Northern Colorado companies earn 2006 BBB Torch Awards

Fix-it-and-forget-it doesn’t fly at Hensel Phelps Construction Co.

When the Greeley-based commercial builder recently completed an expansion project at the Denver Convention Center, project managers noticed hairline cracking in the sidewalks surrounding the complex.

Even though the sidewalks had been accepted by Denver city officials, Hensel Phelps didn’t walk away. The company replaced the sidewalks at its own cost.

Evidently, that’s how you get to be a $2 billion company. And it’s how you get recognized for ethical business practices.

Hensel Phelps was one of four Northern Colorado companies to receive the Mountain States Better Business Bureau’s 2006 Torch Awards for Marketplace Ethics, announced on April 27. The Torch Awards assesses management practices, relations with customers, suppliers and vendors, and marketing and advertising practices.

Other regional winners included GLH Construction Inc., Windsor; Houska Automotive Service, Fort Collins; and Yancey’s Food Service, Loveland.

Hensel Phelps won in the large company category, which includes employers with 1,000 or more workers.

“The fact is, Hensel Phelps has been in business since 1937, and had continuous conservative growth,´ said Jeff Wenaas, president and COO for the 19th largest general contractor in the United States. “That shows our company culture advocates good business practices.”

Wenaas said the company’s standards are also reflected in its work for the federal government, which includes an ongoing remodeling project at the Pentagon.

“We’re receiving A and A-plus merit grades on a regular basis,” Wenaas said.

Strong relationships

Greg Yancey, president of Yancey’s Food Service, measures his distribution company’s reputation for ethics in loyalty – from customers, vendors and employees.

“We’ve had customers who have been with us for 10, 15 even 20 years,” Yancey said. “I don’t think we would have that type of relationship or partnerships had we not serviced them according to their expectations and needs.”

One prime example is Yancey’s connection to the Subway sandwich chain.

“We started out with them when they had two stores in Colorado” in the mid 1980s, Yancey said. “Today we service over 400. We’ve partnered with them over 20 years. We’re their longest standing distributor in the U.S.”

Yancey’s recently convened a focus group of customers to make the ties even stronger.

“We talked about food safety. We talked about technology and how we can offer some new things, whether it’s online ordering, or electronic bill-paying … Both the customers and Yancey’s got some tremendous things out of it.”

Similarly, of the company’s 210 employees, many hold tenure ranging from 10 to 20 years. Which makes Yancey believe “we’re doing some things right” in the area of benefits and workplace environment.

Treating people right

Houska Automotive Service has been in the family since 1952, passed down from founder Chuck Houska to his son Dennis. The next generation, Dennis’s son LJ, is waiting the wings.

But the family theme also connects to customers who have been returning with their cars from half a century.

“The main thing is trying to make sure you’re treating people right,´ said LJ Houska, now vice president of the 25-employee firm. “The older customers we have coming in knew my grandpa when he owned it. They all still tell me stories about how he was the most honest and upright person in everything he did.”

The honesty passed on to employees.

One customer letter that stays on file at Houska Automotive is from a woman who experienced a car accident and had her car towed to Houska’s. “In the chaos I left my purse with a substantial amount of money and other valuables in the wrecked vehicle,” she wrote. “Your tow-truck driver took my valuables and locked them up in your garage until I could retrieve them the next day.”

Houska Automotive also wins points with employees, with such perks as a 401(k) plan, use of company vehicles, company trips to Mexico and use of the company’s condominium in Steamboat Springs.

Quality employee relations

Quality employee relations are at the root of GLH Construction’s creation in 1996. Company President Greg Hughes and his partners at Windsor-based GLH left another construction company “that used to look at how they could take things away from employees,” Hughes said. “We decided we were going to treat people like people and instill more trust and loyalty in our employees.”

GLH now shares 3 percent of company profits to employees, and bonuses averaged $8,000 per employee last year.  The company also created a self-insurance plan so it could offer free health insurance benefits.

All six employees who helped to start the company remain with GLH, and 65 percent of the staff has been with the company at least five years.

“One think I don’t like to do is hire, and I don’t like to fire,” Hughes said. “I’m not a big interviewer. I didn’t learn that at school. Once we hire, we try to keep the same guys together, and just treat them like gold.”

The unity of the staff could also translate into the company’s business success. Ninety percent of GLH’s revenues are from negotiated work with previous clients.

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