GET DAILY REPORT FREE
It’s not coincidental that several of the largest private companies in the Capital Region are contractors. Many of them have grown at whiplash-inducing speed in tandem with a fortuitous increase in industrial investment, while others have leaned into diversification to fuel their growth.
For some, it has been a little of both.
As Business Report writes in its latest issue, this year there are two new entrants to the local $1 billion in revenue club. Homebuilder DSLD Homes and electrical and instrumentation contractor The Newtron Group each have benefitted from improving market conditions while also taking calculated risks to propel themselves into uncharted territory.
As for DLSD Homes, a lot has changed since it first opened its doors on Range Avenue in Denham Springs 25 years ago. At the time, all of its projects were within 4 to 5 miles of the office. Today, it would take a few days and a couple of plane flights to visit all of its jobsites.
The company views geographic diversification as a hedge against state-specific economic downturns. While its current headquarters is on Pecou Lane in Baton Rouge, it operates another 20-plus offices across a multistate region, including more than a dozen mortgage and title offices (DSLD Mortgage and DSLD Title, respectively). Everything is supported by a staff of more than 550.
And while Louisiana still accounts for as much as 65% of all company closings, it’s a far cry from what was once a 95% share.
Ever since Newton Thomas founded The Newtron Group (then called Newtron) some 52 years ago, company leaders have felt that growth would come naturally if the company focused on what it did best. For most of that time, diversification has been central to the process—since 1982, the company has operated both union and nonunion (Triad Electric & Controls) divisions.
That’s given it the flexibility to work in regions where other industrial contractors couldn’t. It also makes the company a unique commodity in the Baton Rouge industrial construction space, since most contractors have been “open shop” (nonunion) since the passage of right-to-work legislation in the 1970s.
In 2017, The Newtron Group set a company-wide “big hairy goal” to grow to $800 million in revenue by 2027. At the time, it was at about $430 million. The company ultimately accomplished the feat three years earlier than planned.
Read the full story, and send comments to edtior@businessreport.com.
