{"id":32134,"date":"2019-07-15T11:09:56","date_gmt":"2019-07-15T15:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=32134"},"modified":"2019-07-15T11:09:56","modified_gmt":"2019-07-15T15:09:56","slug":"hunt-companies-construction-company-in-argyle-mapping-out-family-succession-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/07\/hunt-companies-construction-company-in-argyle-mapping-out-family-succession-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunt Companies, Construction Company In Argyle, Mapping Out Family Succession Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Officials of the Hunt Companies, including husband and wife Amie and Juan Gonzales in the forefront, pose at the company\u2019s headquarters on County Road 45 in Argyle.
Andrea Palmer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Andrea Palmer<\/p>\n

Hunt Companies Inc. (HCI) is a general contractor in Argyle that recently underwent Phase 1 of succession planning, as Amie Gonzales was voted in as president at the annual shareholders meeting in January.<\/p>\n

The company was started by Amie\u2019s parents, Dennis and Cindy Hunt, over 30 years ago. Juan Gonzales is the chief financial officer, as well as Amie\u2019s husband. When Gonzales began visiting then-girlfriend Amie many years ago, he saw first-hand the grit Denny and Cindy put into keeping the company running.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir vision was, as a general contractor, to take care of the team and take care of the employees through all the ups and downs,\u201d said Gonzales. \u201cThey went through the full spectrum of what a lot of small businesses go through\u2014paying payroll with credit cards, taking money from their personal savings to keep the company alive, Denny spending hours upon hours in the field during the day and then hours upon hours on the laptop at night. Keeping the company afloat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hunt Companies niche is the restaurant business, specifically fast food. They have done work for McDonald\u2019s in Boston and the surrounding region. Hunt Companies has also done work with Popeye\u2019s, Taco Bell and other restaurants.<\/p>\n

Amie and Juan Gonzales met while serving in the U.S. Navy. Amie returned to Argyle after spending eight years in the Navy and was employed by the family company as a project manager in late 2013. Juan followed her about a year later upon retiring after more than 20 years of military service.<\/p>\n

Everything changed in 2015, when the McDonald\u2019s Corp. fired their CEO and brought in a new one. All construction was halted for a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, we lost 85 percent of our revenue within one phone call,\u201d said Gonzales.\u201cWe had to change who we were, but didn\u2019t want to change what we were about. And that is where Amie\u2019s new vision of the company was born.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmie\u2019s vision is this: We want to have the heart of a small company, but need the stability of a large company in order to provide more to the employees and community throughout the good and the bad years,\u201d said Gonzales.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point, I could count on my fingers how many months the company had cash on hand for payroll. We took a page out of Milton Hershey\u2019s playbook. During the Great Depression, Hershey wanted to take care of the employees. He kept building projects during that time so none of his employees were laid off. We, being students of history, did something similar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunt Companies was in the midst of renovating their headquarters when they got the call from McDonald\u2019s. Instead of suspending renovations, the company used the renovation to provide work for employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommon sense said we should have stopped the renovation. We had a lot of unknowns. Instead, we kept going and it allowed us to provide over 4,000 hours of employment to our employees that we wouldn\u2019t have been able to justify any other way,\u201d said Gonzales.<\/p>\n

In 2016, McDonald\u2019s resumed construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last few years have been record-breaking years for our company,\u201d said Gonzales. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to continue to give more to our employees, in addition to building stability for the company. Right now we\u2019re on the cusp of seeing our vision fulfilled.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting our busy season with multiple projects in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. We\u2019re contemplating Western Mass as well. As a small company in Argyle, we touch three states with employees in all of those states,\u201d said Gonzales.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmie\u2019s background is military, with a college degree. She\u2019s bringing that business sense to the company,\u201d said Gonzales. \u201cWe\u2019ve added a dual approach to the business. The admin team is not a team that just sits back and reacts to the fires of today. We anticipate the challenges of tomorrow and solve them, while our ops team is always looking at efficiencies to continue to bring in more money without charging more on estimates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunt Companies has made good on their commitment to their 20-plus employees. All are full-time, permanent positions. The company picks up 70 percent of the cost of health insurance. Bonuses are paid annually. They also have profit sharing and a 401(k) plan.<\/p>\n

As jobs slow down in the winter, Hunt Companies takes the opportunity to train employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom March to October is when we\u2019re busy. In the slower times, we focus on interior work. And since we have the harsh winters, there\u2019s always the phone calls for maintenance and repair work. But most importantly, we bring in trainers from OSHA, heavy equipment trainers, you name it. We have an internal training program where our senior carpenters spend some time teaching junior carpenters framing skills. We put on training away from the stress of an actual job, where employees actually have time to learn,\u201d said Gonzales.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmie Gonzales and siblings Jason Hunt (vice president) and Matt Hunt (project manager) are all involved in the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vision is to set this company so we are caretakers until the third generation is ready to take it over. Between Amie, Jason and Matt, there are six grandchildren,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

More information can be found on the company at www.huntcompanies.net.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Andrea Palmer Hunt Companies Inc. (HCI) is a general contractor in Argyle that recently underwent Phase 1 of succession planning, as Amie Gonzales was voted in as president at the annual shareholders meeting in January. The company was started by Amie\u2019s parents, Dennis and Cindy Hunt, over 30 years ago. Juan Gonzales is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":32135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nHunt Companies, Construction Company In Argyle, Mapping Out Family Succession Plan - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/07\/hunt-companies-construction-company-in-argyle-mapping-out-family-succession-plan\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hunt Companies, Construction Company In Argyle, Mapping Out Family Succession Plan - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Andrea Palmer Hunt Companies Inc. 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