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Diversity Breeds Success

Concrete Contractor Feature

Engelman Construction offers a wide range of concrete services. About 50 percent of the company's sales comes from tilt-up and flatwork, 25 percent from commercial foundations, 15 percent from sitework, and 10 percent from decorative jobs.

The Engelman family, from left to right: Bob, Joe, Kathy, Irene, Mary, Tom and Jim.

"We're probably the premier stamped concrete guys in this area," says Jim Engelman. "When it comes to decorative concrete, you don�t have to be the biggest, you need to be the best."

Bethlehem Precast is always adding new products to its offerings. It recently began producing these stained precast planters, which the company is marketing as an add-on product for commercial clients.

Precast stairs for high-rise buildings have been a steady income generator for Bethlehem Precast. The stairs save building contractors time and increase safety on the jobsite.

Engelman Construction recently completed work on this 700,000-square-foot distribution center, supplying the floors, concrete aprons, sidewalks, and curbs and gutter. The floor alone used 18,000 yards of concrete.

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Engelman Construction's broad range of concrete services can look like an overwhelming amount of projects to juggle with training, experience, contract negotiations and marketing efforts, but the family business pulls it off with its organization and years of experience in the industry. And with the current market situation, that diversity has helped the company. "People who specialize can streamline operations," says Jim Engelman, vice president at Engelman Construction. "We can't do that so much, but in a big downturn like the industry is experiencing now it really helps that we're so diverse."

Engelman Construction is a full service concrete contractor located in Macungie, Pa. It serves eastern Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey, Maryland and southern New York. Today it's run by six Engelman siblings. Their father, the late Al Engelman, started the business in 1974 as a residential concrete company. Over the years, he moved his children into key positions in the company and together the family added services and developed the firm into the full service concrete construction company it is today.

Engelman Construction offers a broad range of concrete services in commercial, residential, public and government applications including tilt-up, decorative concrete, superflat floors, roller compacted concrete and pervious concrete. In 1980, the Engelmans acquired a sister company with Bethlehem Precast, a specialty precast company that takes on small custom jobs for the residential and light commercial industries.

Owning and running a business with six family members might seem like a difficult situation for some people, but at Engelman Construction the family has found a way to work together effectively. For the four brothers and two sisters, the family dynamic works, mostly because they treat the company like any other job.

"Everyone has a job to do,"

Engelman says. "We each have a specific area within the company to oversee. We all found an area we excelled at and fell into that niche."

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