When Charles Hammontree saw a slowdown in the local homebuilding industry last year, he didn’t let market forces negatively impact his surveying and engineering firm.
Instead, Hammontree, chairman of North Canton-based Hammontree & Associates, huddled with his team to diversify the firm’s offerings and client base. As a result, reductions in its work for the homebuilding industry were replaced with increased design work for the commercial and industrial sectors, new school construction and environmental design work.
Such adaptation underscores Hammontree’s business philosophy.
“We’ve done a few things over the past couple years that have helped our growth,” he says. “We started with a five-year vision statement, then underwent strategic growth planning to achieve that vision.”
Goals included increasing the number of employees, boosting revenue and expanding the company’s profit margin.
Last year, the number of full-time employees increased by 24 percent — from 41 to 51 employees. Over the first few months of 2006, employment has grown to 60 full-time staff members. Revenue in 2005 grew by more than 17 percent over 2004 and 25 percent over 2003 levels, Hammontree says. This compared to the national average target growth in the engineering industry of 5 percent.
Another goal was to establish a market perception as a regional rather than a local engineering firm. The goal of expanding beyond Ohio isn’t new. Twenty years ago, Hammontree acquired a Pittsburgh-based competitor to establish a beachhead in Pennsylvania. Today, the goal is to expand beyond the two-state area.
In the past year, Hammontree has attracted national clients including Frito Lay, Ashland Oil, Pizza Hut, General Motors and FedEx. And it did so without sacrificing its core clientele. More than 75 percent of the firm’s business is derived from repeat clients, including annual bridge inspection programs for four Ohio counties that with more than 1,200 bridges.
Hammontree says the company’s success is a result of his team’s dedication and empowerment to do their jobs well.
“We have good people,” he says. “Each department head operates as a mini-business within a business. They manage their own clients, their own projects and are responsible for their own workload. That’s appealing to talented people and has been a key to our success.”
How to reach: Hammontree & Associates, (330) 499-8817 or www.hammontree-engineers.com
