Beth the builder | Construction: Beth Sturtevant, President, CCB Inc.
Photo/David A. Rodgers
Beth Sturtevant has grown CCB Inc., which she's led since 2004, into one of the state's top 10 largest construction firms
Photo/David A. Rodgers
Beth Sturtevant credits her company's growth with diversification in both industrial and high-end commercial markets and the fact it's a "self-performing" general contractor, meaning it uses its own skilled employees rather than subcontractors
Beth Sturtevant of CCB Inc. knows how to lay a foundation — for a commercial building, for her career and for her company. President and majority owner of the Westbrook-based construction firm, Sturtevant has worked her way to the top of CCB with an eye toward solid groundwork.
Sturtevant, 52, started at the company, then known as Consolidated Constructors and Builders Inc., in 1983 as a field engineer after graduating from the University of Maine. She rose through the ranks, as a project manager, then as a minority shareholder and vice president of operations, and finally, in 2004, she became president and majority shareholder. Over the last five years, average annual sales have grown from $18 million to $36 million under Sturtevant’s leadership, making CCB among the state’s top 10 largest construction firms by revenue. “I’ve always been treated with respect because I’m good at what I do and I’ve always been good at what I do,” she says.
CCB’s fingerprints are all over the buildings of well-known companies throughout Maine and New England: Mercy Hospital’s new facility in Portland, Fairchild and National Semiconductor, Pratt and Whitney, Verso Paper and Dartmouth College.
Paper mills once made up the biggest chunk of CCB’s revenues. As that market began to slide in the mid-1990s, Sturtevant, as VP of operations at the time, began guiding the company toward other industrial ventures and the commercial market, including an $18 million joint venture to expand National Semiconductor’s footprint in South Portland. CCB also broadened into New Hampshire and Vermont, and in 2003, opened an interior architectural millwork installation division serving the Boston area. Over the last seven years, Sturtevant has focused heavily on government contracts. “When something falls, something else will hopefully rise,” she says.
Work has been slow lately, however. Last year, CCB topped out at 450,000 man hours and employed a high of 350 workers. This year, Sturtevant expects about 300,000 man hours and now employs 150. Still, she expects revenues to remain strong, though lower, and recalled with concern a recent meeting in Massachusetts where other industry professionals spoke of taking out loans to make payroll. “We’re in very good shape right now,” she says.
Sturtevant attributes much of the growth to the company’s diversification, in both industrial and high-end commercial markets in areas including energy, transportation and distribution, heavy concrete and carpentry. The company prides itself on being a “self-performing” general contractor, meaning it employs much of its craft labor directly, rather than through subcontractors. CCB is also a union shop, one of few of its kind in Maine, an alliance that supplies the company with well-trained and certified employees, she says.
Sturtevant, in her role as a board member for the Associated General Contractors of Maine, has long advocated and lobbied in Augusta for “responsible contracting” practices, or limiting use of independent contractors in the regular work force, a tactic some companies use to avoid providing health insurance, access to workers’ compensation and other benefits.
She’s also dedicated to her employees’ safety, and says the company’s experience modification rate, an insurance calculation that reflects historical safety statistics, has remained below average for years. “Ultimately, the buck stops with me, and the culture and the attitude we have in this company is safety is the priority,” she says.
Leading by example, laying out clear expectations and keeping her employees informed of CCB’s performance are hallmarks of her leadership style, Sturtevant says. All of it helps her and her employees to keep in mind one question, she says: What’s best for CCB? “We’re here to make money, that’s the reality,” Sturtevant says. “Putting the screws to the clients is not going to get us our next job.”
Jackie Farwell
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