Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/222066
like FATHER, like SON continued "I'll be right back …" Patrick Martin's office preserved in time The Disney project was one such case of the company's diversity fueling word-of-mouth recognition and, ultimately, more jobs. According to Joel Johnson, H.J. Martin's vice president in the drywall division, when one part of the company does well, it opens the door for other departments to follow suit. "Even if one division gets a portion of (the job), we've got a piece of the pie. We know it's all a team; the entire company depends on us to do a good job," Johnson says. In addition to doing a good job, however, Edward also says staying on top of opportunities is key to the company's success. Case in point? In the mid-1980s, Edward was Christmas shopping at Best Buy when he heard that a competitor was planning to do the work on 20 new Best Buy stores. After doing some research and pitch work, "We got all 20 stores," he says, adding that H.J. Martin has just finished more than 1,000 stores for the electronics giant. A Making its Name in Challenging Times s it happens, the company's biggest expansions were in difficult times, dating back to his grandfather starting a business fresh on the heels of the Depression. But that stick-to-itiveness certainly has served the Adjacent to Edward and David Martin's office, on the second floor of the H.J. Martin and Son's Military Avenue headquarters, lies one small quiet unattended office. In 1995, then-owner Patrick Martin left the office with a wave and one short comment: "I'll be right back." Unfortunately, he died soon after he left the office. Inside, the office is frozen in time. Out of respect for the second-generation owner, the office remains unchanged. A chair sits askew. Papers are scattered on the desk, along with an unopened Christmas present. A taxidermy pheasant stands alert on a table near a locked gun cabinet. Patrick, who joined his father Henry John's business in 1948, is far from forgotten here. A first lieutenant in the Army Air Corps in World War II, he flew 44 combat missions. The highly-decorated officer received 15 air medals, including the Presidential Unit Citation, a Purple Heart and two Distinguished Flying Cross medals. million annually, roughly the same as its glass division. New revenue sources were also essential when the recession hit in 2008. "Everything stopped," recalls Edward. Fourteen jobs scheduled for Menards were pulled instantly, understandably creating some panic in the ranks. "It was very tough," recalls Edward. "It was like a bright light was coming at you. … It was like a light on a freight train and you were in the tunnel. "We very rarely say 'no' and we always find a way. I think that's why people stay." – David Martin company well, including when Edward joined the company in 1978. At the time, the company was making $1.9 million annually in sales. "I knew we had to find new revenue sources," Edward says, recalling the company's entry into the drywall business as one such example. In the 1980s, Edward was buying some equipment from a local drywall company that was going out of business. Al Gabriel, then with the defunct company and now an H.J. Martin employee, asked Edward if he'd like to go into the business together – a move that Edward's father, Patrick, disapproved of, but one that Edward chose to gamble on. "You have to go forward," he says. "Drywall projects led to the takeoff of the fixture division," Johnson says, and when Gabriel came on board, H.J. Martin expanded its work with Shopko. From that modest start, the drywall division has grown to sales of $15 million to $20 24 | Insight • D e c e m b e r 2 013 "We had to reinvent ourselves," he says. "We never wanted to risk another division's success." And, perhaps David Martin echoes their executive sentiment best: "We don't feel right sitting up here if we don't have work." That led the company to do more corporate remodels, for example. "Everybody was more competitive just to stay in business," says Johnson, who notes, however, that the slowdown did have some positive impact on the company overall. "It really tempered everybody," he believes. "We were growing at such a rapid pace. We almost needed to slow down a bit to retool ourselves." One thing the company didn't want to do, however, was lose its highly trained staff. "We couldn't cut the muscle out of the company," Edward says. In fact, he credits those skilled craftsmen with getting H.J. Martin through that tough time. When some of the w w w. i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m