Revenue growth FY 2018 to 2020: 217%
2020 revenue: $74 million
(photo courtesy of Gemco Constructors LLC)
Four-peat: Gemco is one of the Fast 25 for the fourth consecutive year. Chief Operating Officer Jim Bates said the growth has been sustained on two fronts: Demand for the kinds of buildings Gemco builds—e-commerce, industrial warehousing, fulfillment centers—has been growing consistently. “But to be able to man those jobs and to operate in an efficient and profitable manner, you have to have the people to do it.”
All over the map: Gemco has worked in 42 states since 2014 and currently has ongoing projects in 20-25 states. “We focused on central Indiana—it’s our home—but we created Gemco to be a national design-build contractor to handle the needs of our customers and to be able to have a national workforce,” Bates said.
Successful customers: Gemco has been supporting Fortune 500 companies that have been experiencing record years, he said. One project was for an 800,000-square-foot warehouse outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. “We can take it from the [request for proposal] and put together a mechanical-electrical-plumbing package that’s going to fulfill their needs and allow continued growth.” Gemco also is getting into industrial freezers. “People are buying groceries online, so companies are investing in industrial freezer spaces—refrigerated spaces—so that people online who want to get delivery in 24 hours can get their groceries.”
Pandemic life: Gemco was already on an upward trajectory when the pandemic hit. After that, “it just took off into warp speed because the customers that we’ve worked with, they’re all fighting to have that portfolio of buildings to support the e-commerce distribution band,” Bates said. “The revenue growth and the increase in volume was something we did not expect. Our core values of initiative, decisiveness, resourcefulness, flexibility and dependability were all stretched. But it also showed us that we have the platform and the people to handle it.”
Five times: Will Gemco be back among the Fast 25 in 2022? Bates said that, if the company reports its revenue, he’s optimistic it will be.•
Check out more of IBJ’s ranking of Indy’s fastest-growing companies.
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