After being named Michigan Contractor of the Year by the American Subcontractors Association of Michigan for the fourth time, Ada-based Dan Vos Construction attributes its years of success and growth to its employees and the trustworthy relationships it builds with its clients.<\/p>\n
Daniel R. Vos started Dan Vos Construction in 1951. His grandson and current president, Dan Vos, started working for the company when he was 14 years old. \u201cMy dad simply asked me one summer if I wanted to make some money,\u201d he said. Vos already had some experience building things for fun. He said he was always building tree forts and doing other tasks that allowed him to work with his hands. At his grandfather\u2019s construction company, Vos\u2019 first \u201creal\u201d project was building a house for his sister who was getting married the same year. He said every summer after that, every Christmas break and every day off from school, he was working. Vos studied construction management at Ferris State University before working full time at Dan Vos Construction in 1995. He started working in the field with carpentry, steel erection and other general trade skills. He also ran a few jobs as a foreman. \u201cThen they dragged me into the office,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t really want to go into the office, but there was an opportunity to be an estimator.\u201d Vos said his transition from fieldwork to office work was one of the better changes for him because it helped him prepare for future leadership positions. He was an estimator for two years, or \u201ceight months too long,\u201d by his standards. \u201cI guess I was a little too ADD for it,\u201d he said. He then moved into project management, which he said was probably his favorite position because of the \u201cvariety\u201d it offered. Managing different projects gave him the chance to learn about different people\u2019s businesses. His company works primarily with food grade manufacturers, such as ice cream, noodles and turkey processing plants, as well as some industrial clients. \u201cYou learn about each one of those businesses and how they operate,\u201d Vos said. \u201cYou take a live turkey in this door and it comes frozen out that door, and you have an active role in that from point A to point B.\u201d Five years ago, he assumed the role of president and CEO of the company from his father, Gary Vos, who was CEO, and Gordon DeYoung, who was president at the time. Under Vos, the company has experienced steady growth in revenue. In the past, the company generated around $50 million to $60 million annually and retained about 60 employees, which Vos said was the trend for a long time before he took over.<\/p>\n
Under his grandfather, the company earned about $10 million to $20 million. \u201cMy dad had more of a teamwork attitude than my grandpa did,\u201d Vos said. \u201cWe grew quite a bit when my dad took over.\u201d The company is slated to earn over $80 million in project revenue by the end of 2017, which Vos said follows a trend of steady growth from the past five years. The same trend applies to employment. The company now has 94 full-time employees and recently added another project manager, civil engineer, several field workers and steel erectors. The company also has its own design department, which Vos said is unique for a general contractor. Their area of operation spans West Michigan as far north as Big Rapids, as far south as Kalamazoo and west into the Lakeshore area. \u201cFor the area that we have, for our demographic, I think it\u2019s a pretty good market share. I\u2019m pretty pleased with it,\u201d Vos said. A few years ago, the company tossed around the idea of expanding its area of operations out of state, into Indiana and Ohio, where companies were looking for design\/build jobs totaling $5 million to $8 million. The company chose to turn them down because it didn\u2019t have the resources to manage a project from that distance. \u201cOur guys don\u2019t like to travel. We don\u2019t like our guys to travel. I\u2019d rather have them home with their families at night, so we\u2019re pretty happy where we\u2019re at,\u201d Vos said. Dan Vos Construction received the MCOY for the fourth time under Vos\u2019 leadership.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Vos attributes the success of his company to the quality of his employees. \u201cWe don\u2019t really try to win every year,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not one of our strategic plans to win the MCOY every year. It more or less just happens.\u201d The ASAM awards the MCOY to contractors based on bid ethics, safety, job site supervision, communication administrative procedures and several other criteria to encourage the best practices in the industry. At the 2017-18 MCOY Awards, Vos told the Business Journal that ASAM has \u201craised the bar\u201d for his industry as a whole. \u201cSuccess for me is a happy employee,\u201d Vos said. \u201cRegardless of how much money we\u2019re making \u2026 I want our people to be happy. \u2026 If they\u2019re happy at home, they\u2019re happy here, and that produces a better product.\u201d Vos estimates about 96 percent of his company\u2019s work is repeat business with previous clients. For the future, Vos said, he\u2019s not trying to make any drastic changes in how the company operates. What\u2019s important to him is staying rooted in the same Christian ethics and the foundation on which his company was founded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3716,"template":"","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n