1980: Beran Concrete is established in Wichita, KS
With only four employees to start, Ken Beran launches what his son, Brock, describes as “a residential contracting company that dabbled in commercial work.” Beran Concrete keeps the focus on customer service and grows steadily for the next two decades.
2004: Brock Beran signs up
Shortly after graduating from Kansas State University, Brock officially joins his father’s company. Everyone works in every division of the business, depending on the needs of the day or the week. However, knowing he wants the structured approach of commercial construction—a decidedly small part of Beran Concrete at the time—Brock is able to grow the company substantially as he becomes executive vice president in 2008 and president in 2010.
2007: Beran ICF Solutions is formed
With the completion of some flatwork for an ICF company in the Wichita area, Beran Concrete is approached by the ICF company’s general manager, looking to sell. The same general manager runs Beran ICF Solutions today, working in a nontraditional niche market that takes the company to locations nationwide—and sometimes worldwide.
But the ICF acquisition is only part of the story in 2007. “Our growth since 2007 was really facilitated by my addition of an estimator and project manager for my commercial operations the previous year,” Brock says. “It kind of took my hands off the nonconstruction operations, allowing me to concentrate on the company as a whole rather than just one division.”
2008: Kansas City Operations Begin
The steps toward substantial growth quicken in two major directions in 2008. The expansion of work to Kansas City is perhaps the most visible sign, with Beran Concrete Services LLC its ultimate result. But this is also the year an excavation division of Beran Companies becomes a reality—taking the firm one step closer to becoming an all-inclusive contractor. “We can manage a project—from the digging of the basement to a frame-ready house—with one phone call,” Brock says. “We can manage it in-house, making it a seamless operation for our builders.”
2009: Bring on the Excavation
Since Brock is in frequent contact with excavation contractors anyway, a move into excavation turns out to be easy when one such contractor is in need of a buyer. By officially making excavation an element in Beran Companies’s wheelhouse, diversity and integration of services become vital parts of the firm’s appeal—particularly for its residential work. “Homebuilders that want to cover more ground with fewer resources are going to a turnkey concept because they don’t have to shuffle invoices for materials or do bookkeeping for materials,” Brock says. “We take care of all that.”
2011: Waterproofed and Insulated
With the Kansas City location thriving and high-profile projects such as the Kansas Star Casino (currently in phase two of construction) in progress, Beran Companies acquires a waterproofing/insulation business—making its can-do list even longer. “They’d already had at least 50 percent of the market share,” Brock says of the latest acquisition. “We’ve added to that by integrating the customers that we did foundation walls for, and vice versa. It’s just another piece of the puzzle that we can offer and use to add business for our other divisions.
With moves such as these, Brock’s business sense is proving to be right for the firm. “I don’t think there’s anyone in this market that even performs two of these operations in-house, let alone all four,” he says. “There’s no need for the customer to babysit subcontractors while we do it all ourselves.” ABQ
