The Frederickson industrial area is one of the largest single industrial development sites in the Puget Sound area. It is zoned for heavy manufacturing and has industrial capacity, utilities and infrastructure in place to serve incoming businesses. Merit Construction has assisted many clients through the building process in this major industrial center within Pierce County.

The area that has been planned and invested in by the County covers more than 2,000 acres, and more than half of this land is currently undeveloped. As noted on the County’s website, some attractive attributes of these properties are the ability to amortize sewer development charges for a period of years and a waiver for 90 percent of traffic impact fees for manufacturing offered by the County to encourage business growth.

Merit has had the privilege of providing a Team-Build experience for many manufacturing and industrial facilities within the Frederickson community. Together with outstanding design team members we have delivered many construction methods including wood framed, concrete tilt-up and pre-engineered metal buildings.

One of our most recent projects in the Frederickson area was for Hörmann Innovative Door Systems. Hörmann is a global company with manufacturing locations spread across North America. One of their key overhead door manufacturing facilities is located at 19000 Canyon Road East that (formerly known as Northwest Door, LLC). Merit was hired to build (2) 18,600 sq. ft. single sloped Butler pre-engineered metal buildings (PEMBs) to be used as product storage as well as develop some off-site improvements.

Hörmann is a fourth-generation family business founded in East Westphalian, Germany in 1935. They are an industry leader in residential, commercial, and industrial door manufacturing with more than $2 billion dollars in annual sales revenues. With over 50 factories and 120 sales centers across 40 countries, Hörmann is a fast-growing, innovative company. Their US headquarters are in Sparta, Tennessee.

Project Manager Adam Coleman recently sat down to interview Hörmann’s Chief Operating Officer Camron Rudd. Here are a few things Camron had to say about his career journey with Hörmann, how Hörmann has grown into one of the top door manufacturers in the world, and his experience working with Merit.

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Why he chose to work for Hörmann 20 years ago:

“This was a place where I felt if I invested in them, they would invest back and that has been extremely true. At the end of the day, that first gut feeling has been proven. Being able to have that kind of connection with the owners for so long has been world changing for me.”

What makes Hörmann unique from its competitors:

“What I love to tell our dealers is there is no board of directors, there is no quarterly report – we are not worried about any of that stuff. We are worried about serving you – not some far off private equity firm. Our owners are door guys, this is what they have done for generations. They grew up with it. They grew up with the products, the challenges, the solutions, the equipment. They know your business as well as you do. They are part of that group and that is a huge selling point when talking to the dealers.”

His experience working for a German company:

“The German world view of investment is not a once and done, quick ROI type of investment. We as a company make investments for 20 years down the road sometimes. It is refreshing to be in that kind of environment”

“To see them going into the fifth generation is a huge testament to the leadership the family brings. I think there is a great deal of generational pride in being closely involved with something. The one thing that is so stark for me is our predominant customer base is small business owners and it is one of the things I love about our business – I am sure some of your vendors who do overhead door projects would be our customer and a lot of those are small businesses are in their second or third generation. I have been able to compare and contrast those businesses with the Hörmann family and has time as gone on, particularly the German/American comparison, how remarkable it is that (Hörmann) could be moving into their fifth generation and still be dedicated to the business, dedicated to the trade whereas in the US you are very fortunate if you can get past the third generation.”

Why the Puyallup factory is important for their North American business operations:

“In this business, it is a combination of having options for the dealers and having as short a lead time as possible, so we are always trying to walk that balance between how much material we have in stock and how much is sales order specific or job specific. In order to provide both, the variety we need in the market and the short lead times causes a necessity to stock more. We are about to open our 22nd sales center. The more sales centers we open, the more material we need in reserve to feed those sales centers. The Puyallup addition doubles our storage space capacity, enables us to meet the market demand, and keep our lead times down.”

How they decided to partner with Merit:

“For Sparta facility, it was a challenge to find General Contractors that fit what we needed. Some were too small and didn’t have the subcontractor bench needed to complete a project of that size. Some were far too big and if you got in the way of their schedule, they would eat you up with change notice fees. We narrowed it down to two great options and went with T.W. Frierson. Throughout that project, we developed a strong relationship with them. When we started the project in Puyallup, we reached out to the group at Frierson for recommendations on a General Contractor in the area. We knew the best fit would be a Pre-Engineered Metal Building, probably a Butler Building. Frierson reached out to their suppliers, and on a parallel path to that, our plant manager in Puyallup started working on the project and landed on Merit. While they were having those discussions, Frierson came back and said, ‘our supplier said there is really only one General Contractor in that area you want to work with and that is Merit Construction.’ There was no sense in continuing the shopping. If we have somebody that is that well thought of with that caliber reputation in the market which can handle our project, then there is not a need to go through a huge interview process.”

Their experience working with Merit:

“Merit was absolutely the right partner to select for the project. If, and when, we have the opportunity to do further expansions or new construction, we will definitely be coming back and knocking on Merit’s door.”