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A Bentonville, Arkansas-based contractor is scaling up its commercial footprint with a leadership change and plans for continued national growth.
Caddell Construction recently promoted Ricky Byrd to president of its commercial division, a newly created role aimed at supporting the firm’s rapid expansion across the U.S., according to a company news release.
Byrd, who joined the firm in 2017 and previously served as senior vice president according to his LinkedIn profile, has overseen the division’s transformation into a $350 million operation. Under his leadership, the group has opened offices in Atlanta; Phoenix; and Jacksonville, Florida, with projections to reach $450 million in revenue this year, according to the contractor.
The commercial arm focuses on distribution, logistics and mission-critical projects for Fortune 50 clients, as well as K-12 schools in Arkansas, according to the release.
Here, Byrd talks with Construction Dive about Caddell’s growth, its strategy behind selecting new markets and the overall commercial construction landscape.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
CONSTRUCTION DIVE: Caddell’s commercial division has grown more than 110% over the past three years, according to the company. What key factors helped drive that growth?
RICKY BYRD: There are two main things that have driven our steady growth over the last three years, and they will continue to drive our growth into the future.
First, and most importantly, it’s our people and our commitment to talent development. One way we really stand out is that we don’t take on new work without the right team in place to execute it the way that we expect. We have been committed to growing and developing talent to ensure we can serve our clients' needs.
Secondly, we focus on clients with long-term repeat business, so we can grow teams around them to become an integral partner in their business. Client-based teams are extremely beneficial for our customers and for our workforce.
You’ve opened several new offices recently. What do you look for when choosing to expand?
This is really just an extension of the two things I talked about above. We focus on going to locations where our clients need us — that’s really the impetus more than growing our book of business in a particular area. Office locations are meant to be talent hubs and are truly an expansion of our people rather than an expansion of our footprint.