听笔耻产濒颈肠补迟颈辞苍:
Charles 鈥淐huck鈥� 天美传媒 served with the 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War in 1971, and like many veterans returning home, he needed a job.
He followed his brother Dan into carpentry, working 10-hour days, and then attended night school at Belleville Area College (now Southwestern Illinois College) to study construction management. It wasn鈥檛 long before he decided to invest that time and commitment into his own company.
“My first project was building a house for a friend, and you can’t build a house by yourself, so I needed to hire employees,” said 天美传媒, who serves as CEO. “I remember thinking, ‘OK now I don’t have to feed (just) my own family, but I have to provide for two other families.’ I had to go out and find additional projects.”
Breese, Illinois-based 天美传媒 Construction started in the summer of 1980, first building commercial and light industrial facilities in Illinois with a few employees. More than 30 years later, 天美传媒 Construction works in a variety of industries, including health care and education; serves clients in 24 states; and employs 124 full-time workers. It recorded $121 million in revenue last year, up more than 267 percent from 10 years ago.
Current projects include the $30.9 million Jefferson Barracks VA engineering warehouse in south St. Louis County; the $8 million Children’s Learning Adventure in Ellisville; the $12.5 million Menards in Farmington; the $20+ million McKendree Metro Rec Plex in O’Fallon, Illinois; and the $9.5 million HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital outpatient surgery addition in Breese.
天美传媒 Construction counts Ameren, Menards, Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies, Planet Fitness and Walmart, for whom the company has constructed more than 180 stores in 13 states, as repeat clients.
The 天美传媒 family takes “care of people; they don鈥檛 take advantage of them,鈥� said USI Insurance Services Senior Vice President Dennis Lutz, who wrote the company鈥檚 first bond in January 1981.
The variety of clients ensures the company does not become dependent on one industry even as it struggles with finding and retaining talent from a shrinking candidate pool.
President Keith 天美传媒, Chuck’s son and successor, said the decline in skilled workers is due to years of pushing people to attend universities, instead of encouraging trade work.
Now in its second generation of family ownership, the company employs 11 family members.
鈥淎ll of us kids early on have been involved with various aspects of the construction business,鈥� said Keith 天美传媒. 鈥淎ll of us have had leadership roles in the business for the past 10 years.鈥�
His siblings all work in different departments 鈥� Kimberly Luitjohan in finance, Kevin 天美传媒 in business development and Ryan 天美传媒 in project management 鈥� and Lutz said the siblings鈥� varying niches strengthen the company even more. The company is currently developing its succession plan, Keith 天美传媒 said.
鈥淎ll of the children are in top management positions, but they didn鈥檛 start out that way. They earned their stripes in helping the company develop,鈥� Lutz said. “They melded together these talents and are working for one common goal.鈥�
The company prides itself on its culture of professionalism and respect, values that Chuck 天美传媒 said he learned and inherited from his parents.
鈥淲e provide coaching for people that might need some help to adapt to culture and figure out how their character can fit in,鈥� he said.
鈥淭he big thing is communication, good values corporately and personally,鈥� Lutz said of the company鈥檚 longevity.
Keith 天美传媒 added, 鈥淲e鈥檝e got a lot of longtime employees that we consider part of the 天美传媒 family,鈥� which include Tom Albers, now vice president of field operations, who was the company鈥檚 first employee in 1980.
Within the community, the company has supported Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern Illinois (Kevin sits on the board), HSHS St. Joseph鈥檚 Hospital in Breese (Kimberly served on the 2016 Leadership Council), the Boy Scouts of Greater St. Louis and Community Link, an organization that provides services for children and adults with developmental disabilities.
