Big Johnson Construction LLC

For 16 years, Big Johnson Construction LLC has been erecting high-quality metal buildings all across the country. Headquartered in Fort Morgan, Colorado, Big Johnson Construction focuses on integrity and service and has built a reputation of reliability and professionalism within the metal building industry. “We pride ourselves on taking a big-picture approach,” says Trevor Fehseke, vice president of sales for Big Johnson Construction. “When we are awarded a project, we prepare for the unexpected issues that arise so we’re not surprising the customer with a lot of change orders.”

Founded by Abe Johnson in 2000, Big Johnson Construction is a pre-engineered metal building specialty subcontractor. With hundreds of metal buildings to its credit, including agriculture buildings, churches, retail centers, horse arenas, storage units and airplane hangars, Big Johnson Construction works in the commercial, industrial and private sectors with approximately 65 employees. “Many of our skilled laborers have been with us for a long time,” says Fehseke. “They have all developed professionally within the company.”

As a company that offers pre-engineered metal buildings as it primary product, Big Johnson Construction also carries product lines that include the components of the structures such as doors, windows and insulation. The company also carries non pre-engineered options that consist of fabric and/or wood-framed structures. While pre-engineered is often the best solution, sometimes location, budget and timing may create a situation where that is not a viable option for Big Johnson Construction’s customers.

All about relationships

Big Johnson Construction is a company that is built on relationships. When it comes to providing quality service to its customers, Big Johnson Construction delivers on all promises. This method also translates over to relationships with vendors and suppliers. While the company strives to provide the lowest possible price for its customers, it does not sacrifice service and quality with its products.

The relationships that Big Johnson Construction has established with vendors and manufacturers give the company an advantage when it comes to preparing for any issues that might arise during a project. “As anyone in this industry knows, there are going to be unexpected issues that come up on a project,” says Fehseke. “By having a strong relationship with those vendors, it becomes a lot easier and a lot quicker to get those problems resolved. If you constantly just focus on the lowest price, you don’t get the service and attention you receive by paying a little bit more for a higher-quality product.”

This business model proved to be beneficial to Big Johnson Construction when the recession hit and the construction industry experienced many repercussions. While the market crashed in 2008, Fehseke says the steel erection industry was not directly affected until almost two years later, mainly due to the backlog of contracts already in place. “With some time to see that we were going to be affected, Abe had pretty good foresight as to what changes would need to be made when it hit our market,” recalls Fehseke. “With strong customer and vendor relationships, combined with the ability to travel nationally, we were able to diversify our products and services, which actually helped us gain some new clients while retaining our existing ones.”

Seizing opportunities

Having known founder Abe Johnson for most of his 14 years in the construction industry, Fehseke knew it would be a good fit when he was presented with the opportunity to enter the industry and join Big Johnson Construction. In his role with the company, he is able to utilize his skills in both management and on-site applications. “I just jumped right in wholeheartedly,” he explains. “I love both the white collar and blue collar sides of the industry. Doing what I do allows me to play on both sides.”

In addition to witnessing projects go from conception to completion, Fehseke takes pride in seeing a customer pleased with the product that Big Johnson Construction has provided for them. “Anybody can talk to a customer and promise that they can fulfill their requests, but it takes a different type of company to be able to do exactly what they say they are going to do,” says Fehseke. “That’s one of the ways that we measure our success.”

Moving forward, Fehseke says Big Johnson Construction will continue to diversify its products, while becoming a more streamlined operation. “We will work to continually identify the strengths of our people and allow them to focus primarily on those strengths,” says Fehseke. “This will increase our efficiency as well as products and service.”

In just 16 years, Big Johnson Construction has emerged as a company with a remarkable reputation in the pre-engineered metal building industry and will continue to be sought out by leading manufacturers and contractors.