Grizzly MEP: Taking Commercial MEP Contracting to the Next Level

Adams: So our mannequin is fairly easy. We discover these nice corporations—we’re not on the lookout for depressed belongings or corporations in want of a turnaround—corporations which have good monitor information, secure buyer bases and a stable basis, however that need assistance to get to the following stage.

What I imply by that’s, lots of the of those house owners are actually distracted by the again workplace, issues like payroll and authorized and insurance coverage, the executive issues that devour lots of their time and bandwidth. With our platform we centralized lots of these back-office capabilities and permit them to focus extra on development and serving their prospects. We put methods in place and likewise supply know-how that permits their technicians to be extra environment friendly, simpler.

Then we share greatest practices amongst all the companies. You may discover that one enterprise could also be nice at a sure side of what they do and different companies are in a position to profit from that as nicely.

CONTRACTOR: When an organization joins Grizzly MEP, do they take in your branding, or do they nonetheless function below their very own separate identities?

Adams: The model stays utterly intact. I am extra centered on integration and driving development than I’m rebranding. And lot of occasions rebranding can create buyer confusion.

What’s going to occur, six months or a 12 months down the highway, is X Mechanical will grow to be X Mechanical: A Grizzly Firm. That method after we’re going after, say, a nationwide contract, and somebody asks, nicely, how will you service me in a market the place you do not reside? We are able to say, nicely, there are all these varied corporations which might be all a part of the Grizzly household.

CONTRACTOR: Why do you assume there’s a lot consolidation occurring within the mechanical contracting trade, within the MEP trades?

Adams: I am not a member of a personal fairness agency, I am an operator. However from what I’ve seen, lots of personal fairness teams are saying, hey, the industrials are an amazing sector as a result of they’re all the time in demand. It’s a crucial a part of commerce and society.

Now, within the MEP area, lots of these sponsors are seeing that residential aspect is a little more delicate to financial fluctuations, whereas on the industrial aspect having correctly working methods is mission essential. They’re much less delicate to these financial adjustments than the residential aspect.

So, we’re seeing much more focus within the industrial sector—patrons have gotten a way more comfy with the general mannequin. I do not need to say [the commercial side] is recession-proof, nevertheless it’s extremely insulated.

CONTRACTOR: You talked about know-how as one of many keys to development. With so many platforms, so many methods—typically a number of platforms in a single firm—how are you dealing with integration?

Adams: We’re within the course of proper now of choosing methods, each monetary and operational, that we are going to implement throughout your complete enterprise, as a result of we would like everybody on the identical platform. It provides us the flexibility to speak higher. It provides us the flexibility to function higher, provides us the flexibility to share greatest practices, leverage our dimension and carry out.

I need to be clear, this is not about shopping for a bunch of corporations, placing them collectively, stripping out prices, repackaging them and promoting them to earn cash off the arbitrage. We’re taking these corporations, we’re integrating them, and we’re centralizing a few of the back-office work to get prices out of the system. Then we are able to leverage our purchasing energy for issues like insurance coverage and advantages and autos and know-how—issues {that a} standalone enterprise wouldn’t be capable of do.

That’s how we drive profitability. After which as we alter the gross sales mannequin and get extra externally centered, it provides us the flexibility to actually get these companies acting at increased ranges. The tech stack goes to be a really huge a part of that.