Kirk Corp. celebrates 55 years

Kirk Corp. construction company is celebrating 55 years in business this year. The company, led by Chief Executive Officer Richard Kirk, is made up of five companies: Kirk Bros. Co., ACI Const. Co, Alvada Trucking, Kirk Bros. Masonry and Bodie Mechanical Services. It is a family company. Kirk's wife, Sabrina, is corporate engagement officer. Their daughters are Justinne Reinhart, chief financial officer of Kirk Corp., and Lauren Kirk, vice president of Kirk Bros. Or, as Richard Kirk likes to say, "three generations, and the fourth generation shows up after school once in a while." Among its recent local projects are the Hancock County Juvenile/Probate Court building under construction on West Main Cross Street and the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts. Origins It all started as a single company, Kirk Bros. Co. Its founder was Kirk's father, Robert. Robert Kirk initially worked for a Toledo company which designed wastewater plants. "So he learned how to build wastewater and water treatment plants. They also had an architectural division, so he also learned building construction," Richard Kirk said. When the University of Findlay had a student union built, Robert Kirk was the on-site architect inspector. So that is how Kirk came to know Findlay. In 1958, he and his wife, Theresa, moved to Findlay. They bought 18 acres – where Kirk Corp. is headquartered, 16380 US 224-East – and that is where Richard and his three brothers and two sisters grew up. Robert Kirk started Kirk Bros. Co. in 1969. All four sons were involved in the business from a young age. In 1972, the elder Kirk started O.H. Materials environmental cleanup company, which was sold in the late 1990s. In 1987, Robert Kirk started ACI Const. Co., to focus on general construction and to allow Kirk Bros Co. to focus entirely on municipal water and wastewater treatment plant construction. A total of 14 companies were formed after the inception of Kirk Bros. Richard's older siblings went onto other careers while Richard remained with Kirk Corp. Richard worked part time with the company while growing up. A Van Buren High School graduate, he started working for the company full time in 1977. Learning the business "My father put me in the field. He put me on a project in southeast Ohio. I said, 'Why can't I go to that job we have in Arcadia?' Richard Kirk recalled. His father's answer: "You won't learn anything. If I put you on the road, down at Lancaster, Ohio, you'll learn something." Richard found that his father was right. He was better off being out on his own. "You grow up quick and have to learn pretty quick," he said. "He put me out on projects, so I learned from foremen how to build things. Then with the environmental company, I worked in almost every state east of the Mississippi but the New England states," Kirk said. "Did that for 10,15 years. Then just mostly narrowly focused on Kirk Bros." "All I had to do was pay attention," he said. "Had very good teachers." After Robert Kirk retired, Richard became the chief executive officer in 1991. All those times on the road, on his own, had paid off. He was ready to take the helm. Learning how to construct water and wastewater treatment plants had been a key. Building boom "If you can build a water, wastewater plant , which, by the way, after it's constructed, it's gotta work. It's gotta work!" — he laughingly emphasized those last three words — "Unlike building construction, (where) you kind of build it and it stands there. The complications of water and wastewater, it has to function and work." Kirk said people have remarked to him about how complex the construction of the new Juvenile/Probate Court building is. "Compared to water, wastewater, we do it all the time," he said. "That experience has really helped us be better. If ACI has a 30-foot deep sewer, they don't do that work. They can look to Kirk Bros. and say, 'Come and do that.'" The company has grown to 330 employees, with 100 office workers in Findlay. Kirk estimated that 80-90% of the company's work now is done in central Ohio because of the growth boom there. "There's a tremendous amount of work out there," he said. "There's just a backlog. We just don't see that slowing down for a number of years." Richard Kirk, 65, attributes the company's success and longevity to three things: focus on the client, equipping its tradesmen and engaging with community. Client focus "We constantly focus on 'What do our clients need?'" he said. "And 'Who are our clients?'" "At the YMCA (Early Learning Center) groundbreaking, I said, 'Our clients are those children,'" Kirk said. "The YMCA board members, they are organizers and administrators, but our clients are those children. And we'll make sure that every tradesperson working on that project knows who that client is." "Those trade people are going to stop and say, 'Am I doing the right thing today for those kids?'" he said. "If they're working for the (YMCA) board, well, that's important, but not as important as those kids who are going to be using the facility for the next 50 years. So you can't lose with that type of attitude. Focus on the client." Kirk said he considers it vital to set up his trade workers for success by supplying them with all of the best equipment. "We have 40,000 square feet of small tools to make sure our trades have everything they need to be successful," he said. He also praised the company's trades workers. "We have some of the best trades out there," he said. The company also focuses on engaging with the community. Sabrina, Kirk's wife, takes the lead in that regard. "Every year we have our annual Christmas giving, and we have the most generous employees around," she said. "Richard and I are passionate about the youth, anything that supports youth development," Sabrina Kirk said. "Right now it seems to be agriculture, 4-H related, Children's Mentoring Connection, getting to the kids while they are young, and getting them on the right track so that they do hopefully get into the trades and realize what kind of a future they can have."