability remains the biggest struggle for specialty businesses. “Everywhere I go, it’s the same thing: ‘We need more people.'”
While Clark says the company has been successful in retaining its management teams, craft employees are the “difficult piece of the puzzle” on projects. “We are actively involved in sponsoring workforce training programs throughout the state,” he says. “We also participate in job fairs at the high school level. With the amount of attrition due to an aging workforce, [it] it will be extremely important to remain active in recruitment and retention for many years to come.”
Dunn Building revenue fell to $109 million last year from $117 million in 2022. Clark says he saw 2023 as a successful year, especially given the postponement of some projects. “We maintained a stable and mostly profitable book of projects,” he says. “We were also able to secure some awards that would carry back to 2024 and 2025.”
Clark says the company has been particularly active in aviation/aerospace, heavy manufacturing, automotive and federal. “These markets have been the main source of activity over the last few years and appear to be very important going forward,” he says.
Part of the company’s success is attributed to regular customers, who accounted for about 70% of its work last year. Two of its biggest clients are the building materials manufacturer James Hardie and the Hwashin car company. Dunn Building’s biggest project last year was a new manufacturing facility in Dublin, Ga., for Hwashin. The design-build project with architect Ghafari Associates includes several buildings that will support the storage, manufacturing, painting and logistics of auto parts for the electric vehicle market.
Graph by ENR
This year, Clark says that in addition to economic challenges, the market is also experiencing some added anxiety from the upcoming presidential election. Still, the company’s sales outlook has improved. “After a slower-than-expected opportunity flow in early 2024, it appears to be gaining momentum as we approach the third quarter. Many of the projects we are involved in will continue despite the economy. Most of these they’re expansions of the existing industry. I think there’s still some doubt in some of the newer projects because of some of the current predictions in the financial markets.”
Looking ahead, Clark is cautiously optimistic. He points out that activity in the southeast continues to be strong. “Market conditions have been very good for Dunn for a number of years now,” he says. “I think if we can get the economy on a stable footing and avoid a major recession, we could see these good markets get even better.”
