Chukwuma Ekwueme left Nigeria for the United States in 2004 with an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and experience working for an HVAC firm that served the oil industry. He put his skills to work in the U.S. construction industry for seven years, as well as earned his master’s degree in engineering from the University of Cincinnati.
Noting a lack of minority participation in the HVAC field, he knew exactly what he wanted to do—open a small business—but he needed some guidance along the way. In 2011, his dream came to fruition with the support of mentors at two Cincinnati companies: Grote Enterprises, an engineering and VDC firm, and Megen Construction Company, a construction management firm founded by fellow Nigerian Evans Nwankwo.
Ekwueme launched Sure Mechanical as a nimble, creative and versatile HVAC contracting firm where a passion for excellence trumps profit. He also brought on Keith Germana as his partner and vice president.
“In the beginning, we struggled with manpower. Recruiting skilled installers to work for us was very challenging because we didn’t have all the benefits that the bigger firms offer, like health care and a retirement plan,” Ekwueme says.
After two years of sustained growth, scaling became an issue. “We needed bigger projects to help us with better margins that would help offset the additional cost of offering health care. Scaling up also meant additional equipment and tools to execute the bigger projects,” Ekwueme says. “We were blessed to have companies and clients take a chance on us and award us bigger projects that allowed us to gain efficiencies and improve our margins.”
Ekwueme also realized that increasing Sure Mechanical’s traction on larger projects would require a stronger mentor-protégé relationship with a local contractor. Enter TP Mechanical—a prominent merit shop mechanical company with offices in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, as well as Lexington, Kentucky.
TP Mechanical provided Sure Mechanical with BIM and Revit services and helped with prefabrication on some big health care projects as needed.
The mentorship was a good fit for TP Mechanical, which had been challenged to meet minority participation requirements when bidding on local projects. It was important to them to partner with a company that had actual boots on the ground, rather than just filling an administrative or paperwork role like some pass-through entities (e.g., buying materials through an MBE that really only writes purchase orders).
“We want to fulfill minority contracting requirements in a legitimate way—with real people doing the real work just like we do,” says TP Mechanical President and CEO Bill Riddle.
“The opportunity to learn from TP has been immense to us, as we were able to benchmark most of their deliverables and tweak them as needed to serve our specific needs, improve our efficiencies and enhance our culture,” Ekwueme says. “Prefabrication is an area of improvement and potential growth for us. We have been working to improve prefabs on our projects by watching and learning from them.”
Riddle and two other TP Mechanical executives are part of Sure Mechanical’s board, which meets quarterly to review the business and address future growth. The firms also share labor resources depending on project needs.
“We reciprocate on an ongoing basis, which is nice,” Riddle says. “Keeping that staff is important. If you send folks home during a lull, you’re not getting them back.”
Currently, Sure Mechanical is working on multiple projects with Messer Construction, including a 93,000-square-foot retirement home, a school addition at DePaul Cristo Rey and a 200-ton chiller addition/relocation for Ronald McDonald House.
It also is performing work for Procter & Gamble with TriVersity Construction; a Baptist church with Megen Construction Company; and the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with Danis Building Construction and Foxx Construction.
“We can’t be as efficient on smaller projects,” Riddle says. “They’re very good at having direct owner relations on a smaller scale, whereas TP is usually going through a general contractor or construction manager on a larger scale.”
The two firms are wrapping up a small job for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and scheming on a couple other sizable projects on which they can joint venture or creatively split the scope of work.
“Our challenge is figuring out how to get that work with our combined resources. A lot of projects are coming and we can’t do them all,” Riddle says. “Instead of trying to get a lot of opportunities, we need to focus on getting the right ones at the right time. We’re trying to be selective, smart and strategic.
In the end, this mentorship model requires quite a bit of effort for an established company that could cruise along and take all the business for itself. But Riddle believes everyone reaps what they sow—especially when it comes to building the community and bolstering interest in the construction trades.
“We can all go through this business trying to gather everything for ourselves, or we can invest in opportunities. Mentoring is one avenue that could make a difference,” he says.
“You have to have some willingness to invest time, dollars and expertise with the people who are trying to make it happen. Sure Mechanical’s focus is on giving its employees an opportunity and showing that people can make an excellent living in the trades,” Riddle continues. “The bigger net we can cast, the better our construction community becomes. If your vision is ‘grab it all for me,’ your success is limited and so is the impact you can have after you’re gone.”
