Souder Brothers Construction Inc.

As a high-end commercial and residential construction company, Souder Brothers Construction Inc. (SBC) offers a full range of services resulting in a one-stop shop experience. Located in Horsham, Pennsylvania, SBC serves Bucks County, Montgomery County, Philadelphia and parts of New Jersey. With more than 35 years’ experience, the SBC team provides pre-project planning, construction and post-construction services to a wide variety of clients in the commercial, residential, industrial, retail, medical and educational markets. SBC also offers consulting services and employs a staff of highly skilled in-house carpenters.

Bill Souder and his brother Tom Souder decided to start SBC after the two were laid off from their construction jobs in the midst of the housing market collapse in 2009. After witnessing friends and colleagues lose their jobs as well, the Souder brothers realized that instead of looking for new jobs, they should create their own. “We went out and talked to people to see what we could generate for business,” recounts Bill. “Here we are seven years later doing great.”

SBC’s work consists of approximately 80 percent commercial and 20 percent residential. In the commercial sector, SBC completes work for numerous car dealerships and will often renovate a facility while the dealership remains open with little to no disruption of day-to-day operations.

A one-stop shop

With its own Chief Architect system, SBC also offers design-build services to its clients. “We’re a little bit more than your everyday general contractor,” says Bill. Due to the condition of the market when SBC started, the company took on many different types of projects in order to remain busy. This ultimately resulted in a diverse set of services and expertise for SBC to offer its clients. “We do projects of all shapes and sizes,” adds Bill. “We do renovations, ground-up buildings and design-build. We are pretty busy now so we’re able to be selective of what jobs we take and we want every customer that we work for to become a long-term customer.”

The Souder brothers have found success through their passion for the construction industry. With its strong attention to every detail, SBC never leaves a completed project without every aspect of the job thoroughly inspected. “When we inspect a project, it’s done in the fashion that I would want my own house to be inspected,” Bill explains. “We don’t just think about a job Monday through Friday. It’s on our minds 24/7. Customers can call me 24 hours a day to discuss ideas or concerns.”

SBC recently completed an 8,000-square-foot office fit-out for Quaker Valley Foods in Philadelphia. The job implemented SBC’s design-build and budget-consulting services. Due to Quaker Valley Foods’ experience working with SBC on a similar job two years prior, the repeat client was happy to collaborate with the contractor on an additional project. “They brought us in without an architect, so we did the entire design plan,” says Bill. “We put the budget together for them and completed the project to their satisfaction.”

SBC has earned a reputation for completing every project on time and within budget. In March 2015 the company completed a $350,000 addition for a country club in Warrington, Pennsylvania. The project began in January and adhered to a tight schedule of three months. One of the challenges of completing an addition of this magnitude was working in less than ideal weather conditions, which included temperatures close to zero degrees. “It was definitely a challenge to do footings and stuff like that in those conditions, but we completed the job on time,” says Bill.

As a design-build firm, SBC maintains the ability to self-perform a majority of the work on all projects. The company turns to its solid network of subcontractors for trades such as masonry, mechanical and electrical. “We try to use a pool of subs, but they have to be up to our standards,” says Bill. “If they aren’t up to our standards, we don’t hire them again. We are not about taking ‘low-ball’ jobs; we are about quality.”

Integrity and hard work

After starting a construction company during the height of the recession, Bill says that the success of his company and ability to thrive has been due to simple principles and business ethics. “We do whatever it takes to get the job done right,” he says. “We also always do what we say we are going to do. It all comes down to honest, hard work.”

The talented team that he has assembled has also been a major factor in the company’s strong reputation. Throughout his years in the construction industry, Bill has met many hard-working, highly skilled individuals, many of whom followed his lead as he and his brother embarked on the venture that is SBC.

Steady, manageable growth is in the future for SBC. As the company gains new clients, SBC will remain focused on the long-term relationships it has established with its repeat clients. “We’re not looking to become a really big company,” Bill explains, “We just want to be able to grow enough at a gradual speed that we are able to give the same quality and service that we give today.”

With its strong reputation, talented team and passion for the industry, Souder Brothers Construction Inc. remains a leader and an example of integrity in the Pennsylvania construction market.