63 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 10 JOHNSON & SONS PAVING valued customers is also of top priority for Johnson & Sons. “We like to get to know our customers and what their needs are,” Johnson notes, “because it’s a relationship between us and our customers.” He adds that municipal paving projects are typically awarded to companies that are the lowest bidders; entities that probably don’t have a vested interest in the communities they are serving. However, Johnson & Sons takes a much more personal approach, as Johnson points out, getting to know its customers and what they like and what they need, thus resulting in a more individualized outcome, unique to a given customer. Driveways may see one or two vehicles a day, whereas roadways may see hundreds or even hundreds of thousands on a daily basis, including heavy truck traffic. “That makes a difference,” Johnson observes, adding of his company’s thorough knowledge of its customers’ needs, “We then design a pavement around those needs.” Paving the way to a successful future Johnson & Sons Paving has grown exponentially since Johnson started the company in January of 2014. Back then, at first, he was the lone employee. Within the first year, the company had 15 employees. Today, with its concrete and paving operations combined, Johnson & Sons has about 120 employees. “Our mission has changed a lot,” Johnson reveals, citing multiple crews for preparation work, paving, concrete, striping, and other efforts. “As we’ve grown, the mission has changed.” Two years ago, he adds, the company created its own asphalt plant so that it could make use of its own material. This allows Johnson & Sons to have full control over the materials going into its customers’ parking lots, driveways, and roadways. Over the next few years, as Johnson speculates, the paving industry will continue to change and evolve. “We are involved in oil,” he notes. “We are involved in fossil fuels.” That part of things won’t change, he adds. Yet there are efforts to include new plastics, polymers, and other such products into the manufacture of asphalt in order to make it last
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