Elliot Kracko is the CEO of Gamma, a nearly $200 million curtain-wall company that specializes in everything from banks to high-rises. He started in the industry in 1970 by buying a small glass shop, and gradually worked his way up by building larger and larger structures and expanding his business. Kracko eventually partnered with Glassalum, and was made CEO in 1987. He retired in 2002, but was brought back to head Gamma in 2007, and increased its revenues from about $30 million annually, to just shy of $200 million in just a few years, despite hard economic times for the industry. Here he answers a few questions about Gamma, and talks about the secrets to his success.
How much of your business is new construction, and how much is recladding?
Right now, probably I would say 75 to 80% is new work and 20 to 25% is recladding.
Has the market impacted that?
Absolutely. The market in the last four years has [had] very little new construction coming out of the ground. Primarily the new construction coming out has been federal and state work; now the banks are just starting to loosen up a little, and I think there's a lot more private work coming out in the sector. I think we're going to see the industry change in the next six to eight months; we'll start to see a lot more of new work starting to come back out on the market that hasn't been there before. I think financing is starting to loosen up a little bit.
Are curtain walls green?
Absolutely. You can put recycled aluminum on the project, and the U value for the glass helps with the green aspect. You can stuff the inside of the mullions with insulation. With a reclad there's a lot you can do because the existing glass can be removed from the building and recycled. The crates the material comes in can be recycled. There are so many things you can do to create a green project. New is a little bit different; you can buy recycled aluminum. The building could be recycled. Glass usually has to be new, but many of the other things-the silicones, the gaskets, a lot of that-can be made out of recycled material and insulation. Much of that can be very green. It turns into LEEDs points.
Has the rise in green architecture led to an increase in your business?
Curtain wall is something that was always looked at, that architects looked very hard at, because when you put the skin on a building you're really not only working with the aesthetics of what the building looks like, you're working with the mechanical contractor for the interior, because the U value in your wall is going to depend on how much heating and air conditioning you need inside the building. So if you want to call it a green, it's always been looked at that way. It's not something that's new; it's always a very critical priority in the project.
Does having an in-house design and engineering department give you an edge over your competitors?
In all honesty, it's the only real way to do this business. If you have a fabrication facility where you're building units or you're building the product, many times you come to a glitch or there's a problem all of a sudden-and then what are you going to do? Are you going to call somebody that's halfway around the world? Are you going to call somebody that's in a different city? You need to have your guy come away from his desk and run out to the shop floor and see what the problem is. It's very, very difficult-if you don't have inside engineering, you can't really put the whole package together. Part of the success that we've always had over the years is [because] we always did everything from soup to nuts: We design it, we engineer it, we build it. Everything is fabricated. The only thing we don't do is we go out and buy extrusion, but we buy glass and we buy paint. Everything else is done in-house and shipped to the project. That's really been the success of our company, because many of our competitors don't do their own installation in the field. If you don't do it yourself and, God forbid, there is a problem, then you're dealing with outside sub-contractors trying to correct your material. It just doesn't work right. To be successful, you really need to have the whole ball of wax in-house. And in our company, we've always done it that way.
What's the key to your success in turning Gamma into a nearly $200 million company?
The difference between Gamma and most companies is that with Gamma you have an owner in every position of the company. All my partners-each one of us-has a different item to do in the company. One runs engineering, one runs the shop production, one is the office manager, one runs the field operations and installation of curtain walls in New York, one runs it in Miami. And why we're successful. Rather than giving orders to someone, you have a partner sitting there who has investment in the game. Everyone has to do their end, because if you don't do your end, the job doesn't work right; your partner is going to look at you, so everybody has to be involved. I think that we've always had it that way, and I think that is our claim to fame.
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