SteelMaster Buildings was recently honored as one of Hampton Road’s Roaring 20. The award recognizes the region’s fastest growing companies that are making significant contributions to our local economy. Read the full write up from Inside Business below…
SteelMaster Buildings
Founded 1982
Business type Manufacturer of arched steel buildings
Based Virginia Beach
Website www.SteelMasterUSA.com
Revenue 5 percent increase in 2008, 6 percent increase in 2009, 30 percent increase in 2010
Employees Numbers not released to public
Whether it’s a luxury home in the Hamptons or a bulk-food warehouse in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, SteelMaster Buildings has sheltered its customers since 1982, and it continues to grow in the U.S. and abroad.
Founder Rhae Adams styled his products after the “Quonset huts” designed for the Navy during World War II.
SteelMaster’s distinctive metal buildings – with their arched structures and corrugated steel exteriors – have been used as garages, carports, airplane hangars, warehouses, government facilities, farm storage buildings, even an animal shelter in Austin, Texas.
Today SteelMaster is forging commercial opportunities overseas. The company hired a full-time international business manager in 2006.
The following year, SteelMaster enrolled in the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s VALET class, a highly selective, two-year exporting program.
International sales – in Taiwan, South Korea, Malta, Angola and other areas – now make up 20 percent of business, compared with less than 5 percent in 2006.
“It was the exception rather than the rule,” Vice President Rob Poellnitz said of SteelMaster’s prior exporting efforts. “About five years ago, we made that a focal part of our business.”
Poellnitz is one of three vice presidents that run SteelMaster’s corporate office in Virginia Beach.
The company’s management ranks have endured upheaval and tragedy in the last decade.
Adams is no longer active in the business, according to Michelle Wickum, marketing director. In the mid-2000s, he passed CEO duties to retired Landmark Communications executive Donald “Pat” Patterson, who guided the ailing company into a new era of promise. Patterson died in 2008.
He laid the foundation, however, for current growth, including a focus on new U.S. clients.
Poellnitz, along with vice presidents Anthony Bueno and Karen Willis, are expanding SteelMaster’s residential and “green” business.
This year, two of the company’s custom-designed homes appeared in The Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News.
It also completed its first two buildings certified as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design projects.
“SteelMaster Buildings,” Poellnitz said, “is poised for continued growth.”
- Teresa Talerico
SteelMaster Buildings
Founded 1982
Business type Manufacturer of arched steel buildings
Based Virginia Beach
Website www.SteelMasterUSA.com
Revenue 5 percent increase in 2008, 6 percent increase in 2009, 30 percent increase in 2010
Employees Numbers not released to public
Whether it’s a luxury home in the Hamptons or a bulk-food warehouse in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, SteelMaster Buildings has sheltered its customers since 1982, and it continues to grow in the U.S. and abroad.
Founder Rhae Adams styled his products after the “Quonset huts” designed for the Navy during World War II.
SteelMaster’s distinctive metal buildings – with their arched structures and corrugated steel exteriors – have been used as garages, carports, airplane hangars, warehouses, government facilities, farm storage buildings, even an animal shelter in Austin, Texas.
Today SteelMaster is forging commercial opportunities overseas. The company hired a full-time international business manager in 2006.
The following year, SteelMaster enrolled in the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s VALET class, a highly selective, two-year exporting program.
International sales – in Taiwan, South Korea, Malta, Angola and other areas – now make up 20 percent of business, compared with less than 5 percent in 2006.
“It was the exception rather than the rule,” Vice President Rob Poellnitz said of SteelMaster’s prior exporting efforts. “About five years ago, we made that a focal part of our business.”
Poellnitz is one of three vice presidents that run SteelMaster’s corporate office in Virginia Beach.
The company’s management ranks have endured upheaval and tragedy in the last decade.
Adams is no longer active in the business, according to Michelle Wickum, marketing director. In the mid-2000s, he passed CEO duties to retired Landmark Communications executive Donald “Pat” Patterson, who guided the ailing company into a new era of promise. Patterson died in 2008.
He laid the foundation, however, for current growth, including a focus on new U.S. clients.
Poellnitz, along with vice presidents Anthony Bueno and Karen Willis, are expanding SteelMaster’s residential and “green” business.
This year, two of the company’s custom-designed homes appeared in The Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News.
It also completed its first two buildings certified as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design projects.
“SteelMaster Buildings,” Poellnitz said, “is poised for continued growth.”
- Teresa Talerico
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