Company Profile
Company Overview
The Irex organization consists of a parent service corporation, an insurance company, and an affiliated group of specialty contracting companies operating throughout the United States and Canada. The specialty contracting companies have various specialties including the installation and maintenance of mechanical insulation, sheet metal lagging, architectural finishes, passive fire protection, energy assessments and the removal and abatement of asbestos, lead-containing materials, mold and other hazardous materials. An expanding number of the other services are also provided where complementary to these core businesses. Acting as a prime contractor or a subcontractor, Irex’s contracting companies provide new construction and maintenance services to commercial, industrial, marine and insurance markets. Contracts include all types of office, residential and institutional buildings, manufacturing facilities, power plants, process plants and other heavy industrial installations.
Each Irex contracting company is dedicated to being the preeminent specialty contracting organization in the markets it serves. This will be achieved through teamwork at all levels of the organization and performance based on continuous improvement of all business processes, including estimating, sales, safety and contract execution. The employees of Irex and its subsidiaries are committed to building long-term relationships and they bring exceptional value to their customers through creativity and innovation.
Company History
Irex Company History
The history of the Irex Contracting Group can be traced to the early years of the twentieth century when the Armstrong Cork Company started installing its cork insulation products in cold storage facilities. During the 1920's and 1930's, Armstrong built this operation into a national insulation contracting business through the acquisition of a number of local insulation contracting companies. In the process, Armstrong extended its range of contracting capabilities to include medium and high temperature insulation products for commercial and industrial applications.
Armstrong’s contracting business survived the Depression and contributed substantially to the World War II effort, but in the late 1940’s and 1950’s, its profit results were disappointing. To address this problem, in 1958, Armstrong created a new wholly-owned subsidiary called Armstrong Contracting and Supply Corporation. The primary purpose of this new Armstrong subsidiary was to separate the insulation contracting operations from the rest of Armstrong's business so that the contracting operations could operate as an independent contracting company. This action proved successful, and the principles of increased specialization, decentralization, and local management empowerment became ingrained in the company's culture.
In the late 1960s, Armstrong re-evaluated its strategic direction and decided to divest itself of certain businesses that did not fit within its "interior world" concept. Included among those businesses was Armstrong Contracting and Supply Corporation. Fortunately, Armstrong very much wanted its subsidiary’s employees to leave on good terms, so it accepted a proposal whereby Armstrong Contracting and Supply Corporation would change its name to ACandS, Inc. and be sold to its employees in a leveraged buy-out transaction.
Independence from Armstrong
Irex Corporation (then known as North Lime Corporation) was formed in 1969 for the purpose of bringing about this transaction. With monies raised from a stock sale to 31 individuals, the majority of whom were ACandS managers and directors, Irex acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of ACandS from Armstrong on July 31, 1969. Then, in 1970, Irex offered all salaried employees the opportunity to purchase shares in the new company in a stock offering registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The organization’s history during the decade of the 1970s was almost exclusively the history of ACandS, Inc. and its Canadian counterpart, ACandS Contracting Ltd. (An early acquisition of a modular house-building and vacation home company called Spacemakers was the major exception to this, but Spacemakers was not successful and ultimately was downsized and sold.) Those companies worked hard during this period to establish themselves as successful, independent contractors and to reduce the large debt that Irex incurred when it purchased them. Some notable jobs during this period included the Sears Tower in Chicago, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Disney World, and Three Mile Island. By the end of the decade, Irex proved its success by having a run of highly profitable years and paid off its purchase debt in its entirety.
The Irex Contracting Group
The modern era for Irex began in the early 1980s when management began to look for ways to diversify the organization's business and to achieve the organization’s full potential. Irex became a parent service corporation for ACandS and several new operating subsidiaries specializing in other areas of specialty contracting and building materials distribution. Spacecon LLC was established as an interior finish contractor specializing in metal stud, drywall, and acoustical ceilings work in the Delaware, Maryland, and DC areas. The formation of Spacecon LLC and two other contracting companies established around that same time, Centin Corporation (“Centin”) and Commercial Interior Builders, Inc. (“CIB”), marked the first step in the evolution of the organization into the Irex Contracting Group (“ICG”). (Centin and CIB had some initial successes but were ultimately closed in order to enable the ICG to concentrate its efforts in other areas.) Specialty Products and Insulation Co. (“SPI”) was established as one of the nation’s first pure insulation materials distributors, and that company grew substantially over the years. In 1998 it was spun-off as an independent company. SPI is now a leading distributor of mechanical insulation and acoustical ceilings with over 70 office locations throughout the U.S. and Canada.
In the mid-1980’s, Irex established an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, which was later combined with the company’s Savings Incentive (401k) Plan. Additionally, in late 1992, Irex engaged in a stock recapitalization, the primary purpose of which was to enable common shareholders seeking current income the opportunity to exchange a portion of their common stock for preferred stock with a fixed dividend yield and redemption rights. The effect was a substantial increase in the percentage of common stock owned by current employees, thus providing them with an ownership opportunity similar to the one made available to the previous generation of employees through the 1969 and 1970 transactions.
Notable jobs during this period included the Berwick and Limerick nuclear power facilities, the Russian and Canadian Embassies in Washington, DC, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino, the Portland, Jacksonville and Baltimore stadiums, and the Husky Upgrader in Edmonton.
In 1998, the ICG expanded through the acquisition of Island Insulation Services, Inc., a successful independent insulation contractor serving the New York metropolitan area, and through the establishment of Pyro-Stop LLC. Based in Philadelphia, Pyro-Stop specializes in passive fire protection and expansion joint services, performed independently or in joint ventures with other ICG companies.
In June, 2000, a newly formed Irex subsidiary, Atlantic Contracting & Specialties, LLC, acquired selected assets from ACandS and one of its former competitors in New England. Atlantic provides insulation contracting and abatement services throughout New England and New York. Effective in 2009, Island Insulation became a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlantic.
In 2001, the company’s Canadian subsidiary was renamed Altair Contracting Ltd. and five new ICG companies commenced business operations with the purchase of certain inventories, equipment,
contracts, and leases from ACandS, Inc. These companies were Argus Contracting LLC based in Long Beach, CA; Cornerstone Services Group LLC based in Kansas City, MO; New States Contracting LLC based in Linden, NJ; Advanced Specialty Contractors LLC based in Aston, PA; and Summit Contracting LLC based in Salt Lake City, UT. The formation of these separate companies enabled Irex to establish the ICG Employee Ownership Program which allows key employees to hold a minority ownership interest in their subsidiary companies. It also enabled ACandS to convert its contracting business to cash and to devote its full management attention and resources to the issues surrounding asbestos litigation and related insurance matters, a problem that had grown out of ACandS’s installation and sale of asbestos containing materials prior to 1974.
Thereafter, Summit established a new interior contracting subsidiary named Spacecon West; Advanced acquired selected assets of a former West Virginia competitor to form a new office in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and also started offices in Columbus, Indianapolis and Grand Rapids; Atlantic established a new office in Hartford, Connecticut; Spacecon LLC added an office in Georgetown, Delaware; and Spacecon West added an office in Phoenix. In early 2005, Advanced established a division called Advanced Nuclear for the purpose of further developing the company’s nuclear power plant maintenance business as well as positioning the ICG for an expected resurgence in new nuclear power plant construction in future years.
Effective January 1, 2006, a new Irex subsidiary named Spacecon Specialty Contractors, LLC, (“SSC”) acquired selected assets from a leading Colorado interior contractor and opened offices in Denver and Colorado Springs. This added over 400 salaried and field construction service professionals to the Irex Contracting Group.
Achieving Full Potential
In 2008, ICG acquired assets from a former competitor in New Jersey and established Advanced Insulation Services LLC, while SSC added a new fire stop and building insulation subsidiary named Spacecon Solutions LLC. Altair completed the largest job in the history of the ICG organization at an oil sands facility in Alberta. And, significantly, ACandS completed a bankruptcy reorganization that, among other things, resulted in Irex and all of its affiliates receiving permanent injunctive protection against any future legal actions growing out of ACandS operations.
The resolution of the ACandS bankruptcy cleared the way for Irex to elect Subchapter S status, which it did on January 1, 2009. Shortly thereafter, in order to provide further decentralization, specialization and employee opportunity under the ICG Employee Ownership Program, Advanced Energy Services LLC and Advanced Industrial Services LLC were formed out of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes Areas of Advanced Specialty Contracting LLC, respectively.
Each Irex subsidiary has now become a fully functioning and increasingly specialized member of the ICG family. In total, Irex and its 16 operating subsidiaries employ over 1,450 men and women working out of 35 office locations throughout the United States and Canada. The Irex contracting organization has become one of the 50 largest specialty contracting organizations in the United States and is a recognized leader in its fields, committed on a daily basis to providing respect and opportunity for its employees, and exceptional services for its customers.