Steel fabricator expands to South Portland
Photo/Rebecca Goldfine
Bryon Tait, founder of Casco Bay Steel Structures, stands in the company's new South Portland facility
In 1997, Bryon Tait founded Casco Bay Steel Structures in South Portland to make steel for road and railroad bridges. The company had just two employees, including himself, and in its first year made half a million dollars.
That success has followed Tait ever since, through a relocation to Saco and now through his most recent expansion. This spring, Casco Bay Steel moved into an empty 95,000-square-foot facility at 1 Wallace Ave. in South Portland and hired 30 welders and fitters. The company had a ribbon-cutting ceremony July 25, inviting Gov. Paul LePage and local city officials. The company is also retaining its 55,000-square-foot Saco location, where it has 40 employees, Tait says.
Casco Bay Steel Structures is on track to earn $27 million this year, according to Tait, and the company will buy the South Portland building rather than lease it.
The South Portland plant will enable the steel-fabricating company to handle multiple jobs at once and go after bigger projects. The company's reach extends to bridges throughout New England and New York.
"New England and the Eastern Seaboard are the oldest part of the country, where the bridges are the oldest, so they need to be replaced," Tait explains.
Lately, growing interest in building high-speed rail in this region has helped the company land more railroad projects, he adds.
To gain work, Casco Bay Steel Structures bids on public bridge projects, competing with just a handful of large steel companies nationwide, Tait says. He credits his success to "putting out a good product in a timely manner, which is what a contractor wants." His company builds the steel parts in-house and trucks them to bridge-building sites.
Tait has worked in the steel bridge industry since he was 19. His wife, Wendy, a former nurse, joined the company in 1998 as vice president.
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