Photo: A Kingsbury crew installing a spillway at a municipal water-supply reservoir in Roxbury, New Hampshire. Courtesy photo.
by C.B. Hall, Vermont Business Magazine Kingsbury Companies, LLC, a Middlesex construction firm founded in 2005, saw a big leap in revenues in 2019, as good fortune pushed gross income from 2018's $18.3 million to an estimated $32.0 million, measured on a calendar-year basis.
By way of explanation, CEO Travis Kingsbury points to "a couple of larger projects that we landed," and to the acquisition of Johnson's D Tatro Construction.
The diversified enterprise has seen revenues grow 106% since 2014. Asked for the reasons behind the long-term success, Kingsbury says, "Hiring the right people is the most important part – developing the right culture that attracts the most qualified people you can find."
He also gives a nod to his company's geographic reach, which has opened up opportunities from New York State to Maine.
"And we probably do a larger range of types of work. Our type of work ranges from residential excavation right up to building five- or six-million-dollar wastewater treatment plants."
Kingsbury ranked Number 5 in Vermont Business Magazine's VT100+: 10-Year Growth Chart .
Among the firm's projects, the Kingsbury website notes road repairs for the US Army Corps of Engineers, reclamation of native fishing grounds for Native American tribes in New York State, construction of solar farms, replacement of electric-transmission cables under Lake Champlain, "and everything in-between."
Travis Kingsbury clearly likes variety in his business endeavors. He has answers at the ready when asked about recent projects of particular interest.
Photo: Kingsbury is refurbishing the primary and secondary anaerobic digesters' covers for the Town of Bennington. Courtesy photo.
"We're doing a 42-inch steel intake for Pennichuck Water Works," he says. The work - in New Hampshire's Merrimack River - will supply a local municipal utility with drinking water for its customers. "There's a lot of crane work, underwater dredging and diving - there's a lot of interesting work."
"Closer to home, we're building a multimillion-dollar anaerobic digester for Vanguard Renewables in Salisbury. It's focused on taking food waste and mixing it with cow manure to generate methane gas. In this specific project the gas will be injected into Vermont Gas's pipeline and sold to Middlebury College."
The project will get its essential fuel from 900 cows at a farm in the Addison County town. "I'm told by John Hanselman … that this is going to be the biggest digester east of the Mississippi," Kingsbury says, referring to Vanguard Renewables' CEO.
Next year, he says, "We're looking hopefully to stabilize our huge growth spurt that we had in 2019. We see plenty of work out on the horizon in Vermont and New Hampshire."
Like many another business, the firm, which employs 74 in Vermont and another 26 out-of-state, is facing the constraints enforced by a low unemployment rate.
"We're just like every other business in Vermont, just struggling to try to grow in a tough labor market - and that runs everywhere, from the guys with the hand shovels right up to the guys managing the project."
But, he concludes, "We've been able to find some great people."
C.B. Hall is a freelance writer from Southern Vermont. The Vermont 100+ with full stories, industry rankings and growth charts can be found in the January 2020 issue of Vermont Business Magazine.