BizWest 500 – Construction dominates fastest-growing companies lists

No secret here.

The fastest-growing companies in both Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley from 2017 to 2019 have been construction-related — contractors and homebuilders, architects, trades, building suppliers. And that’s been the case for several years now.

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Click to see BizWest 500 online publication including all of the BizWest 500 Lists.

• Mercury 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies Boulder Valley
• Mercury 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies Northern Colorado
• Highest-Paid Executives
• Publicly Traded Companies
• Public-Sector Employers
• Private-Sector Employers

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An analysis of the BizWest Mercury 100 lists from the two regions that make up the BizWest market area shows that the overall fastest-growing company by percent growth, the top of most flights, and industry category dominating nearly all flights were engaged in construction.

This is no surprise given that a motorist on roads in Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley are almost never out of sight of some piece of yellow construction equipment.

BizWest produces its Mercury 100 fastest-growing lists each year based upon the most recent two years of revenue growth. Revenue numbers shown on the charts on these pages are from 2017 to 2019, all pre-COVID-19, which will almost certainly change the makeup of the fastest growing when 2020 revenue numbers become known.

The fastest growing company in both NoCo and the Boulder Valley during the past two years, as determined by a 731% increase in revenue, is also one of the newest companies in the region, Nitrocrete LLC, based in Fort Collins. This father/son company has a patent-pending new technology that uses nitrogen to cool the aggregate in concrete, thus producing a surface that is harder and superior to traditional forms of concrete. Its process is taking the industry by storm. As a 2-year-old company, it generated $13.7 million in revenue in 2019. Drew Nelson is the CEO.

Another Northern Colorado company, LandOne Engineering LLC, was second-fastest-growing by percentage with 465% growth. This Greeley company develops land and provides civil engineering services. Daniel Hull is owner.

Third-fastest-growing by percentage was F9 Productions of Longmont. It’s an architecture firm run by co-owners Lance Cayko and Alex Gore. It had growth of 386% over the two years.

Topping the lists of largest fast-growing companies in the Boulder Valley — Flight 1 —  was PG Arnold Construction Inc. with 187% growth. It reported revenue of $15.8 million in 2019. Paul Arnold is president.

The Flight 1 counterpart in the Northern Colorado region was ECI Site Construction Management Inc. of Loveland, which had growth of 108% with 2019 revenue of $46.4 million. Selina Cook is chief operating officer.

While it might be assumed that new companies growing from a smaller base of revenue would dominate the lists, that isn’t necessarily the case. In fact, only four or five companies had their beginnings in 2017.

Old-line companies dating to the 1960s and 1970s can be found on the lists, not to mention those created in the early 2000s, and they’re still performing, growing and playing a large role in the regional economy.

Two companies on the list date to the Great Depression era — not Great Recession, but Depression.

Tensitron of Longmont dates to 1935, and it registered 32% growth. This company manufactures precision mechanical and electronic instruments. James Knight is CEO. The company had $1.65 million in revenue in 2019.

Also from that period, Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Greeley, also grew 32% in the past two years. This company was founded in 1937 and generated $518 million in 2019, which was the highest level of revenue of any of the companies on the Mercury lists. Michael Choutka is CEO.

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