Company has grown from a fledgling outfit doing barely $250K a year to one that should surpass $6 million in ’07 revenues.

by Brad Fullmer

It might have taken him a few years to figure out what career path to follow, but Guy Zwahlen believes he’s firmly on the right one after spending the past dozen years in the demolition business.

advertisement

As a part-owner of TID, Inc. of Salt Lake City, Zwahlen has seen his company grow from a fledgling, quarter-million dollar a year business into one of the more prominent demolition contractors along the Wasatch Front, with annual revenues expected to eclipse the $6 million mark this year.

“I think we’ve built a name that we didn’t have,” says Zwahlen, who spent 10 years working in television, including a stint as a production manager with KJZZ 14 in Salt Lake City, before making his way into the construction industry in 1995. “When I started we were the newbies, and now most people know who we are.”

Zwahlen admits that he never imagined making a living  and a good one at that  working in the construction industry, much less as a part owner of a demolition contractor. He says TID has grown by an average of 30 percent every year since he bought into it.

“One thing led to another and here I am doing something I never thought you could make a living at,” he smiles.

TID used to stand for ‘total interior demolition’, back when the company only did interior projects. In the past five years, the company has expanded its expertise and now does complete interior and exterior demolition work on projects of all sizes and shapes.

The company has provided demolition services in recent months on projects at Utah college campuses, like the Sutton Geology Building and Marriott Library at the University of Utah, and the B-77 building at Brigham Young University. TID is also doing demolition work on the Trolley Square Renovation project in Salt Lake City.

“We work for just about anybody,” says Zwahlen, referring to general contractors in the Intermountain region. “We’ve developed some good relationships with a lot of contractors. There’s quite a bit of competition, but the market is good right now. If I could hire 25 guys tomorrow I could probably keep them busy. For how long it’s good, who knows.”

Zwahlen says he relies on his employees to make good decisions in the field, and empowers them to make key moves that will benefit the company as a whole. He also believes in hiring as many full-time workers as possible, while filling in the gaps with temporary workers as the workload demands.

“Some companies aren’t willing to do it the way we do,” he says. “They hire foremen and use temps. We try to hire full-time people and use temps to fill in. It’s been a natural growth.”

Zwahlen says he also relishes the opportunity to own his own business and see it grow, in addition to being able provide good career opportunities for the people he hires. TID currently has 48 full-time employees.

“I like being my own boss, and I like the feeling that we’re providing a way for others to provide for their families,” he says.

“Guy is very committed to his employees,” says Kay C. Jolley, who is a project manager/estimator with TID. “He gives us the opportunity to work and grow within the company, and he wants us to be successful on the job and to be able to take care of our families at home. He knows that having good people is critical to long-term business success.”

Click here for next Feature Story>>