Landry/French Construction finds success despite starting during a downturn
Photo / Tim Greenway
Denis Landry, left, and Kevin French, co-owners of Landry/French Construction Co., at the construction site of Seaport Lofts in Portland. In the past three years, their company's revenues have grown 118%.
Launching a construction company in an economic downturn might not seem like good timing. But for Kevin French, who teamed up with former competitor Denis Landry to start Landry/French Construction Co. in 2010, it was exactly the right time to come out of the semi-retirement imposed by a non-compete clause he'd signed in 2006 when he sold his share of the Ledgewood Construction Co.
“Everyone thought we were crazy to start a company in bad times,” French recalls. “'Why would you start now?' they asked. Denis and I replied, 'There's no better time to start. We can come up to speed in the bad times, get a solid foundation in place and then, when it becomes good times again, we're set to go.'”
And go they went, even out of the starting gate. Early clients included Bangor Savings Bank, cPort Credit Union and Franklin Memorial Hospital. Many of those early jobs were interior renovations or small additions. To French, who admits he was bored and restless during his four-year retirement, it was all good.
“I had that 'fire in the belly' feeling,” he says. “When we first started out, I told Denis 'I'm going to look for million-dollar jobs.' It spread the word quickly that I was back and that Denis and I were going to do great things together.”
He readily acknowledges their new company benefited from the well-established reputations both of them had built for themselves in Maine's commercial construction industry over the previous 25 years — with Landry's resume including a 10-year stint managing Payton Construction Corp.'s office in Maine prior to starting his own company, and French's including five years as vice president and half owner of Ledgewood Construction and an earlier stint doing marketing for Pizzagalli Construction Co. (now PC Construction), based in Burlington, Vt.
After a modest start, Landry/French's trajectory has really taken off the past three years — with 2014 sales of $40.51 million being more than double its 2013 sales. The Scarborough-based company increased its staffing this year by 40% — it now has 28 full-time employees — to keep pace with its growing portfolio of construction jobs.
Current jobs include building a solar-powered 7,200-square-foot Bangor Savings Bank building on Portland's Marginal Way that's scheduled to be completed next June and the Seaport Lofts on Newbury Street on Munjoy Hill.
With $40 million of jobs already booked for 2016, French says the company's sales next year could very well end up being in the range of $55 million to $60 million.
“Denis and I have kept it simple and stayed our course,” French says. “We do what we say we'll do and we treat everyone the way we would want to be treated. We make a point of hiring the right people, people who are high achievers, who are motivated and driven to do their best at everything they do … The success of our company isn't because of Denis and me. It's the people we have right now working for us. They're the ones who are bringing it across the finish line.”
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