Robertson Construction, started in a basement, celebrates 25 years
HEATH — Since starting in Christian Robertson’s basement 25 years ago, Robertson Construction has thrived by making adjustments in response to a never-ending series of changes in the market, the workforce and the industry.
The Heath company adjusts its workforce every day in response to weather conditions and its list of projects, mostly in central Ohio, as diverse as the Licking County Courthouse, Newark Arcade, The Works SciDome, Granville Inn, numerous fire stations and dozens of school buildings. The current worker shortage has made it even more challenging.
“We can’t just snap our fingers and draw from a labor pool,” Robertson said. “So, we have to try to take on work that we can effectively manage with personnel. As one project starts to fall off, another project comes on.
“We’re actively always trying to hire people, but we don’t hire for a project. In my world, that’s never gone well. We hire for the sake of being long-term and then we just try to find the work that keeps people busy.”
Robertson adjusted to the coronavirus pandemic to keep workers safe, but still getting a paycheck. The company has 181 employees, including 36 with the company more than 10 years.
“We handled COVID, I thought, very well.,” Robertson said. “We set up a task force right at the onset and every day at 4 o’clock, six of us would meet and we’d analyze the day reporting from the governor at that time and CDC and local health authorities.
“We had to get very creative to allow those projects to continue to operate as best we could but keep people as safe as possible. I’m proud of the efforts of our leadership team to guide the COVID policies. I’m very appreciative of all our associates who took it serious and worked as safe as possible.”
Robertson also adjusts every year to market conditions such as the current challenges of a supply shortage and inflation, and in 2007-09 it was The Great Recession.
“In some regards the supply chain disruptions affect us more (than COVID) because we don’t have the ability to accurately complete work or schedule work because of the disruption in deliveries,” Robertson said. “We’ll just try to become as efficient as possible.”
And now, the company must adjust to the presence of Intel Corporation’s computer chip development, which could indirectly provide Robertson with additional business, but could also make it difficult to hire workers.
“We have become involved with some early things that need to happen for that development,” Robertson said. “We’ve not been hired by Intel. That work will largely be done by international-level firms that have done that type of work. We’ll be involved in some support type work.
“Like everybody, we’re trying to find skilled craftspeople, and that’s a real challenge. This will be just another localized challenge.”
Robertson credits his leadership team and employees for helping grow the business into one of the largest construction services firms in central Ohio.
“We’re bigger than people think we are,” Robertson said. “We’ve still have maintained a family atmosphere place to work.”
Dan Stevens, vice president in the estimating department, has been with Robertson since the beginning 25 years ago. He said the group that launched the company felt confident starting out.
“We had worked together at another company for three or four years, so we had a good feeling about each other and what we could do, Stevens said. “Did I think at that time we’d have this many employees and $160 million in revenue a year, probably not.
“We are very aggressive. We know the market. We’ve been doing this a long time. We have good people that work hard and that makes the difference.”
Ron Sexton, an industrial foreman with the company for 22 years, said the company’s success has not been a surprise to him.
“I could tell within one week of coming to Robertson, I can remember going home and telling my wife, I think this company is going to get big.,” Sexton said. “I was looking for something long-term and the vibe I got was this is going to be a long-term job. One of the biggest reasons is the passion Christian has. He has a huge passion for his work.”
Steve Sabo, a senior superintendent with the company for all 25 years, said, the leadership team already had some contacts in the community through its work together at another company. So, it was a new company, but wasn’t starting from scratch.
The credit for success in the industry goes to the person at the top of the company
“I’d say the leadership of how companies are run (is the difference),” Sabo said. “Christian is involved with about every job we do and always checking in with the owner making sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing.”
Jeremy Johnson, executive vice president with the company for 18 years, and Ben Posey, senior project manager with Robertson for 22 years, said the appeal of the construction industry is the variety of the work.
Johnson started studying electrical engineering as a student at Ohio State, but the lure of all the construction projects at the main campus changed his mind.
“I just fell in love with the building, watching it go up,” Johnson said. “It’s a very exciting and dynamic industry. It’s never boring. There’s lots of opportunity and so many varieties of things you can do in the construction industry.
Posey said, “I’ve always been drawn to construction. I kind of like the freedom to learn. There’s so many facets of construction you can specialize in. All you really have to have is the desire. You can start anywhere and do anything. You really can. Your success is really your own to try and control and that’s nice.”
The company has had so many projects in its quarter century in business, it’s hard to pick a favorite, but Robertson said the renovations of Wilson Middle School and Newark High School are especially memorable, as well as the work in downtown Newark.
The company’s downtown projects include the Licking County Courthouse, Newark Arcade, Newark Fire Station, Newark Police Station, Canal Market District, parking garage, The Works Scidome, The Works streetscape, Park National Bank’s Alford Building and Park National Bank’s North Third Tower.
“We really have put our mark on downtown Newark and that will continue with the Arcade project,” Robertson said. “We’re really solidifying ourselves in the revitalization of downtown.”
Robertson Construction has been a part of projects in 90 projects in 39 Ohio school districts about 16 fire stations.
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Twitter: @kmallett1958
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