Marlborough Fire Sprinkler Company Emerges From Market Shakeout
For Platinum Fire Protection, success has come from a healthy mix of experience and circumstance.
“A number of things have attributed to our growth,” business development manager Tiffany Pevear said.
The Marlborough-based company, which designs, makes and installs fire sprinkler systems, was incorporated in December 2010 by Robert Pereira and Frank Mattos. Not exactly the most opportune time for a construction-centered business, as building had slumped to a “standstill” in early 2011, Pevear noted, with many fire sprinkler system companies downsizing or shuttering altogether, competition becoming cutthroat and the industry ultimately turning fragmented and weak, she said.
However, Platinum was able to capitalize on that, recruiting several seasoned employees from a large regional sprinkler contractor that closed in mid-2011. Although just starting out, its core team was quickly comprised of workers that each boasted 25-plus years of experience.
Pereira himself has 15 years of experience working with fire sprinkler systems, over time developing a “tremendous amount of industry knowledge, experience, and contacts,” Pevear said. Mattos, meanwhile, is a seasoned business owner and entrepreneur, having been involved most notably with Servpro, a national fire and water cleanup and restoration franchise.
“The foundation of core talent was in place and a new team began to grow rapidly,” Pevear explained. “The company started out pretty strong.”
Around that time, many states adopted the more stringent International Building Code, thus increasing the amount and scope of fire sprinkler systems in various settings, and ultimately increasing demand. And soon enough, many projects that had been stopped mid-process due to lack of financing began to move forward once more.
Growth More Than Threefold
Thus, Platinum began to grow rapidly. Its revenues swelled more than 300 percent in just one year, from $2.3 million in 2011 to $9.3 million in 2012. Employee growth has been just as steady, increasing from 65 last year to 84 now.
“No. 1, they did it right in that they have a good group of upper management people in place who have been doing this for a number of years,” said Ken Barber, a fire protection salesman with Warwick, R.I.-based Cranston Windustrial, a Platinum supplier. “They are a startup, but they're not. The experience factor is key. The people there have been doing this for a long time, probably most of their adult lives. “Platinum is also multi-faceted in its approach. It does installations in both the commercial and residential sectors, and in both new construction and retrofits or modifications. Work ranges from single-family homes; to apartment complexes comprised of hundreds of units; to office renovations or setups; to retail (anything from a pharmacy to a large department store).
The full-service company has a team of in-house designers, as well as a 20,000-square-foot fabrication/welding facility, stock warehouse and fleet of delivery trucks equipped with forklifts. It also does warehouse distribution, and offers complete testing, maintenance, and 24-hour emergency services for all types of fire protection systems.
The adoption of the more stringent International Building Code has fueled more work; now, the number of sprinklers required for a given project is an intricate process based on size, occupancy, what materials are used in construction, and what it houses or stores, Pevear explained.
“It upped the volume of sprinkler heads where they had previously not been installed,” she said.
The Most Important Mission: Saving Lives
And, while there is some backlash to the code because it ultimately increases upfront costs, Barber, who himself has been in the industry for 40 years, noted, “How do you put a price on losing a four-month-old child? Or your grandmother? There's no price great enough to cover that loss.”
So ultimately, Platinum is in the business of saving lives, and expects its robust growth to continue.
Going forward, the goal is to branch out regionally — over the past six months, the company has begun to secure numerous projects in Connecticut, and intends to continue doing so — as well as increase projects in the more specialized residential sector.
“Platinum will continue to grow organically, through acquisitions, as well as (by) expanding our footprint in the Northeast,” Pevear said.
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