Garver LLC
North Little Rock
Garver LLC has a storied history of providing consulting services to the planning, engineering and construction industry.
Founded as a one-man firm in 1919 by Neal Garver, the company is now bumping up against the 300-employee limit of this category with offices in seven states.
Beginning with the Arkansas Highway & Transportation Department, numerous government entities have used Garver's services over the decades. Headquartered in North Little Rock, Garver is known for its many high-profile projects and its primary business lines of transportation, water and aviation.
Examples of Garver's handiwork include the Big Dam Bridge and Two Rivers Bridge that provide recreational links between Little Rock and North Little Rock, the Bobby Hopper Tunnel on Interstate 540 in northwest Arkansas and a host of projects at Little Rock National Airport since 1955.
The company touts its diversified client base as a key to its ongoing success and revenue growth despite economic downturns. The firm's solid financial performance ranks it among the upper 25 percent of its peers.
Garver's engineering staff in Arkansas is the largest in the state, and the company is a perennial entry among the top design firms in the nation.
"Our biggest challenge is intelligent and controlled growth in this unstable economy," said Chad Clinehens, vice president and chief marketing officer.
That translates into making sure the company doesn't get stuck doing things the same old way but embracing whatever changes are necessary to achieve continued growth.
The company has made investments in its internal culture, a culture that blends the lifestyle-corporate experience. That combination has played well with the Garver team, helping generate significant insurance premium savings through a healthier, happier staff.
Apex Communications LLC
Wynne
After five minutes of listening to Randal Caldwell outline his vision for growing his company, United Medical Inc. of Wynne, Tim McNatt was persuaded to return to Arkansas and become CFO of the medical equipment supplier. During the next few years, the company grew dramatically. In the late 1990s, a group of investors from Stephens Group Inc. helped Caldwell, McNatt and the rest of United Medical expand from 18 locations in Arkansas to 56 locations in nine states over the course of about 18 months.
In 2000, United sold to Lincare Holdings Inc. of Clearwater, Fla., for $120.9 million. But McNatt, Caldwell, Caldwell's son Jay and several others from United soon started Apex Communications LLC, offering computer networking and phone systems to business clients. McNatt is president and CEO.
Through acquisitions, Apex grew to four retail stores that offered two-way radio and wireless phones in addition to networking services. Eventually, Apex sold off the other components of its business to focus on selling wireless phones. In 2006, the company bought Go Wireless of Camden and was granted exclusive rights to AT&T distribution in Magnolia. The acquisition and the Magnolia store brought the total number of locations to 13.
Through 2009, Apex bought and opened other stores, bringing the total to 30 and making the company Arkansas' largest AT&T retailer. Apex also sells wireline and Internet service, as well as AT&T U-verse and DirecTV in some of its markets.
In February 2010, the company opened its 31st store, and in January, Apex announced its acquisition of seven stores from Direct Communications Inc. of Columbus, Ga. About two-thirds of the company's stores are in small towns. "Word of mouth travels really quickly in smaller towns," McNatt said. "If you do a great job, people are going to talk about that, and that's developed our reputation."
Powers of Arkansas
North Little Rock
Powers of Arkansas' tagline is "Creating Customers for Life," and that's exactly what President and CEO Alan Hope is focused on. "Make the customer happy and you'll be OK on the financial end," Hope said. In the case of Powers, happy customers are those with buildings that are both comfortable and energy efficient. The company offers a variety of services related to building-control systems. Hope cited the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality as one example.
"We went in and looked at their building and said, 'If you do these things it will improve your energy efficiency and it will save you money,'" Hope said.
When the ADEQ inquired about the cost, the Powers crew told the agency the job would cost about $7,000. "And in the first year, they saved over $90,000," Hope said. "We didn't put any new equipment in or new hardware or anything like that."
The Powers crew made alterations to the existing heating and air-conditioning system and adjusted its programming. Hope described that type of work as "fixing."
"We have guys here who have 25 to 30 years of experience fixing buildings. If somebody's got a problem with their heating and air-conditioning system, we will come in, diagnose it, give them the answer and then move forward and get it fixed," Hope said.
Hope said the move toward energy efficiency at the state and federal levels would lead to more work for Powers. The company does a lot of work with federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the General Services Administration, and "all those federal facilities are making a big push to get their utility costs down," Hope said.
He also cited the state's goals of reducing energy use in state buildings 20 percent by 2014 and 30 percent by 2017 compared with 2008 levels. "So that just fits into what we're doing," he said. "We're providing not just the energy-management system, but we're providing the service and know-how to make it operate like it should."
Rockfish Interactive
Rogers
Rockfish Interactive isn't happy just being a Web development company with more than 100 employees. It isn't happy just developing mobile applications for Sam's Club, its biggest client. It isn't happy just building an intranet system so that Wal-Mart can deliver news to its more than 1 million U.S. associates.
Rockfish, founded by Kenny Tomlin in 2006, is also focused on bringing new companies to life through its business incubator, Rockfish Labs.
"Rockfish Labs is something that we've had inside the company really from day one," said Tomlin. "It's been my vision for the company that half of our revenue comes from products that we develop and can sell."
The purpose of Rockfish Labs, Tomlin said, is to allow the company's employees "to be entrepreneurs and incubate businesses internally." Through Rockfish Labs, Rockfish Interactive has launched eight companies, including Silver Joe's Coffee, TidyTweet, Play Next Level and CouponFactory.
And, of course, Rockfish Interactive is intent on providing its clients with excellent work as well. "Our mission is basically to take what's happening in the digital landscape and to use that to the benefit of our clients to help their businesses grow," Tomlin said.
Tomlin's business is growing also. In the past year, Rockfish has more than doubled its staff, adding a chief strategy officer, a chief marketing officer, a chief operating officer and an executive creative director. The company has also expanded from two locations to five, and Tomlin said that he's beginning to look at some international locations as well. "We're continuing to look at places from a geography standpoint of where we need to grow."
The company will grow internally as well; Tomlin said he expects to add 100 employees in 2011. "I'm a firm believer in investing in people and allowing those people to shape and grow the company. We're very fortunate."
TME Inc.
Little Rock
TME Inc. has built a 15-year track record of continuous profitability, providing engineering and energy services to clients in 24 states and five countries. The Little Rock firm is powered by a staff of about 160 and operations in Fayetteville, St. Louis, Oklahoma City and Tucson, Ariz. While other firms were losing money and laying off staff, TME was holding its own and then some. The company completed its best revenue year ever, hitting about $15 million in 2010.
The firm has taken its core areas of expertise in health care, higher education and energy conservation projects from Arkansas to a national market. TME was an early player in the green market, with new and retro commission work and utility analysis and audit.
"We've been doing this almost from day one when no one else was," said Allen Pettit, chief administrative officer and partner.
The company was founded in 1995 as Tinsley Engineers by Ed Tinsley and a staff of five. The corporate name changed to Tinsley Mullen Engineers before it was shortened in 2001 to TME.
Fire protection design and structural design are two of the firm's newer divisions that complement its mechanical, plumbing and electrical engineering services.
Award-winning work and high-profile projects dot the TME resume, with local efforts that include the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality Building in North Little Rock and the Clinton Presidential Library and Heifer International headquarters in downtown Little Rock.
The company has had a hand in $250 million of improvements to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus in Little Rock, work that helped save an estimated $1 million in energy costs during the first year alone. "To see those kinds of bottom-line results has been a very good feather in the cap for us," Pettit said.
Happy clients have helped build a roster of more than 2,500 projects at more than 1,000 facilities nationally and in Canada, Costa Rica, Ireland, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
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