When you consider that there are more than 250,000 businesses operating in Greater LA, this is a tremendous honor and a testament to the “Ideal Team Players” who make Universal Metro a special place to work. 

The nomination process was rigorous, and included an anonymous profile of the business. Our employees were surveyed about the team atmosphere and their own personal experience working at Universal Metro. 

The overall rankings and winners of various ‘Best Places to Work’ categories were unveiled at an August ceremony and appeared in the August 15, 2022 edition of the Los Angeles Business Journal.

“February 2021 — Challenging times require exceptional leadership, and 2020 showed just how critical that can be. Across the country, young men and women in the flooring industry were rising to the challenge, from establishing safety protocols for staff amid a pandemic to helping their communities’ most vulnerable populations, and their creative and thoughtful solutions drew the attention of colleagues and peers.

Each year, the Emerging Leaders Awards recognizes the outstanding talent of people under 40 like these within the dealer/retailer/contractor sector. And this year saw the largest pool of submissions in the award’s history, which was judged by field veterans Ralph Boe and Paul Friederichsen. Among the winners are a president, vice presidents, managers and directors, all of whom are bringing new perspectives and fresh ideas to the flooring world and shaping the future of the industry.

This year’s winners are as follows:

Jessica Hansen, 34 – Workplace Services, sales and finance manager;

Tyson Merchand, 36 – Great Floors, Spokane commercial division manager;

Matt Bode, 31 – CB Flooring, vice president;

Christian Braid, 39 – Prairie Flooring, co-founder;

Mechelle DeScroches, 37 – Pavillion Floors, director of operations;

Jake Peterson, 36 – Albany Carpet One, store manager;

Palmer Johnson, 35 – Johnson Floor and Home Carpet One, vice president

Andrew Marden, 35 – CFS Interiors and Flooring, account manager;

Victoria Turkich, 26 – Universal Metro, Estimation Lead

• Earned a bachelor’s degree in construction management from California Baptist University
• Has worked at Universal Metro for nearly 12 years, having started when she was in high school as an executive assistant
• Has supported tens of millions of dollars in successful bid-ding efforts
• Developed new standard operating procedures for her team, including a communal bid calendar, a project backlog data entry system and the standardization of estimation resources
• Supports business development and specification efforts and researching customized solutions with vendor partners

Erin Wyatt, 38 – Paradise Carpet One Floor and Home, director of sales ”

To read the article, honoring Victoria and other winners, see more here: https://www.floordaily.net/floorfocus/2021-emerging-leaders-young-professionals-are-making-a-big-difference-in-the-flooring-commun

It’s worth noting that in 2017, Universal Metro’s President, Grant Petruzzelli, also won this notable award.  Victoria’s win marks the second time that a Universal Metro staff member under 40 years of age has been recognized for their leadership in the flooring industry by Floor Focus Magazine.

UNIQUE INSTALLATION CHALLENGE STRATEGY

It’s rare to install carpet tile on anything other than a floor. But, when we were asked to extend an artist’s prized work beyond the canvas, onto a floor and three adjoining walls, we were embarking on a unique and challenging installation experience. In collaboration with Milliken’s team, the artist’s custom carpet tile design was drawn in a 3D model, showcasing a possible layout of the artwork and each carpet tile. Each tile was numbered to ensure proper placement in the field. The gallery where this installation would take place served as a swing space for many exhibiting artists. Each artist was required to leave the space as they found it, maintaining the integrity of drywall, paint, and floors over the month or so that their artwork was on display. One exhibit’s closure was quickly followed by another artist’s grand opening, and thus, this installation had to be stable enough for explorative touching (as art spectators examine the fuzzy texture on the walls and take selfies alongside of it) and resistant to heavy foot traffic and trip-and-fall hazards. These standards had to be met without the use of any adhesive, as the facility didn’t want to inherit residue or clean up post-exhibit on their floors, nor the replacement of any drywall and paint to follow. The primary showpiece would be installed over an interior wall framed by two inside corners, but the adjoining walls extended to the exhibit’s large open space, creating two challenging outside corners for our installation team to navigate. Due to the gallery’s restrictions, we couldn’t frame the carpet tile with traditional transitions or structural elements, as they could affect how the space was left after the exhibit ended. With no adhesive in play, we were forced to tack, staple, and pin each carpet tile to the wall, mindful of the design, levelness, and the artwork that would hang over it. On the floor, the carpet tile had to be loose laid, framed only by a reducer on one side, attached only with double-faced tape. With the concept for design in place, we collaborated with multiple parties to gain access to the space. Once the prior exhibit closed its doors, we had to coordinate carpet tile delivery amidst the crowded art district’s streets, and align schedules with the artist himself, as our installation mechanics had to bring the artist’s vision to life. Our team became the paintbrushes the artist would orchestrate to expand his masterpiece beyond its original canvas. The end result was just as the artist had envisioned it. Prior to the exhibit’s opening, the artist’s primary showpiece sold and the new art piece’s owner had one special request, “how can I get my hands on the carpet tile that accented the work of art so well?”.

For the complete write up of this Starnet Design Award submission, see https://designawards.starnetflooring.com/gallery/entry/?entry_id=1109.

Evolution of the Commercial Contractor: A panel discussion
Jun 19

By Beth Miller

Entrepreneurial commercial contractors have uncovered new opportunities to both provide additional services to existing customers and target a new set of customers. As such, the roles and skill sets of the contemporary commercial contractor continue to evolve beyond the fundamental product and installation and maintenance businesses. Discussing the evolution of the business are four leading commercial flooring contractors and Starnet members: Mike Patton, owner of DSB+, headquartered in Livermore, California; Grant Petruzzelli, president of Universal Metro, located in Santa Fe Springs, California; Jim Vanhauer, founder and president of Commercial Flooring Systems, located in Omaha, Nebraska; and Randy Weis, owner of RD Weis, headquartered in Elmsford, New York.

Q: What were your core flooring product services ten years ago?
Petruzzelli: Ten years ago, the economic market was in chaos, and while many of our projects were budgeted in the years prior, the need to value engineer projects was increasing, as owners tightened up their spending. Projects in our pipeline were being cancelled, and facilities turned their focus on the most urgent needs, bringing those smaller projects in-house. As the healthcare leader in our marketplace, much of our concentration of products was focused on the needs of hospitals at the time. As such, we predominantly installed sheet vinyl and linoleum over any other finishes. When those economic constraints hit our projects, VCT was often used as the lower priced alternative to sheet goods, and when carpet could be used, it was mostly broadloom. The focus at the time was largely financially driven, as facilities attempted to stretch whatever dollars they had rather than focus on long-term solutions.

Patton: We focused almost exclusively on the corporate tenant improvement market, providing and installing carpet and vinyl floors.

Vanhauer: Ten years ago, our core flooring products and services were carpet (predominantly carpet tile), resilient products and tile as an adjunct to the main categories.

Weis: Ten years ago, we focused on the supply and installation of carpet and resilient as well as floorcovering cleaning and maintenance. We also did some tile and grout restoration-that was pretty much our total business.

Q: What new products and services have you added in the last few years?
Petruzzelli: The availability of capital has expanded design budgets, which has allowed highly customized finishes like porcelain tile and polished concrete to emerge as popular product offerings on nearly every large-scale project. For us, it was vital to expand our abilities to service those needs and meet that demand, offering a “single source” solution to general contractors and end users. One key outcome of the recession was our effort to bring services like moisture testing, infection control and lift systems in-house. This has allowed our clients another opportunity to bundle our service offerings under one contract, rather than addressing those needs (and schedules) with additional subcontractors on the same job.

Patton: We added our maintenance business nine years ago as our first expansion of products and services. About six years ago, we added a concrete division, which levels floors, installs moisture control systems and polishes concrete.

Vanhauer: We have added a floor care division, tile and stone as a major category, floor coatings and epoxy, polished concrete, liquid linoleum and the Altro Whiterock wall system.

Weis: The new products we’ve added in the last five years are ceramic and stone supply and installation, concrete polishing, epoxy and other poured floors, stone metal and marble restoration, and we also added a sports division.

Q: What drove your diversification? What sectors are most interested in your new services?
Weis: For almost all businesses, organic growth is difficult, and we found ourselves just not organically getting the growth we wanted. The other part is that more of our customers want a bundled approach to services, meaning they don’t want somebody to just provide one thing. As an example, I’ve got a client that wants us to paint, as part of a flooring project, and while that’s not something we typically offer, we’re doing it to take care of our customers. The third thing that drove us to diversity was just higher margins. A lot of these areas, like the epoxy coating dimension and ceramic tile installation, are things that the average self-performing labor person sometimes shies away from because of its complexity. Carpet tile, for example, is really easy, many people can do that, but a much smaller group of people get into exotic coatings or stone, marble and ceramic. The sectors that are most interested in our new offerings are corporate, public space, healthcare and education.

Patton: Maintenance was added as a way to connect with end users and really get our hands around our customers, and concrete was added in response to what our customers were demanding-as well as better margins for both. Our customers want us to perform these services in house, and now we do. Our maintenance program predominantly services corporate clients, and concrete services are in demand in the corporate segment as well as retail and education.

Petruzzelli: The same facilities that were forced to use lower-cost solutions ten years ago have grown in their understanding of what risks stem from compromising on quality and what efforts can be taken to stretch their dollar. Lifecycle costs are a big part of the conversation today, as facilities want to be assured that their investment will lend itself to better performance, lower maintenance and reduced risk. Our efforts to educate our clients on the real costs of the products and services they choose has been instrumental in our ability to differentiate ourselves from the competition. Additionally, moisture control systems are finally being recognized as vital, rather than supplemental to a flooring project. The industry is progressively taking on the problem with advanced adhesives and other inherent moisture-control solutions.

Vanhauer: Two things drove that diversity. First, general contractors have encouraged us to include as many flooring segments as possible into one package. And second, we are always searching for new products and services that make us unique and hold the possibility of additional profitability.

Q: Have you added new customers as a result of this change?
Weis: We have. It’s been an avenue of differentiation for us. If we had not added these new services, our top line would be down 20% to 25%.

Petruzzelli: Our ability to provide more services in house has dramatically increased our client mix. For existing clients, we have focused on expanding the services we offer and broadening our market reach. Our ability to package finishes like ceramic, concrete polishing and epoxy under one contract has freed up our clients from chasing down these needs with other subs, while also eliminating the logistical challenges that stem from managing multiple schedules. These same clients have pursued our expertise to address moisture concerns in the corporate, hospitality and education market segments as well. Facilities have taken advantage of our ability to self-perform infection control, demo, lift installations and other services that reduce their liability and down time. Our ability to do what others can’t is the best tool we have to overcome barriers for entry.

Vanhauer: Offering floor care has opened opportunities to cross-sell between the divisions. Every P/I job we sell gets a follow-up for floor care, and we are finding that making contact early, before the job starts, is most effective. And floor care, of course, brings us into P/I jobs that we normally may not have been aware of. Being able to package all of the categories gives us an advantage over the competition. For example, we recently completed a large architectural headquarters project that was half carpet and half polished concrete. Five years ago, we wouldn’t have had that capability.

Patton: Yes, more general contractors and end users as well as corporate real estate services companies, like CBRE and JLL, who want fewer vendors and more single-source solutions.

Q: Which of your new services are the most beneficial to your top line?
Vanhauer: In approximate terms, floor care, including coatings and sealers, adds 10% to the top line; tile and stone add 15%; and the aggregate of the others an additional 5%. The impact on the bottom exceeds the top-line growth.

Patton: Maintenance has added more than $2 million, and the concrete services division has added another $6 million.

Petruzzelli: Over the past ten years, we have grown considerably. Ceramic, moisture control and concrete underlayments were the most significant extensions, increasing our top line growth by at least 30%.

Q: Where did you acquire the expertise needed to master the new services you added?
Petruzzelli: Much of our expertise is rooted in the strategic partnerships we have made with vendors and local specialists. We pushed our staff and their labor teams to pursue training in emerging technologies and used our certification standing (like that of Ardex LevelMaster Elite Installer, Henry’s SystemOne, Armstrong Level III, etc.) as differentiators in the marketplace. Additionally, we have held workshops at our offices with experts in polished concrete, ceramic tile, moisture testing, infection control and expanded service offerings to broaden the expertise of the entire team.

Vanhauer: We have been very active in taking advantage of training and certification offered to us by the manufacturers-most notably DalTile, Neverstrip and Altro-as well as tile and stone programs sponsored jointly by Starnet and National Tile Contractor Association, which was excellent with estimating and project management as its focus.

Weis: Starnet offers a lot of benchmarking between members and a lot of training. We also get that expertise from hiring experienced people who have actually done this before. So we’ve brought in some people with experience.

Patton: We searched for the best young talent available, found Delmar Vasquez and made him a partner in the new maintenance business. We were fortunate to have one of the premier senior project managers in the concrete world, Sue Juzkow, joined our sales team. Then, we had one of our partners and leaders, Si Baxley, take ownership of the effort.

Q: What was the learning curve, and what did you have to acquire to satisfy the necessary requirements?
Vanhauer: The learning curve for any specialized product is certainly steep, and you can expect an expensive lesson or two along the way. Anyone who has ever seen a punch list with the term “grout haze” knows what I’m talking about. As I mentioned before, taking advantage of any and all training is important, as well as investing in the necessary tools and machinery. For example, installing a large-format tile project is nearly impossible without having the right material handling apparatus, cutting tables, tools and training.

Patton: In maintenance, it was a slow process, beginning with carpet care, and then we expanded carefully with the support of NeverStrip, a Starnet vendor partner, into high performance coatings, which now accounts for 50% of our revenues. In our concrete services department, beginning with the World of Concrete show and now with Jon-Don as a Starnet vendor partner, the industry resources were critical to our success as well as sharing best practices with other Starnet members.

Petruzzelli: The biggest learning curve is often the time it takes for an entire team to understand the dynamics of the services now being offered. For example, as we grew our ceramic tile business, it was important that everyone involved in the project understood what materials were needed to execute an installation in the field. As such, beyond the salesman or an estimator putting together the tile bid, the coordinator who was procuring material and the warehouse team receiving and loading out material had to be equally aware of what was needed for the installer to achieve a high-quality installation-from setting materials to trim pieces.

Weis: The learning curve is different on all these new services, but I would say that, on any of our services before you really get all the bugs worked out, you’re looking at a six- to 12-month commitment to get things really nailed down and really right. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

Q: Beyond a direct sales effort, how did you promote the new service extensions to prospective customers?
Petruzzelli: Certifications are differentiators that are often promoted by our vendor partners. They want to reduce risk on their projects as much as we do, and thus, they often will refer us when they want to ensure their specifications are followed and executed at a high level. We have supported their efforts to gain market penetration through mock-up opportunities and other collaborative efforts, like CEU presentations, to help them build trust with our mutual clients. Vendors like Ardex also provide us with a unique opportunity to inspect jobsites together, allowing us to create customized solutions for the toughest installation challenges.

Vanhauer: We have engaged a marketing person tasked with producing monthly email blasts introducing our new and unique products and services and then following up with stories of successful projects. We also make sure any products that we are certified to install are noted on that manufacturer’s website.

Weis: We use social media a lot. We also do e-blasts, trade shows and lunch-and-learns with design firms for those services and products that are unique to us. Social media is the most effective, and I would rank social media as the thing that we get the biggest response on. There is not a week that goes by that we do not have an inquiry that we can follow up on that comes our way through social media.

Q: Have you exited business in the last five years?
Patton: We tried our hand at ceramic tile and stone with mixed results. We exited that business for now, but it is in our plans to add it back in the future.

Petruzzelli: While we still perform some maintenance on a project specific basis, that division of our business is largely underutilized. We still have a desire to grow that division eventually. We found that our ability to keep our maintenance team busy was impeded by our end user’s desire to self-perform many of their maintenance efforts. Additionally, as general contractors increased efforts to pursue bids through geomapping services, we promoted one of our estimators into a sales role, supporting his desire to convert these leads into new business opportunities. Despite our efforts to pursue more opportunities with lesser-known contractors, we have since chosen to disband the effort, pursuing deeper relationships with key targets.

Vanhauer: No, we have not.

Weis: We haven’t really exited a business. We did sell our Michigan operation to a fellow Starnet member. It was a location that was a bit far from our home base, and it really made more sense for us to focus on what was closer to us and a lot more core to what we do.

Q: What other changes have you made that have contributed to your success?
Patton: In 2010, we were a $10-million business, growing to $35 million by 2018. We rebranded from our founding 22 years ago as D.S. Baxley Inc. to DSB+ with a new look in 2013-from the logo to our vehicles to our website-as we established ourselves as a single-source solution here in the Bay Area. We are responding to the demands of the market.

Petruzzelli: The biggest change over the past five years was our desire to grow and our commitment to meet the demands of the market. We self-promoted key staff into leadership positions, opened an additional office to service a broader geography, added support staff to increase our capacity, partnered with labor teams interested in growing with us, and identified key vendor partners that could support our efforts to bring our expanded service offerings to existing customers and viable targets. And we brought in an experienced business developer to bolster our presence in market segments like corporate and hospitality.

Vanhauer: My son James joined the company three years ago with a background in accounting and several years in sales with one of the major commercial flooring manufacturers. James has driven most of our new categories and energized our floor care sales department. Also, we continue to grow our in-house labor force, giving us an edge in service and quality.

Weis: One of our strengths is that we have low turnover. When you have high turnover, it is really hard to get momentum and keep it going. We have focused a lot of effort on the human resource and employment development side of our business.

Copyright 2019 Floor Focus

The complexity of this project was rooted in OSHPD requirements, intricate designs, inherent moisture conditions, and phased scheduling that allowed an acute care facility to remain open and operational during nearly two years of construction.

We’re humbled and gracious for the recognition we received and the opportunity to acknowledge the outstanding work of our team. Additionally, we’re grateful for the Vendor Partnerships that helped us execute this work and the design executed by c|a Architects of Long Beach, CA.

PROJECT STRATEGY

A new Cath Lab Suite at Placentia-Linda Hospital is part of a comprehensive plan and ongoing investment to continue its legacy and mission. c|a ARCHITECTS reworked an existing admin area to create a spacious, family-friendly waiting area, an efficient Cath Lab with two holding/PACU beds, four additional PACU beds in an adjacent space, and updated staff spaces. The new suite offers a warm finish palette that reinforces the hospital’s existing interior standards. In the reception and waiting area, cool tones and soothing, nature inspired patterns and textures add energy and visual interest with a nourishment bar and variety of seating options to support the comfort and needs of waiting family members. The design team collaborated with the hospital and GE Healthcare for the extensive planning of the Cath Lab. Versatile storage on the perimeter with adjustable peg boards for catheters create an efficient workspace within the new lab.

UNIQUE INSTALLATION CHALLENGE STRATEGY

Working in occupied hospitals is challenging on its face, but in the state of California, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development has created an even higher (and costlier) threshold for execution, maintaining some of the highest building and safety standards in the world. The complexity of this OSHPD project was made even more unique, based on intricate designs and a nearly two-year construction schedule that would require maintenance of singular dye-lots over at least six phases. If that wasn’t enough, our past experience at this facility required us to consider the complexity of their inherent moisture issues – those requiring customized solutions and unique skillsets. Pre-construction required our team to engage ARDEX’s Technicians and their Technical Service Division to ensure we could customize a moisture control solution adequate enough to address high RH levels, seismic cracks, wide cold joints, and a long-term warranty requirement. With ARDEX’s help, we created a customized specification, complete with shot blasting, two applications of ARDEX MC Rapid (both with sand broadcasts), and self leveling with ARDEX K10 at a depth of 1/4″. Based on our certification as an ARDEX LevelMaster Elite Installer, we were able to extend the warranty an additional 5 years beyond the standard limited warranty. From the start, the end user made it clear the need to prioritize patient care. Egress concerns forced the need for tight workspaces, creating a more intense need to maintain high standards of infection control. With negative air containments in place, complete with HEPA filters, our crews navigated small work environments on one side of the plastic, while procedures were conducted on the other side. Designs were cut in with the foresight to envision where that same design would need to be finished when the other containment was lifted and a new phase commenced. With multiple trades vying for the same space, our project managers had to be proactive, ensuring our crews had enough time to execute both a moisture control system as well as a resilient finish needs in each of the six planned phases. What we couldn’t plan for was the three slab leaks experienced by the end user during construction. Worst yet, all three came after we performed our installation. After reinstalling the moisture control system over newly poured concrete trenches, our team jumped through hoops to identify how overage and attic stock from those previously installed areas could be stretched to alleviate unsightly patching. Our ability to do so was a testament to our team’s product management abilities.

For the complete write up of this award winning submission, see https://designawards.starnetflooring.com/gallery/entry/?entry_id=1040.

“From an intricate design of lizards and leaves in the elevator lobby to warm and residential-feeling luxury vinyl tile in the patient rooms, the Children’s Hospital of Orange County project was a real standout,” said Design Award Judge, Paul Lewandowski. “We’re glad to see it recognized by its peers.”

The 20th Annual Starnet® Design Awards were recently held in sunny Orlando, Florida. One of the most respected and influential commercial flooring design competitions in America, the awards ceremony is a major part of our organization’s spring meeting.

“This year’s winning projects are a testament to the power of collaboration and partnership in the floorcovering industry,” said Jeanne Matson, president and CEO of Starnet Worldwide Commercial Flooring Partnership. “The true value of Starnet is not only the finished work, but new and strengthened relationships that are driving our industry forward from a design and installation perspective.”

This is the second Gold Award that Universal Metro has received in the People’s Choice category (previously winning the same award in 2014), and the only category voted on by the flooring industry’s best floor covering dealers from the Starnet Commercial Flooring Partnership. “While it’s humbling to win a design award in any category,” said Grant Petruzzelli, President of Universal Metro, “it takes on a special meaning when your team’s commitment to excellence is validated by the vote of your peers.”

The project was also recognized as the Silver Award winner in the Healthcare market segment.

Excerpts taken from: http://www.starnetflooring.com/commercial-flooring-news/2018-design-awards/

We at Universal Metro are especially proud of our very own Director of Sales and Marketing, Grant Petruzzelli, who was among the eight Starnet members honored with this notable award.

The following Press Release was published at: http://www.starnetflooring.com/commercial-flooring-news/8-starnet-members-honored-floor-focus-future-leaders/

“Chattanooga, TN, January 24, 2017 — Floor Focus is pleased to announce the winners of its 2017 Young Professional Award, which, this year, focused on the retailer/contractor segment.

The award honors professionals, under the age of 40, who have proven themselves to be true leaders and help drive the industry forward.

Candidates must be nominated, and this year’s winners were announced at a cocktail event at Surfaces.

Judges for the 2017 competition were Ralph Boe, president of ArrowStar and past president of Beaulieu Group, and Paul Friederichsen, flooring industry marketing consultant, creative director and marketing strategist.

This year’s winners are as follows:

Justin Atcheson, president of Builders Floor Covering and Tile;

Steavie Cain, managing principal of Quality Service Floor Covering;

David DeGol Jr., division manager of DeGol Carpet;

Michelle Gibson, store manager of Lima Carpet Corporation;

Katie Krause, senior interior designer at H.J. Martin and Son;

Garrett Ulfig of Mastercraft Flooring;

Sage Parrish of Quality Floor Coverings;

Grant Petruzzelli, Director of Sales and Marketing at Universal Metro;

Jared Satler, owner of Dick’s Carpet One & Auburn Carpet One; and

David Webb, store manager at Dalton Carpet One. ”

http://www.floordaily.net/floorfocus/winners-of-2017-young-professional-award-announced

It’s never an easy decision to begin scaling your business for growth. When balancing the risks of new opportunities with the uncertainty of a stagnant national economy, the decision for any business owner to invest in growth is rooted in one key question: is this sustainable?

By understanding our journey and our purpose, we at Universal Metro believe we can do so effectively, without compromising our service and value, by answering the call of our clients to serve as trusted advisors for all of their flooring covering needs.

Building Leaders

I never planned to get into the commercial flooring business. In college, I worked for the Southwestern Company, a book publisher who recruited college-aged students to sell its books door-to-door. For five summers, I learned the art of selling first-hand; knocking on doors and pitching children’s books, cook books and study guides to homeowners across the U.S.

The owners of Southwestern purchased the Metro Companies in 1989 from brothers Scott Hillis and Steve Hillis, who is now president of Beaulieu, and decided to have four branches in order to create job opportunities for those graduating students who were most successful in their summer book-selling program. Rooted in the company vision at Southwestern is the value to “build people” and this was evident in its new business venture. “Building leaders” our spin on this same idea, remains a core value of ours today.

When I graduated from college in 1990, I joined Universal Metro knowing nothing about flooring, but confident that I could utilize my selling skills. This, along with the desire to someday run a business, led me to succeed in an entirely new trade. With one week of technical training and another in the field with our installation crews, I was charged with developing the healthcare division for the company on the West Coast.

During my first year, I began traveling up and down the coast of California, learning the business and the various products best suited for the clients I was tasked with developing. With that training and the brash confidence of youth, I was on my way with one Southwestern theme in mind: “always be closing!”

Healthcare as the Foundation

Fortunately for me, healthcare became the foundation of the Universal Metro business.

With the success Southwestern was enjoying in the flooring industry, the company decided to further develop three additional offices in healthcare rich markets: Nashville, Dallas and Florida. Each office operated autonomously with independent management teams. For years, Universal Metro’s model in Southern California remained focused solely on the end-user, servicing all floor covering needs for each hospital from a single source. Whether it was the facilities department or environmental services, each decision-maker within the hospital became familiar with our service offering.

While it was hard to argue with that success, there were two primary risk factors in Universal Metro’s sustained growth. For one, even though we were known as “the healthcare leader” throughout Southern California, it’s never a good idea to have too many eggs in one basket. Secondly, Universal Metro had always focused solely on the end-user and as many of our clients used our services to budget for larger projects, we often lost the opportunity to pull those projects through as the work was extended to general contractors, offering more than just floor covering.

In the late 90s, I saw that change in the Southern California market and in 1998, with three other partners and a renewed vision for Universal Metro’s future, I purchased the California branch.

A Renewed Vision for Sustainable Growth

We focused right away on leveraging our experience in healthcare, focusing on the general contractors who serviced the facilities already familiar with our work. In many ways, the transition was seamless. We still focused on the end users and their smaller, in house projects, but now had leverage to sell our services to those working in adjacent spaces.

Through our association with these new partners, we were able to expand our business offerings as well, working on both new constructions as well as renovation projects. Our experiences taught us the range of skills necessary to succeed—from substrate remediation to moisture mitigation, correct material selection to estimation accuracy. Working with general contractors forced us to be even more service-oriented, delivering strong on-site management and technical skill to the installation process in our effort to ensure schedules were met on time and on budget.

Healthcare is technically challenging, and a large job includes many aspects of commercial floor covering. With our exposure to a new clientele mix, those general contractors we partnered with soon began extending opportunities to work in other markets. Our reach was extended into corporate offices, retail spaces, schools, hospitality, automotive and other commercial spaces.

We learned to manage multi-faceted projects and to control expenses to return good profits on our jobs. For example, in working closely with the general contracting community, we have learned how to properly budget for a project and how to manage the detailed aspects of each project to avoid surprises at the conclusion of a job. These experiences have taught us how to properly plan the project, how to ensure that the materials are effectively measured and what cost advantages are available with the proper control and management to always ensure a proper installation.

Stay Lean or Scale for Growth

Like most flooring contractors, the recession hit us hard and the pain suffered eight years ago still lingers. Team members that were once vital to our business operation were no longer cost-effective without the workflow to support them. Many of our clients that we worked with for years could no longer pay their bills. Unfortunately, I was faced with several tough staffing decisions, reducing our team by more than 20 people, most of whom I considered friends and extensions of my family.

In the wake of the recession, and largely out of necessity, we restructured Universal Metro to be as lean as possible, cross-training our team on various systems to ensure that we could do more with less. As the economy began to right itself, this lean and mean model served us well, allowing us to be both selective in the work we pursued and profitable with lower overhead.

As more and more jobs began hitting the streets again, so did the requests for proposals. Projects that sat dormant for several years were once again going out to bid. Our services were back in demand and we soon found ourselves in a dynamic position: should we remain a lean and comfortably profitable firm, or scale our growth based on the renewed activity and demand in the marketplace? We chose to do both.

With all signs pointing toward a rebounding economy, we knew we had to grow, but under control. We began hiring again; focusing on leaders that could support a team, while running projects from “soup to nuts.” Our account managers, or salespeople, specify the material, manage the planning phase (e.g. estimating, costing, procurement and quality control) and oversee the installation of each project. While many of these functions were once supplemented with the likes of project managers, superintendents, estimators, etc., this lean and hands-on approach allowed our account managers to recapture market share, with the hands-on attentiveness our clients desired and the sustained, controlled growth we hoped to achieve.

We are very blessed with a strong staff of nine individuals who fill our account manager roles, and that team includes Grant Petruzzelli, who is also our director of sales and marketing, and me as president and CEO. Grant joined Universal Metro three years ago, just as we knew it was time to scale again. A product of three generations of floor covering professionals, Grant brought with him extensive experience in flooring, operations, and management, and added fire power in our pursuit to develop new business, leverage partnerships, strategically plan and scale to the healthcare market demands.

Today, we are focused on identifying new growth opportunities for the business. While healthcare remains the largest segment in our business, we are actively calling on education, government and corporate accounts, independent of our general contractor partners. Our philosophy is to target commercial installation projects and partner with key strategic manufacturer partners, where multiple campuses are in play, thus allowing a single client to become an annuity stream for future business. As we become more aligned with our clients and our mill partners, we can become more aggressive in our growth, knowing we are their trusted advisor for more service offerings under one roof: a true single source solution.

For example, where we may have excluded different flooring types (e.g. ceramic tile) and outsourced work in the past, we now know that our clients are willing to pay for value in order to have one firm handle their complete project. As a result, we are now very committed to offer everything in flooring and the size of our projects and the revenue affiliated with those projects has increased.

Strategic Partnerships and Training

Over the years, we’ve realized that our greatest asset to our vendor partners is not only the abaility to be an additional sale force in the marketplace for their products, but to install them without risk of claims, substandard workmanship, or jobsite failures. To train our teams on the needs of our expanding business base, we have relied heavily on the training programs offered by our vendor community. Our installers are primarily subcontractors, but in partnership with them, we have been willing to fund their training in order to provide uncompromising service to our clients.

These training and certification programs allow every level of our staff to elevate their standard of knowledge, exposing our team to emerging trends and allowing Universal Metro to capitalize on the opportunities that help strengthen our bottom line.

As an example, an important focus for Universal Metro is underlayments and toppings. We work closely with Ardex and their Ardex Academy to ensure that every installer, account manager and staff member is certified in their product offerings—a sign of our commitment to the Ardex Level Master Elite partnership.

Tapping into the Benefits of Starnet Commercial Flooring

Universal Metro joined Starnet in 2002 and was, in fact, the 100th member! The benefits accrued from this association have been many. First, Starnet has greatly augmented the training program of our company. Starnet University, which is offered online, highlights vendor product information and features bi-monthly webinar series, also focused on vendor products and best practices. With that resource, our staff has ready access to pertinent information on current and new product offerings. Also, through attendance at the Starnet meetings, both the Annual and Fall Membership events, we have been able to attend interesting workshops and general sessions which support leadership training and technical knowledge. Finally, the friendships and associations gained through Starnet are numerous. I have made connections with some of the brightest and most successful commercial flooring contractors in North America, and I can call these contacts at any point to share knowledge and develop best practices.

With our employees, we always emphasize the products from the Starnet Preferred Vendor network, and in collaboration with our strategic partners, we overstock those product samples in order to provide a service to the local vendor representatives. We welcome them to use our library as their library when needed for client presentations.

Challenges for the Future

Right now, we are enjoying a great year of business. We have grown substantially over the past 12 months, largely due to several big projects which morphed into additional work with the same client. Fortunately, we have been able to handle this growth with limited additional overhead and we anticipate continuing this pattern over the next 12 months.

As we continue to grow, we are committing ourselves to overstaffing by 20% to provide our staff members with the support and extra bandwidth they need to capture more market share. Additionally, in order to ensure that we have the proper controls long-term, we are implementing an improved flow-through management system, which also has accounting functionality.

In addition, both Grant and I are eager to evolve our roles from direct, hands-on selling and project management into more strategic positions with an eye on the future. By this time next year, it’s important that we are both working more “on the business” rather than “in the business.” We are confident that our efforts to do so that will benefit our staff, strategic vendor partners and clients.

At Universal Metro, we are excited about the future. We feel that our company is blessed and our team is prepared to meet the demands and overcome the barriers in our pursuit of growing a sustainable business.

As seen in the January 2017 article in Floor Trends Magazine:
https://www.floortrendsmag.com/articles/100795-universal-metro-growth-and-success-by-meeting-clients-needs

In fact, it was Triepke’s approach toward Universal Metro’s employees that was instrumental in his purchase of the business in 1998. The firm, which was founded by the Hillis brothers in the early 1980s, was sold to Southwestern Publishing in 1988. Triepke worked for the firm from 1990 until 1996, when he left to briefly work for a competitor. He returned two years later with a business plan and a couple of investors, and made an offer to buy Universal Metro.

Although his offer was not the highest, the decision was made to sell the business to him because everyone at the company knew him and valued his competence and character, and also because he planned to keep most of the staff. “The other offers to purchase Universal Metro were focused around the attainment of current accounts or a few salespeople,” Triepke says. “I was going to try to keep as many employees as possible and that was important to Southwestern.”

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL HIRING
Finding and hiring good employees is a challenge, but through experience Triepke has successfully honed his process. When he first started, if he had a position to fill, he would reach out to various industry professionals and friends to ask if they could recommend a prospective employee. Often, he was given the name of someone who was either not working or unhappy in their current position, instead of someone who wanted to learn and grow with an ever-changing industry. Now, Triepke seeks educated people with a great attitude who are open to learning new things. “I’m not looking for an industry expert when I hire a new person,” he says. “I’m looking for an educated person who is teachable with a positive mental attitude.”

He also lives by the “ABR” principle—Always Be Recruiting. When going about his daily life, if he notices a stand-out person or employee, he takes the opportunity to plant the seed about working for Universal Metro.

About three years ago, Triepke started working with Amtec, a staffing firm, to help him recruit and hire new employees. Amtec screens potential employees in the areas of personality, history and integrity. One simple screening test, which requires the potential employee to call in at a certain time, answers one of the main questions employers want to know before they hire someone: Is this person going to do what they say they are going to do?

Finding great employees can be difficult; keeping them is crucial. To meet the personal and emotional needs of the company’s staff, Universal Metro has a chaplain available for confidential counsel. Triepke says, “I think our employees are healthier and more balanced because we have Pastor Jim, a person who is always available to comfort and coach our employees on any matter personal or professional.”

Pastor Jim is available 24/7 for employees and contractors. Triepke believes that there are many life problems people face that require a good listening ear or even some sound advice. In addition to the corporate chaplain, Triepke himself tries to be a support to his employees. He states, “I try to keep my phone calls short and my door open. I want my staff to come to me at any time with questions or concerns.”

CAPITAL AND PAYMENTS
To run a commercial flooring business, proper capitalization is essential. The capital for products and labor is typically paid upfront by the flooring contractor, and payment from the end user or general contractor is not received until 45 to 60 days after the completion of a job. To minimize losses, Triepke has an employee actively calling on receivables. He also works closely with banks to make sure loans are properly structured.

Another key is doing the best possible job of prescreening projects to make sure they are “safe” projects. In other words, the project has to be evaluated to ensure it’s worth the time and effort, and that also means making sure that the end user or general contractor has the money to pay for the project when it is completed.

Triepke comments, “It definitely helps to know the general contractor. Also, as is the case with many hospital projects, I’m already familiar with the end user.” It is a big advantage that, with 30 years in the business, Universal Metro has become an expert in the healthcare flooring segment, with over 50 hospitals or hospital chains as clients.

ON PARTNERSHIPS
In 2003, Universal Metro joined Starnet, the commercial flooring partnership. For Triepke, Starnet offers camaraderie, collaboration and teamwork. He says, “Starnet brings together the best manufacturers in the country and combines that with the best floorcovering contractors in the country to benefit the end user.”

Universal Metro, whose salespeople call on both general contractors and end users, has recently begun to jointly market its services with Ardex Corporation, the subfloor preparation and concrete restoration company. Universal Metro and Ardex share customers by presenting together on projects and offering services for each other to clients. Triepke comments, “This just makes sense because both services are needed on many projects, so we work together to get the business for both of our companies.” The two companies even offer dual logo promotional items to emphasize their complementary efforts.

Copyright 2014 Floor Focus