Fueling the Success Engine: Customer Focus Drives Saybr Contractors

Karen Say recently won national awards from the Associated Builders and Contractors for work on a pilot biofuel project in Seattle,  and for outstanding business    practices from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

By Cecilia Matta and Lucy Bodilly

When Karen Say, president and CEO of Saybr Contractors Inc., launched her company from the shell of Omega Environmental in 1997, she took several calculated risks, trusting her industry knowledge and business prospects.

She had never run a construction company, but had worked her way from receptionist to estimator to Seattle branch manager, for Omega’s petroleum division. “I knew every part and piece that went into fuel systems and how every department worked,” Say says. When Omega closed its doors, Say and two of the company superintendents decided they should team together and start a new business.

 “We had a whole list of customers who said ‘Yes – we’ll work with you,’” Say adds. “Almost all our resources came from these previous relationships.”

About 50% of the company’s workload remains in the petroleum industry. That work and the successful relationships from it often lead to small building projects for the same customers. Saybr also carries “indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts with seven federal agencies.

Saybr and Say have tooled those relationships well, growing annual revenues from $2.3 million that first year (1997) to $16 million in 2006 revenue. She predicts revenues in the $20 million range for 2007. Part of the reason for the increase is the boom in fuel stations at grocery stores.  “It’s a loss leader,” Say says. “The stores figure that if people are out in front buying gas, they’ll shop for groceries at the same time.”

“That gives us a steady workflow if the other work slows down,” Say adds.

Its biggest project at the moment is working as the owners representative for the largest biofuel plant in the nation, located in Aberdeen, Wash.  J.H Kelly, Longview, is the general contractor.

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“The SBA award exposure has been tremendous and positive,” Say says. “It brings credibility to our whole team at Saybr.”

In 2004, Saybr Contractors built Washington State’s first commercial-scale biodiesel refinery, a 5-million-gallon annual capacity facility for Seattle Biodiesel LLC.

Saybr currently serves as project manager for Imperium Renewables’ (Seattle Biodiesel’s parent company) newest plant, in Grays Harbor, in southwest Washington. With 100 million gallon capacity per year, this plant, now in the commissioning process, will be the nation’s largest. “We have the perfect storm right now for developing alternative fuels,” Say says. “They’re good for the economy, creating jobs and revenue from construction and on-going refinery operations, and in some Northwest locations, alternative fuels are now cheaper than gasoline.

“For environmental benefits, alternative fuels like biodiesel produce fewer greenhouse gases, come from renewable feed-stock/oil sources, plus they give us independence from foreign oil.”

Saybr’s recommendation, in 2004, that Seattle Biodiesel build its Seattle plant bigger than the draft plan, to accommodate future demand, was prescient, given how petroleum prices have skyrocketed. Seattle Biodiesel is currently the largest producer of biodiesel on the West Coast.

Say says that in the future, Saybr hopes to mentor the next generation of leaders from its talented team. COO Mike Muller, Say’s former boss at Omega, leads Saybr’s day-to-day operations, allowing Say to concentrate on strategy and marketing.

“None of the managers here are micromanagers,” Say says. “Mike taught me that.”

Saybr hires and advances highly self-motivated people who can operate at high levels of intensity and who possess the “ability to fit into our unstructured structure,” she adds. 

For Say personally, the future holds a challenging new role as incoming chair of the Associated Builder’s & Contractors of Washington. She says she is eager to use her term to promote construction careers, to encourage women, minorities and the next generation to enter the field.

“I love this industry and I am passionate about what I do,” she says. “There are so many kinds of jobs, from accountants to project managers to craftspeople. I want to tell people, ‘Think of my story – consider construction, it’s a great career.’”