Champion Specialty Service’s low-key corporate headquarters is a good example of the cliché of “don’t judge a book by its cover.” Drive by it as you are about to cross the Florida East Coast Railway tracks on Southwest 22nd St. in Fort Lauderdale and it seems like just another concrete block building found in industrial areas throughout the city.
What’s inside, though, is a company whose revenue is running over $200 million a year and with roughly 1,200 employees at any given time. Moreover, there’s a vibrant corporate culture that offers great lessons on how to operate and grow a business while treating employees well.
You may not know Champion, or confuse it with the sportswear retailer, but it’s likely you benefit from its work every day. About half of its business is installing specialized coatings (paint, corrosion control, fireproofing, flooring and marine industry). Those workers painting the soaring overpasses at I-595 and I-95? That’s Champion. It also worked on CB Smith Water Park, iThink Financial Amphitheater, cranes at PortMiami, Rybovich Shipyards, Seminole Hard Rock Stadium and FPL’s tanks and pipes at Port Everglades.
Flip a light switch on and the power may come from an FPL generating plant that Champion helps maintain, whether it’s gas, wind or nuclear power. Brush your teeth and the water may have come from a water treatment plant that it helps maintain. Flush the toilet and Champion may have a role in maintaining the sewer plant.
“I don’t think there’s another organization that matches our service offerings and our industry diversity,” says Kyle Hough, chief operations officer, who purchased the company in 2012 with Champion CEO Carlos M. Hernandez. It was started in 2006 by Raul Llopis, who is a close friend to Hernandez and Hough.
A common thread among the trio is their interest in martial arts, which explains the company name. Llopis is a highly accomplished fighter, including being a three-time WKF World Muay Thai Champion.
Accelerating growth
Hough was ready to leave a previous employer and do things his own way when he joined Llopis, which led to a business transformation.
“They would paint houses. They would do small jobs, and Raul was very happy with that,” Hough says. “Well, that’s not my M.O. I came in and right away we’re on I-595 blasting and painting bridges. We’re painting the new ballpark that they were building in Miami for the Marlins.”
The company ran into some financial constraints, which led to its purchase by Hough and his friend, CEO Carlos M. Hernandez, a former Marine with a background in law enforcement who owned a specialty coatings business.
Hough’s wife, Tracey, and brother, Duane, already had the business rolling down the tracks, but it really took off when Hernandez came aboard, Hough says.
Total revenue is close to $300 million since 2010.
They bought Llopis out, but he still has a contracting business that works with Champion on some projects and isn’t a stranger at Champion’s HQ.
Duane is a combat-decorated Marine and led the company into Department of Defense business, such as fuel storage and tank restoration globally.
The brothers practiced Okinawan karate when they were younger and moved into more mixed martial arts later on. “I always enjoyed punching and kicking people,” Hough quips. For many years, a gym near the office was open to disadvantaged youths.
Setting the culture
The fighting sports culture played a key role in forming Champion’s corporate culture.
“There’s an inherent respect for the people who have achieved,” Hough says, “and you can visually see that achievement. I’ve taught all the kids that you can’t demand respect. You can only temporarily command respect. The only way to keep it is to earn it.”
You can do a lot of studying on martial arts strategy, “but there’s nothing like spending time in a ring and learning that lesson in the ring, because when you don’t learn it, you pay for it and you feel it. It’s immediate,” he says. “Oh, you make a mistake — ‘I should have done this.’ So, I take that with me in business as well.”
Martial arts teaches you the patience it takes to be in business, he says. “There’s times where being an entrepreneur, you get your butt kicked from the time you wake up in the morning to the time you go to sleep. And then, guess what? You can’t go to sleep because your mind won’t stop working. And it’s easy for someone to say, ‘This is too much. This is why most businesses fail.”
Martial arts also teach humility, which is important because many business failures are related to ego, he says.
The foundation of Champion’s workplace culture acknowledges that people often spend more time at work than they do with their own family. “Why should you spend more time at work under a stressful situation and be unhappy when we can just not do certain things and do other things to create a place in which you can feel achievement, you can feel a sense of community and you can walk around here and feel free to talk to anyone you want,” Hough says. Once a month, he fires up the grill and has a cookout for everyone to celebrate that month’s birthdays. The company also brings together 350 people from all over the country for a three-day leadership meeting, which is not a cheap undertaking.
“The point is to bring everyone together to remind each other that we’re humans first,” he says. Sure, it’s a competitive world and there’s a job to do, but “one of the things I always hate is when people say, ‘It’s just business.’ … Because most times people use that term after they’ve done something terrible … right after they’ve done something everyone knows is wrong.”
Unions and safety
Another interesting aspect about Champion is its unionized workforce, which means employees have health care and a pathway to retirement. There are members of just about every building trade union, including painters, electricians, pipefitters, boiler makers and iron workers.
Union labor is often in short supply, so Champion finds recruits and then brings them to the unions so they can participate in apprenticeship programs, Hough says.
Safety is also a major concern since the work Champion does is extremely dangerous. Before he joined Champion, Hough was working in Philadelphia when a piece of high-pressure equipment broke and knocked him 30 feet into a wastewater treatment tank, smashing the back of his head. He was evacuated in a helicopter. His wife knew he often worked hundreds of feet in the air and thought she was coming to identify his body as she came to the hospital.
Fortunately, he wasn’t permanently injured, even though he had staples in his head and soft tissue damage along his back. No wonder then that Hough thinks a lot about families when it comes to safety. The metrics are good, too. On a scale used by insurance companies, anything below a one is good and Champion is 0.42.
“Most of our competitors struggle maintaining something below a one,” he notes.
That’s something when a chunk of your workforce has the gritty complexities of decommissioning nuclear power plants in New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York state. A big part of its business is also related to handling asbestos, lead and mercury.
Hough, who shared many great philosophical and management points during the interview offers some final thoughts at the end.
“Remember humanity and remember that as you run your business or you’re part of a business that you can create change. Have the gumption to do it and don’t be scared — do it! If it’s for the betterment, it starts with us. If we rely on larger institutions or government or other folks for change, they’re going to change us to their benefit. But, if we want to change to our benefit, we have to start with us. We can’t just take the status quo and roll with it.”
That’s the Champion way.
