Building On A Solid Foundation | KENDALL CONSTRUCTION
By MORGAN CHILSON | Photos by JOHN BURNS
Kendall Construction was founded in 1994 by Rick and Sheri Kendall. Today, David Cooper is president and owner. But that didn’t happen overnight.
“The transition began in 2014 with one-third ownership, and in January 2021, I purchased the majority of the remaining stock,” Cooper said. “Sheri is still a minority owner in the company and maintains the administrative side of things for the company. She is a great asset and I am extremely grateful that she was willing to stick around for a while after the transition to keep things rolling.”
Along with Sheri’s expertise, Rick Kendall is still available if Cooper needs advice or just a sounding board.
Cooper has worked at Kendall Construction for 21 years, so he has a good feel for the business. The slow transition to ownership that began in 2014 allowed him time to learn all aspects.
No doubt that’s the reason for the continued stability and success of the company, which is a general contracting business and self-performs a large portion of the specialty carpentry work for its projects, Cooper said.
“Starting with a handful of employees to now averaging 30+ employees, we continue to expand and grow with the needs and changes of the industry,” he said. “I started working at Kendall in 2002 and transitioned from a project manager to an owner, and the core values of the company have never changed. We highly value our customers, our subcontractors and our employees, and if it wasn’t for all of them, we would not be where we are today.”
EMBRACING CHANGE
Cooper was drawn to the business instantly.
“I love the constant changes in the types of projects that we see,” he said. “Each is unique and challenging in its own way, and that makes each day a new adventure. I have always been a hands-on person and enjoy the satisfaction at the end of every day seeing what you can accomplish with your own hands.”
The approach that Cooper and the Kendalls took to changing ownership at the construction business meant that there were few obstacles in the way.
“We’ve all been a great team for such a long time and came together to make things as seamless as possible,” Cooper said. “If I didn’t have such a great group of people working here, then I am sure that things might have been different. This has been something that I have been working towards for a long time, so having the satisfaction of making that dream come true has been the best part.”
EXPANDING INTO NEW MARKETS
The company has been growing and in the past year, it expanded into the Manhattan and Junction City areas. A project manager, Mike Shivers, is in that area overseeing the market. Having long-term employees like Shivers is one of the strengths of Kendall Construction, Cooper said.
“Mike has been with us for eight years and is working very hard to get established with new customers and maintain relationships with existing customers,” he said. “We currently have a highly skilled group of people in our workforce.”
PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
Like most business owners, Cooper is conscious of the workforce challenges, and Kendall Construction maintains strong benefits to retain current employees and draw new ones. Although nationally, it’s expected that significant numbers of retirees will hit the construction industry hard in the next few years (that retiring Baby Boomer generation), he said many of his employees are in the 30-to-40-year age range.
“We personally haven’t seen the loss due to retirement yet, but we do have a handful of highly talented guys that will be retiring in the next few years,” he said. “It is difficult to regain the amount of knowledge lost when someone retires. I do see a challenging future in this industry because of the manpower shortage. We have slowly been losing the skilled craftsmen that have been in the trades for many years, and we’re not seeing the young folks making a move to enter the construction field.”
Overall, though, the construction industry is doing well. It’s highly dependent on the strength of the economy and Kendall has been seeing the benefits of that strength over the last several years, Cooper said.
Core values of quality and excellence in work keep Kendall Construction moving forward, and he spends most of his time making sure to surround himself with good people who have the same values. The transition emphasized even more highly how important this is.
“One thing that I learned during the process is that having great people around you sure makes the process a whole lot easier,” Cooper said.
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