Concrete growth

2009 Business Growth Awards: Service Category – Sales Growth

People, for the most part, are afraid to give a shot to the new kid on the block. Sure, there might be an adventurous customer who’s willing to test the waters and see what happens, but a new business is usually fighting an uphill battle to get customers. That was the case for Bill Fink, founder, owner, president and CEO of Area Wide Protective Inc.

In the early 1990s, Fink sought a market with a more compelling value proposition and less personal liability. So, he took his small security business and transitioned his security personnel into providers of traffic control services to a local utility. The model was streamlined to emphasize training, regulatory expertise, safety and on-time performance. In addition, he provided his customer base with the opportunity for lower costs and reduced injury risk related to a noncore service need.

However, it wasn’t easy to convince multibillion-dollar public utilities to entrust the safety of their personnel and assets to a young Northeast Ohio company.

Yet, under Fink’s guidance, along with the value proposition, the company picked up speed by starting with a limited geographic scope and building trust through reliable execution. Slowly but surely, by 2003, Area Wide was providing a networkwide traffic solution for its largest utility customer’s multistate service territory. In the last five years, the company has increased sales by $18.2 million and added 300 people.

Fink is looking to continue that growth by looking outside the box. While traffic control is likely to remain a core service for Area Wide for the foreseeable future, Fink has identified ancillary services in order to capitalize on the company’s infrastructure and mobile work force management capabilities. The future strategy for Area Wide is multifaceted and will be driven by continued organic growth in the core flagging market, the pursuit of acquisitions and the development of new service offerings to its core utility client base, including asset auditing and leak detection.

Fink and his senior team are poised to continue on the road to success while building the company into a premier national platform from its Kent headquarters.

How to reach: Area Wide Protective Inc., (800) 343-2650 or www.awptrafficsafety.com