The Redland Company Inc.

In 1957, road contractor Charlie Munz founded The Redland Company Inc. (TRC) to serve the needs of Florida’s expanding roadways. And 55 years later, the company continues to grow, expand its services and is respected by major contractors throughout Florida.

Charlie’s son, Charles “Pinky” Munz, is the organization’s owner and president. His son, Charles “Chad” Munz, serves as vice president and oversees all field operations and project management. Pinky’s sister, Annette Munz, runs the company’s safety department and special projects. That’s truly a family-managed company.

Today, Redland has offices in Homestead, Fla., and works from the Tampa and Orlando area south to the Florida Keys. In 2012, TRC opened its Georgia offices in Peachtree City, Ga., and is in the final stages of its work on the new Porsche North American Headquarters and driving track near the Atlanta airport for Whiting-Turner, a nationally known general contractor that TRC has enjoyed a long relationship with.

Redland employs over 170 people, owns, operates and maintains its own fleet of heavy construction equipment – in excess of 120 units. Equally impressive is that, over the course of it 55 years of operations, Redland has never had to pay liquidated damages, a record that speaks volumes about the company’s ability to produce results.

“Dad started the company as primarily a heavy highway contractor,” Pinky explains. “Now we’re firmly established in the private and commercial sectors, as well. Our team excels on challenging projects with tight schedules.”

Depending on the project’s location, Redland construction crews self-perform about 80 percent of the work for any given project, and the team has a network of reliable subcontractors that vary by job location.

TRC’s commitment to professionalism, client service and quality of product is specific and unchanging. “We’ve earned an excellent reputation over the years, one that’s based on what we do, not what we say,” Munz details. “We tell our clients exactly what we can do, and do it on time. And we provide them with proposals that take all aspects of the project into consideration, and we stand behind them.” This is a philosophy that truly has stood the test of time.

A growing portfolio

Recent work includes a $200 million design-build project, The U.S. Southern Command Headquarters (SOUTHCOM) in Doral, Fla., as part of the Hensel Phelps Construction team for the Army Corp of Engineers. “We completed our work on this project in 2013,” Pinky recalls. “Our scope included site work, water, sewer, paving, drainage and lake excavation on the 60-acre project. We delivered on time and without any significant delays.”

Redland also just wrapped up the IKEA project for Balfour Beatty this summer. “This is the first IKEA store in Miami-Dade County and the second largest store in the IKEA chain nationally,” says Pinky. “We did the entire civil site work package, including, building pads, water, sewer and drainage, in addition to the onsite and offsite pump stations and access roadways.”

One of the more unique and difficult projects TRC has completed in recent years was a major Everglades restoration effort as part of the Kiewit construction team, also for the Army Corp of Engineers. “We did 10 miles of full roadway reconstruction,” Pinky says. “We did all of the de-mucking, earth work, subgrade and base groups and had to deal with considerable time restraints after a redesign set the schedule back quite a bit. To complicate matters, a majority of the work had to be completed at night because SR 41 couldn’t be closed down during the day. It was a very environmentally challenging job and our crews scored high marks with the army corps of engineers.”

Holding steady

While admitting that TRC was impacted by the economic downturn of 2007-2008, the company was fortunate to keep busy. “Everybody had to scale down,” Pinky recalls. “We had to tighten our belts, but we made it through and did comparably well considering the impact the recession had on so many companies. We focused on streamlining our business and, now that things are turning around, we feel good about how our company is moving forward.”

“We are seeing a lot more bidding opportunities, but pricing is still a major problem,” he adds. “Prices haven’t come back to meet insurance, fuel and labor costs. Insurance is a big expense and that’s something a lot of companies are struggling to absorb. Even with more bid opportunities, until everybody gets their work backlogs bumped up, there is still very little margin in projects.”

With such a strong history, Redland management has worked hard to hold on to long-term relationships with repeat clients. The company has a strong rapport with NASCAR, particularly with the Homestead Motor Speedway, host of NASCAR’s Championship Race. Over the years, Redland has performed several track upgrades, including a 20 degree banking turn, and regular maintenance projects at the Homestead Track. While most of these projects are small, these maintenance and upgrade projects bring in revenue when the market is down. Managing client relationships has been a huge factor in the company’s success and growth over the years.

Fostering relationships

Both Pinky and his son both grew up in the business. “This is the only job either one of us has ever had,” Pinky notes. “Client relationships are vital to our business. Aside from profitability, that is how we gauge our success. We take a lot of pride in the quality of construction we provide, as well as the quality of our people. We like to see that positive feedback from clients on a job well done. We get a lot of repeat business and I believe we’ve earned it.”

Management is not alone in fostering these partnerships, either. Pinky says he has a great team of longtime employees, as well as some newer faces around the offices. “We have hired a lot of younger, able-bodied guys who have a good work ethic,” he says. “Loyalty is a great asset. Many of our employees have been with for quite some time, and we feel strongly that the new staff we’ve hired will stick with us as the business grows.”

In the coming years, Pinky and his team are not looking for any rapid growth. “We are taking it a little at a time,” Pinky elaborates. “We’re not looking to be the biggest contractor in our field, but we do strive to be the best.”

As the company continues to moves forward toward its 60-year in business and into a third generation of success, The Redland Company Inc. will continue to prioritize quality, safety and efficiency on every project at every level of the organization.