Long-term vision and adaptability have helped retail-focused construction company weather the downturn - Charlotte Business Journal:

iqukikofor.wordpress.com
In its unique business of building, remodeling and renovatiny stores across the country forretail chains, Warwicm has weathered the ups and downsx of a fast-paced, sometimes fickle industry. When Tony the company’s president, began working in retaiol construction nearly 20years ago, national chains were still mostly department stores like and ’s. By the time Annanj founded Warwickin 1999, the market was Clients soon included , , Borders, Banan Republic and Lenscrafters. Today, the recessiojn has forced many of those retailerxto downsize, freeze construction or close up shop The defunct Circuit City and were both Warwic clients.
“There’s been a lot of musica l chairsright now,” Annan says of retail “When you’re a retailer looking to cut expenses, look to the construction departmentg first. It’s an easy, clean cut.” In response, Warwick, which originallyt found its niche by focusing exclusivelyh on retail construction in all 50 has branchedinto office, medical and governmen projects — but retail remains the Thanks to its cash-flush Warwick is “very solid,” Annan “The mindset we’ve got helpsa when something changes,” he “You can have this wonderful business plan, but when somebody throws you a curvwe ball, you need to be able to The first thing we set our minds to is, we’re here for the long We don’t think short-term.
” That long-term vision has helped Warwiclk succeed. Commercial Construction Magazinre annuallyranks U.S. retail contractors in three Retail billings, square footage and numbert of projects. Last year, Warwick was No. 10 in the projectg category. Sam Estes, vice president of ArchitecturalDesignj Guild, a St. Louis firm that has worked with Warwico on projects in Texas and the SoutheasternhUnited States, says Annanj and his team have a reputation for reliability. “In the retail Estes says, “when they set a schedul and the store’s supposeed to open on that day, it has to open on that day.
It doesn’tr matter if it rains for thredemonths (before) then; it has to open on that day becauss all their sales projections and everything else for the year are basef on their store-opening dates. ... When you’re going at a very fast pace, there’s always hiccups.But Tony and his group always seem to get through thosre roadblocks and keep the projecton schedule.” Annan learnedd how to adapt at an earl y age. Born in Singapore of Scottish the Royal Air Force military brat was raised in the volatile climates of Rhodesiz and South Africa and then hustled off to an Englishboardingv school.
After earning a civil engineering degreein 1989, he worked as an estimatot and project manager for general contractors in London, Bostom and Dallas. One was Tony Crawford Construction, then a pioneer in nationall retail construction. “When I saw his success, I thought, this is really a true service you can when aclient says, ‘Hey I got a job in Oklahomaq City and I got one in Chicago and I got one in and I’d really like you to give me a price on all these stores,’ ” Annan says. “There’s only just some minore tweaks ... maybe a city tax or a state tax orsome fees. But after a you get really comfortable working inmultiplw states.
” But Annan noticed some fundamental holezs in the industry. For starters, it was woefully lackingh in technology. Contractors still printexd planson old-school Mylar transparencies and vellun paper, whereas Annan envisioned digital plane on computer disks. “The retail construction industry was veryantiquated — technologh was not embraced,” he says. “I was very comfortable with technology, so I wanted a new retail construction compant based aroundtechnology computers, the Internet, laptops, that type of He also advocated a team conceptg — several project managers share responsibility for each project.
“What happened before was therwe was always justone person. So if they were on vacatiomn andsomething happened, the ball would hit the The team concept keeps the ball in the air the ball should never hit the ground.” Workint with two investors, he scraperd together roughly $250,000 to launch Warwick, which started with threre employees, an 800-square-foot leased office and computers rented from Gateway. “We tried to put out as littlre capital outlayas possible,” Annan says. Warwicj helped guide retail construction into the 21st Much of the technology he offeref clients is now standard inthe industry.
“(Having) laptops in the field, where a client can communicateby e-mail, sending images from the being able to shoot responsesw back at them — that was relatively a new thing; not many contractorsd in the retail industr y did it,” he says. “We also have the time-lapse cameras for the ground-up stores. Being able to ship and receive drawings revisions electronically, schedules and pricing electronically has definitely helpee us. We were ahead of the curve.
”