Exceptional customer service means going above and beyond what a customer expects. At Egan, an important piece of our culture is annually recognizing our employees who exemplify this level of outstanding work and service.
Many times throughout the year, stories are sent to us from customers. Long narratives or short commendation, each story is shared with our Board of Directors who recognize the team or the employee with a gift for keeping their promises.
At the close of each year, two of these special stories are chosen for a Promises Kept Award. This “best of” award recognizes those who have truly gone above and beyond in service to our customers. The winners are usually announced, presented, and celebrated at our annual Employee Christmas Party. Like many things this year, we had to get creative when presenting these awards without the formality of an all-company gathering. In 2020-style, the recognized Egan employees came together in a virtual party to receive their awards for continuing to keep their promises to our customers.
Congratulations to the Individual and Team Promises Kept Award winners! See below to read the customer stories selected for these awards:
Bryce Gransee went above and beyond the call of the job last week when responding to a serious incident. While on the jobsite, Bryce witnessed a worker from another contractor become pinned between some steel and a concrete wall. Bryce and other workers jumped in immediately to provide assistance. When I spoke with Bryce and thanked him, his response was “I just hope someone would do the same for me.” On behalf of Kraus-Anderson and myself, we’d like to say we greatly appreciate Bryce’s ability and willingness to help!
Taylor Klitzke, Safety Coordinator with Kraus-Anderson Construction
We would like to thank the entire Egan team for the leadership, planning, scheduling, and overall safe execution of the 5400 turnaround and switchgear cleaning. This was the largest turnaround event that has been executed and it wouldn’t have been successful without Egan. Everyone was extremely professional and kept safety and quality as the top priorities. Egan had over 75 employees on site, many being brand new to the facility, and all were receptive to the safety culture. The LVSG cleaning and inspection was completed safely and with the utmost quality. Lastly, the process panel was worked on around the clock to ensure timely execution. The work ethic and quality both crews displayed were above anyone’s expectations. Excellent performance from the Egan team- thank you for your professionalism and support for our 2020 turnaround!
Jennifer Rehder & Richard Thiele of FilmTec – DuPont Specialty Products Division
There’s craftsmanship in the trades. A plan comes to life. A team creates a piece of history. This is why we love what we do. Working with customers. Taking care of every detail. Leading the way. Insisting on safety. Keeping promises. All to ensure every single project is seamless. We do it with passion, we do it with pride, we do it for each other. One for all—one source.
Joseph Egan with sons Bill and Costney
The story of Egan Company is one of grit and growth. Before our 12 trades, nearly 1,000 employees, and countless customers, there was one man in a single room pipe shop on the Northern Minnesota Iron Range. In 1905, Joseph Egan was ready to put his dreams into motion. While his new business slowly grew, the country and the world were unsettled. Change was coming, war was on the horizon, building materials were short, and enlisting was the expectation. The small business would eventually have to wait. After ebbing and flowing for decades between serving our country and raising a family, the dream of running a business full-time was restored. And in 1945, as World War II was ending, Joseph and his sons used $3,000 and opened their doors in the Twin Cities. Egan and Sons Plumbing and Heating Company was officially founded.
Innovators by nature, the mission of our founders is still very much a part of today – delivering high-quality craftsmanship and innovative solutions while upholding the promises we make to our customers. This framework has helped us grow, kept us safe, and has played a fundamental role in the tens of thousands of projects we’ve touched in our community, across Minnesota, and throughout the greater Midwest.
Seventy-five years later, we too are navigating an unsettling landscape. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought us great challenges, but also a new perspective and much progress. In many areas of our lives, disruption has been inevitable. But we’ve held onto that disruption as an opportunity to build for the future by slowly evolving our business to strengthen and get lean, elevate the customer experience, and drive steady growth. We’re experiencing a time in history that’s required flexibility and pivots to meet the needs of our customers and communities—as well as maintain the health and safety of our employees and their families.
We want to thank you for being a part of the Egan Company family. It’s because of you, we love what we do. Cheers to 75 years!
For over 75 years, Egan Company has committed to providing exceptional service and keeping our promises to our customers, no matter the time of day nor the severity of the need. When a fire destroyed part of Burnett Dairy Cooperative’s Grantsburg, Wisc. plant this summer, Egan was consulted immediately to develop a plan to get the plant fully operational as soon as possible.
UNDER AN ‘AS SOON AS POSSIBLE’ DEADLINE
Known for producing award-winning, high-quality cheese products for over 120 years, and with customers waiting for products in their stores, the need to get the plant fully operational as soon as possible was of utmost importance. Working around the clock, multiple Egan crews comprised of six different trades partnered with Burnett Dairy and additional contractors to demolish and rebuild the infrastructure that was damaged in order to get the production lines back up running.
“We’ve worked with Burnett Dairy for the past few years and have formed a strong relationship,” said Dan Reintjes, Egan Company Project Manager. “When the call came in that we were needed to help after the fire, we were there as fast as possible to get the infrastructure and production lines in perfect working order again.”
The fire is believed to have started in the boiler building, which will require a complete rebuild. In the meantime, a temporary operation was conceived and constructed to ensure cheese production and assembly continued. Egan’s process controls team worked late into the first night getting power to three of the plant’s electrical services and started a complete demolition of the fourth 2000 amp 5-section service gear which was then designed, built, installed and operational in nine days. The ammonia compressors were also powered up with generators on the first day in order to get Burnett Dairy’s warehouse coolers running to save all the products that were already produced. Egan’s Mechanical team worked to make damaged piping safe and get temporary water piping installed as well as planning for a temporary boiler installation.
Egan was one of the contractors that was onsite within 18 hours of the fire trucks leaving the scene and didn’t leave until the plant was fully operational,” said Dave Gaiser, Burnett Dairy Cooperative CEO. “With their help, Burnett was able to get our retail store back open within a few days so we were able to open for the weekend after the fire. Within seven days, they assisted with getting one of our packaging lines operating so we could package cheese from other manufacturers and begin shipping to our customers. Egan worked 24/7 coordinating with other contractors to get Burnett running within two months of a fire impacting all utilities servicing the plant.
Beyond the initial scope of work that was completed to get the plant operational, additional projects were finished in order to restore complete operation to the plant. Egan engineers designed and programmed a new control system for the milk transfer and CIP systems that were lost in the fire, and additional electricians were tasked with installing new power distribution panels and feeders as well as installing the new milk transfer and CIP control panels and interconnect wiring.
Working alongside the controls electricians, Egan’s Mechanical trades were tasked with setting up the temporary, 900 horsepower self-contained boiler. The team was also responsible for hydro testing and repairing all existing piping to ensure functionality and safety due to the fire.
BACK UP AND OPERATIONAL
The plant was back up and operational in 62 days, processing milk from 150 farms, and bringing 300 people back to work.
Burnett Dairy is currently operating with a temporary boiler trailer in place and due to the work of many contractors working within a tight timeline. Next steps for the plant include the design, engineering, and construction of the new boiler building; Egan’s full-time maintenance presence at the plant will continue, and any additional help the site needs as it starts the process of rebuilding from the fire.
“Egan is a valuable business partner and the accomplishments of the past couple of months would not have been possible without them,” said Gaiser.
MULTI-TRADE PROJECT TEAM
35 Egan onsite electricians
15 Egan controls and mechanical engineers contributed to the needed design and engineering
31 Egan plumbers, pipefitters, and sheet metal workers were onsite
5 limited energy technicians delivered network installations with all new data cabinets and cabling for the plant
10 control panel technicians built eight U.L. 508A control panels on a tight turnaround
Because of our continued relationship with all of our customers, Egan Company has been able to commemorate 75 years in business by giving this holiday season. Our valued partners have enabled us to give back to our community through:
With humble hearts and gratitude, we thank all of our customers for their continued business and partnership!
As the year winds down and we prepare for the colder months, we’re looking back and recapping a few notable awards we’ve received this year – both at a local and national level.
Thanks to our great customers, vendors, and of course, employees, we’re honored to be among such great companies in these various categories.
Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal Top Private Companies
Continuing to move on up! In 2020, Egan ranked #73 out of 100 Top Private Companies in Minnesota. This is a jump up from last year, where Egan was #77.
Finance and Commerce Reader Rankings
For the fourth year, readers of Finance & Commerce have chosen their most trusted brands and business partners through Reader Rankings. Egan was recognized, again, by readers as a top choice within the “Best Plumbing Company” category.
The Engineering News-Record (ENR) ranked Egan #109 on its list of Top 600 Specialty Construction Contractors in the U.S. National recognition is an honor!
Electrical Construction and Maintenance (EC&M)
The #45 spot on the Electrical Construction and Maintenance (EC&M) magazine’s list of Top 50 Electrical Contractors in the U.S. is Egan Company’s for 2020. It’s always an exciting time at Egan when we are recognized on a national level – this year marks our fourth year in a row on the list.
NAIOP Awards of Excellence
Rafter Apartments in Minneapolis
The 37th annual Awards of Excellence recognizes exceptional developments by The National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) members and their teams. Egan had the privilege of working with multiple NAIOP partners on projects across the Twin Cities and in Rochester, namely Rafter and Wells Fargo Rochester.
Recognized for its ongoing commitment to worker safety and health, comprehensive training programs and risk management efforts, and a lower than industry average injury and illness rate, Egan Company has once again been named one of America’s Safest Companies.
EHS Todaynamed 10 organizations to the 2020 list of America’s Safest Companies, including firms with a few dozen employees to multinational corporations with tens of thousands of employees. Together, these organizations all have one thing in common: to provide a safe working environment for their employees.
Being named one of America’s Safest Companies is a tremendous honor!” said Reid Romer, Egan Company Safety Director. “When I think about safety at Egan, I think about our people. Our dedicated teams enable us to progress along our journey to safety excellence and to continue to grow, evolve, and excel safely within our organization. I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished together. I believe the best is still to come.
Within Egan, a safety department was first established in 1986. Having been founded in 1945, it may surprise some that Egan had gone over forty years without a dedicated safety program. Today, Egan maintains an ongoing, aggressive commitment to provide all employees with a safe and healthy place of employment.
“We have a true ‘Safety Culture’ at Egan Company. Everyone believes in our safety programs and is acting and responding to do our work in the safest way possible,” said Duane Hendricks, Egan Company President & CEO. “We have good safety results because of our many safety initiatives and the involvement of everyone. This sets us apart and keeps our people focused and safe.”
Egan continues to move forward in the belief that work-related injuries are preventable, but we can never claim to control all the variables. What we can control is how we collectively work together and support each other to promote safety.
“We do not focus on our safety for an award, we focus on safety to keep our people safe. But it is exciting to know Egan is recognized for safety once again!” Hendricks adds.
All award recipients were honored at EHS Today’s Virtual Safety Leadership Conference on November 10. A feature was published in a special section in the November issue of EHS Today magazine (read more here).
Below the 2.4 million square foot office tower and retail building sits a tight-knit team, focused on energy efficiency and continuous monitoring.
Located in the “center” of Minneapolis, the 33 Tower / City Center building is a Class A high-rise. At nearly 40 years old, its unique layout includes a retail mall, skyways, parking garage, and tower–the fourth tallest in Minneapolis. Prominent tenants include Target Corporation, Korn/Ferry International, and many other well-known organizations and retail stores.
In the corner of the lower-level space hangs a fitting sentiment: “Hail to the Chief”. Chief Engineer Tim Stefans has been with the building since 1980. He, along with his team of engineers, is committed to world-class building management procedures for energy efficiency and water efficiency standards.
There is not another building of this nature in the city of Minneapolis,” said Stefans, “and with this building, everything we do is about quality.
Best of the Best Energy Standards
Being in a class of its own, 33 Tower / City Center quietly boasts two impressive accolades: Certified LEED Platinum and an ENERGY STAR® Score of 97.
The Certified LEED Platinum distinction is the highest mark of quality and achievement in green buildings. According to The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program, “LEED certification means healthier, more productive places, reduced stress on the environment by encouraging energy and resource-efficient buildings, and savings from increased building value, higher lease rates and decreased utility costs.”
Additionally, 33 Tower is an ENERGY STAR® certified building. The certification, backed by The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is described as, “certified buildings save energy, save money, and help protect the environment by generating fewer greenhouse gas emissions than typical buildings.”
Twelve years ago, the engineering team began benchmarking energy performance to measure and track the building’s energy, water, and/or waste and materials usage. It uses the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager® tool, which has become the industry standard for rating a facility’s energy performance. 33 Tower’s 2020 ENERGY STAR score is 97, which means it’s more efficient than 97% of comparable buildings.
33 Tower has even received national recognition; two years ago, the building earned itself the title of “most energy efficient in the nation”.
Value of Team Longevity and Common Goals
33 Tower / City Center was ten years old when Egan Company (Building Control Group) was introduced to work on a small-scale project, in support of a desire to pay attention to energy and reinvest in the building.
Now locally managed by Ryan Companies, Inc, the building’s ownership went through a phase of rapid change. However, in the over 25 years working together, the building’s engineering team—along with the Egan team—has largely remained unchanged.
As long-standing partners, the teams at 33 Tower / City Center and Egan Company have a relationship built on trust and a shared goal: to improve the building’s sustainability and continuously evaluate building performance. Through this shared care about monitoring through the years, Egan trades have worked on systematic replacement of older systems and equipment, software/hardware updates, lighting upgrades, as well as technology design and function.
Among many who have worked with the team for nearly two decades, Egan Company Account Manager Brett Rasmussen started working onsite as a field technician in 2003. “Our long standing relationship has been built on understanding expectations and performing to them,” said Rasmussen. “Egan has a great working knowledge of this building and what is expected and needed for it to run efficiently. The building is not very forgiving, and a small error can translate to a big problem with such a large facility. But we also have some of the best field personnel in the industry. That, combined along with our experience and understanding of this building, whatever hurdle gets thrown at us, we make it disappear. Ultimately, we work hard to keep it running at a level that speaks for itself.”
The Egan team has become so much of an extension of the building team that at many times, there’s such a seamless level of work that Stefans and his team don’t experience disruption when Egan is working in the building. Referring to the latest project, Stefans adds:
I’ve got to tell you, we didn’t even know Egan was in the building. We didn’t even know—that’s how integrated this is. Now that’s phenomenal. I mean, if there’s a 10, these [Egan] guys are an 11. Rob LeMay, Ross Keane, Alex West, Aaron McDonough, Lawrence ‘Doc’ Bush, Jon Wall, and Dan Aberwald . . . they’re phenomenal. Ridiculously phenomenal.
Room to Improve Energy Efficiency
To further improve energy efficiency in 2020, the plan was set to migrate legacy technology to 21st century controls.
“For as long as I’ve ever been doing this, there’s never been a more complex job than what we’ve done in the last year. Really, nothing has ever been this complex and working through how to marry this new system,” Stefans shares, referring to the interactions between technology, building systems, the geometry of building, and the connected structures (skyways and newly-built hotel).
As equipment moves toward obsolescence, Egan looks for opportunities to bring new technology and design to the table. As a result for 33 Tower / City Center, this year’s project was a large-scale retrofit representative of the need for modernization. And while projects like this provide a long term solution to a hardware problem, they also provide a means to improve efficiencies to positively impact the bottom line.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (December 4, 2020) –EHS Today once again selected Egan Company as one of America’s Safest Companies for its commitment to worker safety and health.
The 10 organizations identified as America’s Safest Companies represent safety excellence and come in all shapes and sizes, including firms with a few dozen employees to multinational corporations with tens of thousands of employees. Together, all chosen organizations have one thing in common: to provide a safe working environment for their employees.
“Being named one of America’s Safest Companies is a tremendous honor!” said Reid Romer, Egan Company Safety Director. “When I think about safety at Egan, I think about our people. Our dedicated teams enable us to progress along our journey to safety excellence and to continue to grow, evolve, and excel safety within our organization. I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished together. I believe the best is still to come.”
Egan Company maintains an ongoing, aggressive commitment to provide all employees with a safe and healthy place of employment. Through its safety program, on-going safety training, safety policy and practices, and a full-time safety team, employees are given knowledge and skills to ensure their own safety in the workplace.
“We have a true ‘Safety Culture’ at Egan Company. Everyone believes in our safety programs and is acting and responding to do our work in the safest way possible,” said Duane Hendricks, Egan Company President & CEO. “We have good safety results because of our many safety initiatives and the involvement of everyone. This sets us apart and keeps our people focused and safe.”
All award recipients were honored at EHS Today’s Virtual Safety Leadership Conference on November 10 and featured in a special section of the November issue of EHS Today magazine (read more here).
About Egan Company
Egan Company is a privately-owned, specialty contractor providing building trades to general contractors, engineers, building owners, property managers, and facility engineers. Specialties include: electrical, mechanical, curtainwall/glazing/metal panels (InterClad), millwrights, building technology, controls and system integration, and 24/7 service. Egan serves every stage of a building and provides in-house expertise in planning, design and engineering, construction, and maintenance. For more information about Egan Company, visit www.eganco.com.
About EHS Today
EHS Today, formerly known as Occupational Hazards, is a part of Penton Media, Inc. The publication informs safety, health, and industrial hygiene professionals in the manufacturing, construction, and service sectors about trends, management strategies, regulatory news, and new products that help them provide safe and healthy work sites. Since 2002, America’s Safest Companies has honored more than 200 organizations for their unwavering commitment to worker safety and health and environmental stewardship.
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Media Contact: Angela Schmidt arschmidt@eganco.com // 763-504-3471
