Menu
View Details

Tap to Call

Blog

Cleveland Brothers

2014 Contractor of the Year – Northeast Site Contractors

By: Diane
October 5, 2015

northeast-site-contractors-logoEven as economic times became more challenging, other aspects of development – taxes, regulations – didn’t grow any easier, says Brian Winot, president of Northeast Site Contractors.

“The floor keeps coming up on these developers, and the ceiling is basically fixed with regard to the return on their investment,” says Winot.

So, to not only survive but also actually grow during the recession and economic downturn, Northeast Site Contractors devised a new approach to job performance. While continuing to provide top levels of service to customers, the nine-year-old contractor reinvented itself, “making sure there’s a need for every activity on every job,” says Winot.

The old, stagnant days of “loading up a job and basically forgetting about the guys who were there,” were over. “Basically, we streamlined,” Winot says. “We focus on schedules and the way we schedule our men to meet those schedules. If the pinch is on in this project, that one has more people. They bounce in and bounce out.”

Under its new approach, Northeast Site Contractors doubled its workforce to 34 employees in  three years. With a fleet made up almost entirely of Caterpillar machines – 20 pieces overall, including 10 excavators – Northeast Site Contactors performs commercial site development and paving in the Poconos, northern New Jersey, the Lehigh Valley, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The firm managed one recent job from start to finish, demolishing an old flea market site, building and paving a shopping center there, and completing the HOP work on the connecting

state road. “We did it all,” Winot says. The firm also finished a standalone Dick’s Sporting Goods in record-shattering time, five weeks under the previous record.

Winot and his founding partner, Craig Hendricks, also donate about 10 percent of annual profits to local institutions. Beneficiaries have included a local hospital and cancer center, senior citizens center, environmental education efforts, and women swimmers who receive scholarships at East Stroudsburg University, where Winot trains for triathlons with ESU’s swim coach.

“My partner and I feel very strongly that you give back to the community that gives to you,” Winot says. “Right from the beginning, as soon as we started turning profits, we started giving back.”

The firm’s employees “are the reason we are where we are, and we never lose sight of that,” Winot says. “They are treated like family here.” Nearly a dozen have been with the company for more than six years, and two have been aboard “since the first day we opened our doors.”

Winot gained his construction experience “in a company where everything on tracks was Cat®, and it was just natural to gravitate that way.”

Cleveland Brothers has been a strong partner and a natural fit with Northeast Site Contractors’ mission to deliver top quality and productivity through customer-oriented service.  ‘They’ve never said no to us,” Winot says.

“From the very beginning, they came in with solutions to make things work. Instead of giving a hard yes or a hard no, they seemed the most willing to work with us. Our mission statement is all about customer service, and we support companies that are like us.”

The people of Northeast Site Contractors are “very humbled” to be nominated as Contractor of the Year. The nomination provides national recognition of local excellence, Winot says. “It justifies all the hard work our guys do all year. It gives them recognition for the work that they do.”

Want to read more about the other finalist from the PA region? Click here to see the other three finalist.


SHARE THIS:

Write a Reply or Comment