SteelMaster Honored as 2012 Roaring 20

For the second year in a row, SteelMaster Buildings has been honored as one of the fastest growing companies in Hampton Roads through the Roaring 20 Award. The Roaring 20 awards program (presented by Inside Business and Cherry, Bekaert & Holland LLP) recognizes local companies who have not only grown in terms of revenue, but have also shown signs of determination, perseverance and fortitude.

Read SteelMaster’s story below or click here to see the complete list of winners.

SteelMaster Building Systems
Founded 1982
Business type Steel building kit distributor
Based Virginia Beach
Website www.SteelMasterUSA.com
Revenue 6 percent increase in 2009; 30 percent increase in 2010; 22 percent increase in 2011

Rhae Adams started SteelMaster in 1982 while driving back and forth to the Outer Banks. Adams, an avid surfer, sold building kits out of the back of his truck.

Today the company has more than 50 employees and 40,000 building projects internationally.

SteelMaster specializes in steel building kits for the residential and commercial markets. It had around 15 employees when Karen Willis, chief financial officer, started at the company 20 years ago.

A change came about five years ago when the founding owner, Adams, fell ill with cancer. Donald Patterson came to the company from the media company now known as Landmark Media Enterprises, along with Willis and four others.

"The company had a rebirth," Willis said. "It was the change of the leadership team five years ago that was the point of taking the company in new directions."

According to Willis, the company has had double-digit revenue increases each year for the past five years.
Willis said, "In these tough economic times when a lot of companies are trying to rein in spending and put protective cocoons around themselves to survive the downturn, we have been fortunate and creative with our strategies."

In 2006 SteelMaster went international. It hired an international marketing specialist to build a distributor network and now distributes to 50 countries.

This year William Swafford, a senior design specialist at SteelMaster, received the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Associate certification.

Swafford has designed two LEED-certified buildings, the World Resource Co. in Taiwan and the city’s animal shelter in Austin, Texas.

A house in The Hamptons on Long Island with SteelMaster’s iconic arc-shaped roof was an innovative project for the company. The buyers purchased the house for $2.2 million for the building, $1.25 million for the property.

Currently, the company is working on a visitors center at the historic Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Ala.
SteelMaster was also the winner of the Small Business Administration’s export video contest award in 2011. The video promoted the advantages of exporting and government assistance available for small businesses.
Raw material cost is the biggest challenge for the company. Prices have risen for steel, fuel and freight during the past decade.

"[We are] trying to be nimble and creative so that we can still serve our customers’ needs in a cost-effective manner," Willis said.
SteelMaster takes pride in producing the best-quality product possible in tough economic conditions.
"We use only the top-quality materials and we have not had any deviation from that," she said.
- Megan Stamper