Safe Site protects lifelines of the community

Johnstown – How does a company go from $80,000 in sales to $9 million in five years and in the middle of a recession?

“It all goes back to performance,´ said Skip McIntosh, vice president of Safe Site, a Johnstown-based utility contractor that started in 2005. “In today’s economy, the businesses that will survive are the ones that step up their level of service.”

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Safe Site contracts with Xcel Energy and CenturyLink (formerly Qwest Communications) to respond to “811” calls, the “call before you dig” requests that builders and homeowners make to locate underground utility lines before they start on a project.

Safe Site responds to about 2,000 requests a day, covering Northern Colorado and north Denver for Qwest and the entire state for Xcel Energy. In the last year the company has doubled the number of its employees, now at 150.

It has also grown its revenues from $2.9 million to $6.5 million between 2009 and 2010 alone, placing it at No. 5 on this year’s Mercury 100 list of fastest growing companies in Northern Colorado.

“It’s been a challenge to grow this fast,” McIntosh said. “But we know a lot of people would love to have the opportunities we’ve been given.”

McIntosh and his wife Diane own Safe Site, with Diane as the majority owner. Before starting Safe Site, they were minority shareholders in a similar company. Skip McIntosh has been in the utility contracting business for 35 years.

The McIntoshes also own Alphagraphics, a printing company in Fort Collins. Both companies are family businesses, with their daughter Jeannette Flores at Alphagraphics while their son Justin, Skip’s younger brother and his father all work for Safe Site.

Skip McIntosh attributes Safe Site’s growth to simply doing things better than their competitors.

“We’ve taken market share from our competitors because we’ve done good work,” he said. “You have to deliver on-time, accurate work. In this business, if you can’t do things accurately, people are going to get hurt, their lines will get cut, their lights or Internet will go out. We literally protect the lifelines of the community.”

The company started contracting with Xcel in Northern Colorado, was asked to bid on the north Denver contract and was awarded it, then added Qwest Communications in 2010. Last fall, the company was awarded the Xcel contract for the entire state.

With two days to complete a utility-line-locating request once it comes in, Safe Site developed custom software to manage its work. The company also does other utility services, including safety inspections, code compliance audits and mapping of underground utilities.

Skip McIntosh said the business philosophy behind Safe Site is the same for Alphagraphics – taking care of customers and doing a good job.

“We are successful because of our employees,” he added. “I can’t speak highly enough of them. In this economy a lot of people are looking for work, but it’s still hard to find good people. But we’ve found good people.”