Inc. Magazine, America's most widely-read business publication for growing companies, has ranked Redwood City-based DPR Construction, Inc. the third fastest growing privately-held company in the United States, as measured over its last five years of operation. The ranking makes DPR the fastest growing company in the Bay Area over the five year period.

SUCCESSFUL GROWTH STRATEGY

"DPR is an aggressive, forward-thinking building contractor that has developed a formula for success," said Peter Nosler, DPR’s president. "We focus on growing market sectors where we can be a major player, we leverage our local technical expertise into new geographic markets, and we have established a competency-based environment where talented construction professionals can succeed in every way. We are very different than what customers have come to expect from a building contractor."

TARGET MARKET SECTORS

DPR specializes in technically demanding construction projects in the microelectronics, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, health care, and high-end corporate office areas. "By keeping the company focused on technically complex work, we can provide assistance not normally expected from a builder," noted Doug Woods, DPR’s executive vice president. "In support of a recent wafer fab project, for example, we visited 12 potential sites and discussed each site’s constructability with the owner. Most builders can’t provide that level of technical input."DPR has also benefited from the rapid growth in one of its target markets. "The microelectronics sector has really taken off for us," noted Mr. Woods. "Semiconductor manufacturers are expanding their production capacity as rapidly as they can and DPR is one of the few builders who has the technical knowledge required to construct these facilities. We expect the microelectronics sector to continue growing rapidly for at least the next 5 years."

APPROACH TO CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES

DPR also attributes much of its success to the company's approach to its customers and employees. By building and maintaining a strong team-oriented relationship between DPR, the customer, and the architect on each project, DPR can more directly focus its efforts on delivering a quality facility on time and on budget. "DPR projects are too important and too time-critical to our customers for us to spend time finger pointing," observed Mr. Woods. "We spend all of our time delivering quality service. Period." Kurt Vorheis, director of engineering at Chiron, observed "DPR is a company that has always gone the extra mile and put the interests of its customers first. It does what it says it'll do, and does it on time and within budget. That's part of what’s behind its rapid rise."

This attitude also has an energizing effect on company employees. "I worked for three construction companies before coming to DPR," said Rocky Moss, one of DPR's project managers. "The support I have from everyone in the company gives me the freedom and empowerment to do what I believe are the right things for our customers without being second-guessed."

DPR also believes very strongly in sharing the company’s success with its employees. "One of the reasons we have been able to attract so many top performers at DPR is that every employee participates in a generous and well-defined profit sharing plan and we offer stock ownership to key employees," said Ron Davidowski, DPR's chief financial officer. "It's not hard to attract talented construction professionals under these conditions."

GEOGRAPHIC EXPANSION

Much of DPR's recent growth has come through well-planned geographic expansion. Because the company focuses on selected market sectors, it can move into geographic areas where those market sectors are growing. DPR then hires experienced construction professionals who are well-known in the local area and actively shares the entire company’s technical expertise with them to ensure local success. "Over the last two years, the bulk of DPR’s growth has come through geographic expansion in the West and Southwest," noted Mr. Davidowski. "We expect that trend to continue well into the future."

ABOUT DPR CONSTRUCTION

In its five years of operation, DPR has grown to $176 million in revenue in 1994. The company expects to exceed $200 million in revenue in 1995.

DPR Construction, Inc. is located at 555 Twin Dolphin Drive, Second Floor, Redwood City, CA 94065 and can be reached by calling (650) 474-1450. DPR also has offices in Austin, Newport Beach, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, and Seattle.