DURHAM — Going the extra mile to underscore the importance of quality helps create a customer for life, says the president and CEO of Hutter Construction in New Ipswich.
Lars Traffie told audience members last week at a joint meeting of the Center for Family Enterprise and CEO Forum about a time his father, Al, brought homemade farmer’s bread to a meeting with an important client.
As everyone was settling in, Al Traffie offered those in attendance some of the freshly made bread, along with packaged bread.
Everyone chose the homemade farmer’s bread. That was his father’s point, Lars Traffie told fellow business leaders Thursday.
Even though packaged bread from a store looks nice, it isn’t the same as something made with tender loving care, he said.
Even with more than 1,000 construction projects under their belt and clients that include Walmart, Holiday Inn, Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, Mount Washington Resort as well as numerous hospitals and municipalities, Traffie said it is important to have a connection with others.
“Be attentive to people’s needs. If you’re going to get them to their desired destination you have to be attentive to what their needs are,” said Traffie, the oldest of 10 children.
Because of the relationships the company builds with clients, Hutter Construction has had more than 120 repeat customers, he said.
Since the company’s start in 1973, when first-year gross earnings were $150,000, it has grown to 140 employees with sales in excess of $124 million, Traffie said. Hutter Construction has expanded beyond New Hampshire, with projects in Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
Traffie wrapped up by talking about the importance of looking at a company’s structure to help build a successful future. He credited a strong board of directors and quality legal staff with helping Hutter Construction through various challenges.
One example was when a truck driver tried to sue the company three years after the Gilford Walmart project was finished, saying he was injured on the site. Traffie’s legal team was able to pinpoint exactly what was happening that day.
“We fortunately had good daily reporting records,” Traffie said.
After his talk, Traffie fielded a question from the audience about recruiting employees.
He said in 2008, 46 percent of the construction labor force was laid off. Forty percent of those people went into another profession.
Finding skilled laborers is a major challenge for everyone in the industry right now, he said.
The next CEO Forum at the University of New Hampshire is scheduled for Dec. 6, when Heather Lavoie of Geneia will be speaking.
