Case Studies January 2015

For decades part of Little Rock, Ark., has been crumbling. Since the 1950s, when the interstate that divides the city north and south carved through the area, the 12th Street corridor has steadily decayed, seeing the near end of small business commerce and making way for crime. “12th Street, which is south of the interstate, […]

Samuel Sanderson established Sealand Mechanical LLC (Sealand) in 1984 after working for another mechanical company for four years. Sanderson has been in the industry since 1978, after working in HVAC for years prior. “I left a business in the same field to start my own venture here in Houma, La.,” he explains. “The relationships I […]

Since 1975, Wilhite Electric Co. Inc. (Wilhite) has been providing electrical services to multimillion dollar facilities throughout Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi as one of the region’s largest electrical contractors. Based in Bossier City, Wilhite is running on its second generation of family ownership in northern Louisiana and fast approaching a 40-year milestone. “Wilhite will celebrate […]

Bob Hillis established Direct Supply in 1985, which eventually grew into several divisions, including Direct Supply Aptura (Aptura), a Wisconsin-based national supplier and contractor. In the early days, Aptura specialized in furniture sales for senior housing facilities across the country. As the years went on, clients started asking for more products and services, seeking more […]

Prince Building Systems (PBS) emerged as its own enterprise just five years ago, but the wholesale building materials distributor’s history traces back to nearly a century ago. “Our parent company, Prince Corporation, dates back to 1909 when it started as a small mill operation,” recounts Dan Swanson, president of PBS. “We shipped products via railcar […]

In 1956 Manfred Freissle, a 19-year-old man born in Germany arrived in South Africa and within days, met his future business partner. Helmut Rosenbusch was a local wire weaver. Although Manfred had a working contract with Siemens, his keen eye for sales quickly picked up on the potential of his new friend’s skill set. Having […]

Over the course of 50 years, Van Ert Electric Company (VEEC) has become an established leader in the electrical industry throughout the upper Midwest, and across the country for that matter. Since 1964, the Wisconsin-based firm has grown from a five-man team to more than 425 employees serving major industries from pulp and paper to […]

Nearly 50 percent of the average home and commercial building’s energy bill is spent on heating, air conditioning and ventilation, yet duct leakage in residential homes costs consumers $25 billion each year and even more for commercial building owners and operators. That money is literally disappearing into thin air, but since 1997, Aeroseal’s exclusive duct-sealing […]

Wycoff Development & Construction LLC (WDC) has been in business since 1984. For more than three decades, the company has been providing a strong set of design-build services for end user applications. The design-build team includes engineers, architects and designers, working closely with clients to create ground-up buildings that suit diverse customer needs while offering […]

Chicago is one of the most important railroad centers in North America. More lines of track radiate in more directions from the Windy City than any other in the U.S. and Chicago has long been an important interchange point for freight traffic between the nation’s major railroads. The first railroad to lay tracks in Chicago […]