In the current Southeast construction market, many different project sectors are offering contractors a healthy amount of business opportunities. And one of the most prominent among those is the health-care sector. For that reason, it makes sense that Birmingham, Ala.-based Robins & Morton, a long-time major player in the national health-care construction market, would be among the Southeast firms showing strong business growth. Two years ago, in 2017 for instance, the contractor reported a 26% annual increase in Southeast revenue, for a $837.2 million.

For this year’s Southeast Top Contractors survey, Robins & Morton reported another a solid increase, of nearly 10%, to log nearly $920 million in 2018 revenue from the Southeast region. That’s just one factor in ENR Southeast’s selection of Robins & Morton as this year’s Southeast Contractor of the Year, however.

For example, when we ask firms participating in our Top List surveys if they’d like to be considered as a “Firm of the Year,” we look to hear about some of the “other” factors that helped in the company’s success, such as initiatives undertaken to improve the business, or industry recognition.

Here, Robins & Morton noted that in 2018 it created a craft mentorship program, which is a 15-month classroom and hands-on training course designed for craft-level employees who wish to move into a management role. The contractor noted, “Each trainee is paired with a Robins & Morton manager to serve as their mentor. After completing five three-day classroom training sessions, 40 on-the-job tasks, 15 mentor/trainee experiences and passing six mentorship checkpoints and completing a final exam, trainees earn a promotion into a foreman or assistant superintendent role. The inaugural class of eight graduated in August 2018.”

ENR Southeast will provide more information about our selection of Robins & Morton as its 2019 Contractor of the Year in our upcoming June print edition.