Rozell Industries: Year 35 for Queensbury full-service contractor.

By Gordon Woodworth, Chronicle News Editor

Rozell Industries, celebrating its 35th anniverary, is a full-service general and mechanical engineering firm based near Warren County Airport that employs more than 200 people.

“My father Peter Sr., my brother Peter and I started the company back in 1981,” said Brian Rozell, who is the president of both Rozell Industries and Rozell East, the company’s union shop.

“The intent from the start was for all four, including our brother Mike, to be involved in the business,” he said. “Mike was working as a tin-knocker then in sheet metal someplace else.

“Basically it was very slow. I mean extremely slow. The first job we ever did, our big job…We were there three months, Peter and I, redoing a paper mill that was going to open up. And they never paid us.

“They kept saying the money’s coming, the money’s coming, but it never did…So basically we just had some small plumbing jobs here and there and then it got really tough to keep supporting all of us.”

To get more experience, Brian Rozell says he returned to the millwright union.

“Mike was still working as a tin-knocker, so basically it was Peter and my dad,” Brian recalls. “They were struggling along and then they got busier.

“And then Mike came back before me in 1983, so then it was the three of them. And then they actually got a couple of employees and then it was time to bring me back, because I had more experience and we were getting busier.”

Thirty-five years later, Rozell has more than 200 employees, both union and non-union, and the family’s third generation — Brian’s daughter Tiarra Guidon and Mike’s daughter Jen Whalen — is preparing to take the helm.

When Peter Rozell, Sr., retired back in 1992, “we had eight employees. We were still lean and mean.” How did the company grow to revenues of $30- to $40-million?

Some 60% to 70% of their business is “industrial, the mills, shutdowns — Finch Paper, Irving Tissue, Lehigh Cement, Barton Mines, Hollingsworth & Vose, Ames Goldsmith, Hexion Chemical,” Brian Rozell said.

“We actually built Hexion Chemical right from the ground up — the entire plant. They are the only tenant in the South Glens Falls/Moreau Industrial Park. We built that probably 15 years ago, and we’re the only people that work in there because…you really have to know what you’re doing.”

Rozell vice-president Tiarra Guidon adds, “One of the things we do best here is problem-solving. Nobody else wants to do it, and they [customers] come to us to ask us to figure out how to do it. And we have such a good team here and we have so much knowledge.”

“Also, these guys have no problem spending money, investing in a particular piece of equipment or anything to keep our guys safe. For example, we have a job where we are welding on water and the customer suggested we use their boat, but instead we are buying a plastic barge. It’s not a big deal, but we always take that extra step to make sure everybody’s safe.”

Rozell Industries is an open shop, which Brian said “means there’s no union affiliation of any kind. The guys are multi-crafted and multi-trade.” Meanwhile, “Rozell East is strictly union. It’s in a separate location, over on 45 Casey Road. You can have the same owners, but you have to have separate buildings, separate everything.”

Mike Rozell said, “It’s close to a 50/50 split in terms of the number of employees at Rozell Industries and Rozell East, if you take out the administrative side.”

Mike Rozell attributes the company’s success to “just hard work and perseverance. Nobody has given us anything. We’ve had a lot of good breaks and our customers have been great to us over the years. Our employees and our customers are what keep this company going. As long as we take care of both our employees and our customers, I think that’s the secret. You have to be accommodating. They accommodate us, and we accommodate them.”

Peter Rozell, retired co-founder: Gratifying how it’s grown

Peter Rozell was there at the beginning of Rozell Industries, along with his late father Peter and brother Brian. His other brother Mike joined two years later.

Peter Rozell retired on Aug. 1, 2014.

“It’s been very gratifying when I sit and think about where we were at the beginning with nothing, and how this whole thing has developed through the help of our good employees,” he said. “You don’t build a company of that size unless you have good employees.

“It’s very gratifying that by everyone working together and pulling together, we were able to create this wonderful business that right now is in the process of being passed on to the younger generation.”

Like his brothers, he said the early years “were awful. It was a lot of personal sweat and tears. All of the three owners always made sure we were accessible to the customers and the employees, and we were there.

“Yes, we made mistakes, and we learned by our mistakes. But we paid attention and we took care of business. We were there every day….

“In my first 15 years in the business, I never took a week off. Anything that happened, any shutdown, anything that went wrong, anything that went right, all three of us were there right along with our key employees. And we all turned wrenches for years.”

He said he’s “happy that the kids have the opportunity to take a good, thriving company and continue to grow it. I’m sure they can do it and I wish them all the best of luck.” — Gordon Woodworth

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