Leadership through Innovative and Responsible Solutions

It’s January, and it’s a good time to look back on 2009 and talk about where we are headed in 2010.

 

2009 ended with a pleasant surprise, being named the 2009 PHC (Plumbing and Heating Contractor) Magazine contractor of the year.  It was an exciting and humbling honor to receive.  If you’d like to check out the article you can visit it on line at http://www.phcnews.com/pdf/phc12_2009.pdf.

 

2009 was a challenging year, but we still managed to meet many of our goals.  While revenues declined from 2008, we still met our financial targets.  We were also able to exceed our sales target, and increase our backlog through the year.

 

As important as the numbers are, we have to keep in mind our strategic goals.  One of those is to establish Harris as the clearly recognized leader in our market place of creative solutions and sustainable construction.  We made strides towards this goal as well, expanding our resume of GeoExchange projects to include projects underway in Wyoming and British Columbia.  We were also selected for a GeoExchange conversion of an existing conventional school in Whiteriver Arizona that currently awaits funding.  This focus on GeoExchange, and creative and sustainable solutions, is one of the things that sparked the interest of the PHC editorial staff and led to our selections as Contractor of the Year.

 

During the year we also continued to expand our geographic reach and market depth as we booked new contracts in states including Washington, South Carolina, California, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota and British Columbia.  We were also successful in a new market segment, procuring several Federal projects, an initiative that began in 2008.

 

2010 offers many of the same challenges and opportunities as 2009.  Doing the basics well in a tight market will continue to be critical, as will balancing resources devoted to strategic goals like Sustainability and continuing to develop BIM and pre-fabrication capabilities and efficiencies.

 

We once again anticipate our work coming from new geographies and markets in addition to growing our presence in markets where we have a permanent presence.  While everyone would prefer the construction Market of 2007, we are optimistic that 2010 will be a successful year for the Harris Companies and we feel we our taking steps to determine our own destiny, rather than the market determining it for us!