Sundance Mechanical grows as it goes

EDITED BY JOHN MESENBRINK,

chief editor

Albuquerque, New Mexico is a city of extremes. Its population has grown rapidly over the years. Sun bakes the inhabitants like adobe clay several months of the year. Rain is in short supply. It’s not uncommon for winter temperatures to drop from daytime highs over 80°F to less than 20°F at night. And like its tough, resilient population, plumbing and mechanical contracting firms have to be strong, well managed and growth-oriented to survive.

Sundance Mechanical & Utility Corporation is one of those leading firms -- tough to the core and well managed by a hardy executive team. Sundance Mechanical & Utility was founded in 1979 by Mike Mechenbier. The company has an average of 145 employees throughout the year. As its name implies, it has two divisions.  

The Mechanical Group limits its work to plumbing and HVAC in new commercial buildings. The Utility Group concentrates mainly on municipal projects and subdivision development. Sundance specializes in water line, sewer line and storm sewer installations. They also do concrete curb and gutter and asphalt paving. Sundance is more comprehensive than many firms in the breadth of their service offering. “We’re a total mechanical company,” said Mechenbier. “From plumbing and hvac to asphalt and the concrete curb, and everything in between. A general contractor can call us for comprehensive support.”

The Mechanical Group is divided between the plumbing and HVAC sections. The Utility Group is used as follows:

• Excavation, pipe laying and backfill 
• Concrete work
• Grading and paving
• Shop and service support
• Office employees

Success is in its people

“Our greatest point of uniqueness is our people; it’s that simple,” said Mechenbier. “Not wanting to sound trite, but we’ve found it to be true: you’re only as successful as the people you surround yourself with. We have a great bunch of people here. The entire company -- each individual person -- has contributed to our success.” 

Carlos Spiess, utility division construction manager who has been with Sundance for 26 years, shares pipe inventory numbers with a jobsite supervisor.

To illustrate the extent of Mechenbier’s conviction that people make the company, he pointed out the fact that a large number of employees have been with the company for many years. “Most of the managers here have grown up with the company. It’s our culture, and it’s what our people . . . become. It becomes a part of each of us. It’s rather hard to explain, but it’s who we are. Take, for instance, Augy Padilla and Bob Roberts. Both are top-notch plumbing professionals, and they’ve each been with the company for most of their professional careers. And Mike Gonzalez, now the vice president in charge of all plumbing and hvac services, was one of the first employees. He started as an apprentice; then a journeyman. And now he’s a part owner of the firm.

“There are others, too,” added Mechenbier. “Some of the older employees, for instance, simply haven’t left. We have a woman here who retired 10 years ago. She’s still here part-time. And there’s Ed Burroughs; he was once the utility estimator and project manager -- jobs he could not do part-time. So today he’s our safety director, and doing a superb job of it. He’s having fun, enjoys work at a reduced pace and still contributes valuably to the company. These long-time employees, among many others, have found a life here at Sundance. They contribute substantially to our success.”

When new employees learn that there are so many long-timers at Sundance -- and get a sense of the stability of the company and the assurance of a place to work, grow and learn, and to be rewarded properly for their contributions -- they want to stay. They want to share in the success and lifestyle of the company. “We work hard. We give it the very best that we can. We demand a lot of others, and ourselves . . . but the end result is that we are valued by our customers, and many of them have also been with us for a long time. That’s how it comes full circle, back to the roots of who we are,” said Mechenbier.

Quality and loyalty in products

Sundance has been installing Bradford White equipment, for example, for many years. “We find the equipment extremely well built and reliable. Some of the commercial systems have operational efficiencies at the screaming high end of what’s available today,” said Bob Roberts, field supervisor. “We use their water heaters wherever and whenever we can.”

Safety is goal #1

“We have a team-building concept that we have put in place to link us more firmly with builders and GCs. One of the key components is how we take care of mistakes. We’re very attentive to our errors, and we’ve developed a formula that has been very successful at reducing the number of times mistakes are made because, on job sites, mistakes are often preventable. And, after all, they can be costly, and can cause delays,” said Mechenbier.

Sundance takes its safety seriously, so much in fact, that it gives its utility crews a financial incentive to work safely. The company deducts 10 cents per hour from the paychecks of the utility crews, which is set aside in a special fund that is used to pay damage claims. At the end of the year, the company doubles whatever money is left in the fund, deducts $1,000 (to start the damage fund for the next year) and disburses the rest to employees.

“The fund has paid one claim in the last four years,” said Ed Burroughs, the company’s safety coordinator. “It ends up being a $500 check that the employees receive in January.”

Cogs in the Sundance wheel

Sundance is comprised of progressive thinkers. Key managers include:

• Mike Mechenbier, president
• W.A. ”Bill” Graff, controller, corporate secretary
•  Barney Gallegos, purchasing
• Mark Cavasos, equipment superintendent
• Ed Burroughs, safety coordinator

Mechanical Group

• Michael D. Gonzales, vice president
• Keith Ray, estimator -- sheet metal
• Jeff Steen, estimator -- plumbing
• Pete Martinez, general superintendent -- sheet metal
• Gene Toensing, project superintendent -- sheet metal         
• Augie Padilla, project superintendent -- plumbing

Utility Group

• Carlos Spiess, division manager -- estimator
• Charles Alcorta, estimator -- construction manager
• Barbara Peek-Kilian, contract administrator
• Joe Alcon, superintendent -- paving
• Augie Diaz, superintendent -- utilities
• Celso Gutierrez, superintendent -- utilities
• Mike Madrid, superintendent -- grading
• Bobby Martinez, superintendent -- concrete
• Armando Marquez, superintendent -- utilities.

Prominent landowner

Incidentally, Mechenbier is also the eighth largest landowner in the state, with 135,000 acres of land in Cibola, Socorro and Valencia Counties. Mechenbier is a second-generation New Mexican rancher. His dad, Jerry, had a ranch near Estancia in Torrance County. But Jerry’s ill health forced its sale in 1977. Mechenbier, who grew up on the ranch, tried pig farming, but an epidemic killed a bunch of the swine. At that point, in 1979, he moved to Albuquerque to start Sundance Mechanical & Utility Contractors, an industrial builder. The company was successful, providing Mike the wherewithal to keep ranching in the family. So when a rancher friend started having financial problems in the mid-1980s, Mechenbier started buying.

His property, west of the Huning Ranch, itself west of Los Lunas, consists of three adjoining spreads: Four Daughters Ranch, Dockery-Collins Ranch and Pie Ranch. Why Four Daughters? “It’s because,” said Mechenbier, “we have four daughters -- Jessica, Abby, Katie and Emily.”