Growth and Getting Back to Normal!
Español | Translation Sponsored by TCA
First, it is an honor of a lifetime to serve as the 2021 TCA president!
Let me introduce myself: My name is Barclay Gebel. I grew up on a farm in Hillsboro, Missouri, and after graduating from Hillsboro High School in 1988, I when straight to work as a union apprentice carpenter at Clayco Construction. My father, John, worked at Clayco as a project superintendent and opened the door for my career in construction. In 1988, Clayco built their very first tilt-up panel and I was one of the several carpenters on that job. Little did I know at the time that the tilt-up panel I was working on would end up being my career!
In the early 1990s, I traveled around the country for Clayco Tilt-Up as a union carpenter superintendent. Those years of traveling and actually working in the field with dirt under my fingernails forming, pouring, and erecting tilt-up panels was the best “college” education for my career.
Today, I serve as vice president of tilt-up and precast services for Concrete Strategies, LLC. Concrete Strategies is based out of St. Louis and is a subsidiary of Clayco. In 2020, Concrete Strategies earned $277 million in revenue and was ranked sixteenth in Engineering News Record’s Top Concrete Contractors List.
The tilt-up industry is on fire with growth and opportunity right now and, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Concrete Strategies has experienced great growth in the industrial distribution market. Projected revenues for 2021 are around $400 million.
With all this growth in our industry and the availability of the COVID-19 vaccines, the TCA is making a big push to safely get back to “normal.” In 2020, the TCA held a successful virtual convention and although it was well attended, there is nothing like meeting face-to-face with the members and leaders in the tilt-up industry who are all working toward one common goal: to make the tilt-up industry the best possible. This year, in 2021, Concrete Strategies will be hosting the 2021 TCA convention, and we are looking for forward to a safe and in-person “SHOW ME” convention!
