Ron Cornejo - Nashville Business Journal:

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I think Wichita is definitely feeling the downturnj inthe economy, but I don’t think we feel it near as bad as the rest of the I’ve seen people come into our marketr looking for work and finding work, and sayingy that it’s not near as bad here as wheree they came from. So I don’t think Wichita has felt the bruntrof it. Are your companiees impacted by the layoffs at theaircraft plants? It’sd twofold. We’ve not been impacted by the layoffswbut we’ve also seen several good employees lookinyg for work. The market out thered for employees isvery good. The best way to explain it ...
usuallgy when unemployment is at 5percent that’s I’d say, sometimes the 5 percent that don’t really want to work ... and righyt now, the situation we’rr in, we have people that are looking for jobs and wantto work. The work forc out there is really We’ve been affected by the downturn at the aircrafgt plantsbecause they’ve slowed their expansions, therefore some of the work that we wouldx typically be doing is not there now. So we have been affecte by the downturn in theaircraftf industry. Are you in a hiring mode We’ve not laid off anyone.
Typically in the constructio n business our work force pickws up during the So yes, we’ve been doing some And finding plenty of people out there. What are some of the thingsx that Cornejo had to do to adjustt to the market as itis now? We did do some When I say cutbacks ...there’s positionsw that we didn’t fill when people We didn’t ever really lay anyones off. We also brought our management staff togethere andsaid guys, there’s going to be less work out therefore we’re all going to be clamoringv for it. Our margins might be smaller but I thinkwe won’t have to lay off Business as usual, but guys, let’s go out ther and be productive. ...
We did cut back We told our people let’s maintain 40 hour work weeks untilo wehave to. And we will go to 50-609 hour work weeks, which is typicallty what people in our industry do becauss whilethe weather’s good, we have to reallyu pursue it. Has your job changes over the past year? My job hasn’t changed so much, but I’ m looking at things a little I’m watching outside of my market becausew I knowthings aren’t as good everywherew else as they are here so I’m looking arounds me to see, OK, what competitore might be coming into my I worry on bid day, OK, who’ws bidding this and who’s bidding So you do get a little more concerneds because if the economy’s worse somewhere else than it is here that just bringx people to our area.
So our guard’s up, we’re watching. We’red bidding a little tougher, we’red doing business different. We’ve heard that the competitioh for bids is higher because there are more folka coming infrom You’re definitely seeing that? We’re seeing that even withijn our own market. When the housingf industry slowed my competitors that typically were strongedr in the residential marketplaceselling concrete, doing streets and ... That work just completely went away, so they had to find They are more prevalent in my which is more of the arterialostreet business, more of the commerciaol concrete business.
And now they’re vying for the same dollarsd that I usedto get. So we did get a littlew leaner, a little meaner to be competitive. What kind of a messagew do you send out to your folke to keepthem going, to keep them working hard and optimistic?? Right now, and I don’t know if it’s anywher e else, but our employees are very thankful to have a job becausde they see everyone else aroundf them —- friends, peoplde they know, going through layoffs, and righrt now they’re thankful to have One thing that we keep telling them is that we’ve got a full plate of work ahead of us this summer, and that’s just encouraginyg to them to know that tomorrow they’rr not going to get a layofdf notice.
I’m kind of the cheerleader here. I just say you know, this is nothing. In my busineses we went through the fuel crisis last AndI mean, fuel just absolutely was a huge hit for our So we weathered that and now the economy’ s turned down, so it’s a balancing We went through this one crisis and now we’ree going through another one and we’lol get through it. We’ll be fine. We’ll be How does that experience compareto what’s goingf on now? The fuel crisis somewhat caughgt us off guard. In my businessx so much of the work that we had goinb on was hardbid work.
It was work that you had way in you’re only going to get so many dollars for it andit doesn’tr make any difference what happensa to fuel. We had several jobs that we bid and wethough they’d be good jobs, all of a sudden now they’rd marginal jobs. We weathered that and came througjhthat fine. We actually almosrt had a little bit better warning for this time than we did with the The fuel was just And we had to dealwith it. Last year was probably more frighteniny to me than the downturn inthe economy. I feel like we can put our fingef on the economyright now. We know it’a not great, but we can move quick enougghto react.
Are Cornejo and its companiews ingood shape? We’rer very confident it’s going to be a good year for us. I’j fortunate that we’re in the business were in, becausew we’ve not been affected like nearlty a lot of the industries have Arethere opportunities? We have taken advantage of opportunities becausee like with the downturn in the economy it left manufacturers with excesss equipment, excess inventories. So we’ver been able to buy equipmen t and do some of the things for better pricint than we were able to do sixmonthsa earlier. Still looking for those opportunities?
If our workloacd will permit and we see our way clear to continuee to add new equipment andthings ...Right now is an idealo time for anyone. ... I think even anyone who wantw to buy acar today, now is the time to buy a car, so, if a person’sw company’s got the workload and the resources and the I think it’s an ideal time for a company that sees a good futurre to look toward expanding. That’s good advice. Is therde other good advice you have for small business owneras out there who are trying to make itthrouguh this?