General Contractors and Industrial General Contractors share many skill sets, yet there are important differences. Both manage day-to-day operations, liaise between clients and trades/subcontractors, and take care of project planning and scheduling, getting supplies and permits, and making sure on-site safety standards are met. This requires considerable training and outstanding communication skills, since many parties are involved.

On building sites for manufacturing, warehousing/logistics, and utilities like hydroelectric stations, the role of the industrial general contractor becomes incredibly demanding, mainly because of project scope and complexity.

Many General Contractors focus on residential or commercial construction, like retail and restaurants, with some limiting height to a certain number of floors. Industrial Contractors are much more specialized and need to be equipped with enough workers, machinery, and expertise to construct enormous manufacturing buildings. These projects, along with warehouses, fulfillment centres, oil and gas processing plants, and water treatment facilities, keep getting bigger and bigger.

Manufacturing buildings and fulfillment centers for retail giants like Amazon and Walmart now measure millions of square feet, not thousands. One of the largest to date is Tesla’s Gigafactory Nevada, which handles battery and motor manufacturing for the electric vehicle company. Currently at 5.3 million square feet, Tesla plans to expand to 10 million square feet and make the facility powered entirely by renewable energy.

Building massive manufacturing hubs for companies like Tesla, aviation juggernaut Boeing, auto maker Volkswagen, Amazon, Target, Michelin, Nike, John Deere, and other multinationals, demands extensive engineering knowledge, heavy machinery like overhead cranes to hoist structural steel elements into place, and extremely strict safety and regulatory protocols.

With manufacturing buildings constantly growing in size, clients like Tesla need to plan not just for the coming years but for decades into the future. As a result, major players like Walmart and Ikea are buying properties in Arizona and Dortmund, Germany, respectively, for e-commerce and distribution.

Like a homeowner hiring a GC for a kitchen or bathroom renovation, manufacturers looking to expand existing facilities or build new ones need to look at an industrial builder’s background, and this includes the company’s record for completing projects on time. This is critical, since manufacturers need to have their facilities outfitted with machinery like metal stampers and CNC machines, electrical systems, water and wastewater systems, HVAC, and more, so they don’t miss their production deadlines. Whereas homeowners can be forgiving if a project runs late, manufacturers lose a fortune every day their facility remains idle.

Although most large-scale locations are remote, many are connected to highways, railways, water access points, and even regional airports. Combined with smaller distribution centres in cities, retailers today can keep many more products in stock and deliver them faster than ever before.

Certainly, building huge manufacturing facilities is an expensive, complex endeavour requiring in-depth knowledge about permits and approvals, site grading, heavy materials like steel and concrete, electrical and heating, air conditioning and venting requirements, on-site safety, and more. Industrial buildings and steel structures demand construction managers experienced in all these areas.

From initial conversations to project completion, clients have a myriad of questions and concerns about their vision, which reputable firms will address. The first and most important is communication.

No matter how skilled the builder, if a customer feels a specialized industrial contractor doesn’t address the basics—such as returning phone calls on time—they may look elsewhere. Reputable industrial contractors are proactive; they don’t expect clients to keep pestering them for answers and they are upfront about the assignment and any potential obstacles that might arise to slow progress. If a contractor can’t provide a definitive start date, that is a problem.

All construction projects have elements in common, especially budgets and timelines. We’ve all heard stories about disgruntled home or business owners unhappy that a promised renovation went thousands of dollars over budget or was months overdue. For manufacturers who work on strict timelines, a promised building being delivered late isn’t an inconvenience—it’s a potential disaster. Budgets dictate all building projects. For multinational manufacturers, giving a ‘blank cheque’ to a builder is unheard of.

Instead, experienced industrial builders will discuss costs with clients and come back with detailed, line-by-line budgets to manage costs. Many firms today use construction management software like Procore to streamline the entire process. Construction budgets are broken down into many areas, including hard costs (the physical construction), soft costs (professional and administrative services), and contingency and profit, usually a percentage for unanticipated issues. Construction budgets encompass site work, labour (direct and subcontractors), materials and supplies, professional fees (such as paying architects and engineers), equipment (including rentals and maintenance), technology, insurance, permits, inspections, and more.

With increased tariffs on steel and aluminum, clients need to be prepared to pay 25 percent more for their manufacturing and heavy industrial buildings. Owing to an increase in the theft of tools and materials like lumber and high-value copper from construction sites (estimated to cost construction companies $1 billion USD annually), 24/7 security is a must, and another expense. Stolen building materials aren’t just an inconvenience; they cost thousands of dollars daily, rendering labourers unable to work.

Due diligence is crucial before hiring any firm for manufacturing projects. All reputable firms should have a portfolio of past work and clients willing to provide a referral. Satisfied customers will state if the job was completed on time, if there were any cost overruns, and other potential red flags. Most of all, what is the firm’s experience specific to project needs? If the building will be used for EV manufacturing, soup production, or as a fulfillment centre, how much experience does the builder have in these areas?

Before the first shovel hits the ground, it is also important to know the builder’s knowledge of permits. Are they aware of all building by-laws, which often vary from one municipality to another? Is the builder licensed and insured in all relevant areas, including liability in case someone is injured? Are subcontractors up-to-date with their own licensing and insurance?

Another essential topic of discussion is safety. What is the builder’s record for work-related Lost-Time Injuries (LTIs)? And considering the sheer size and complexity of building steel warehouses, which require huge cranes lifting steel I-beams, channels, and other construction materials, how many safety technicians are on site?

If these questions are answered to the client’s satisfaction, the next step is negotiating the deal. This includes the scope of work: deadline and budget. Once these areas are agreed upon, the builder and client will discuss payment terms and draft a legal contract.

For projects to be successful, clients and contractors need to come together and discuss their shared vision. Well-executed works completed to customer satisfaction are deliberate, the result of a collaborative approach. Successful industrial builders will view themselves as not just a service provider, but as a partner who is engaged and receptive, who anticipates issues, and who communicates with clients every step of the way.

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Located in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Wildeck offers efficient storage, lifting, guarding, and high-access solutions to increase operational capacity, productivity, and safety. Its products boost profitability for manufacturing operations, retail backrooms, warehouses, distribution centers, logistics centers, and a variety of other businesses.

Additionally, the company underwent a significant organizational transformation in 2007 when staff members approved an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), and is now a part of Holden Industries, Inc., a business entirely owned by its employees.

Wildeck’s 50^th anniversary also follows a significant milestone for the company: consolidating its three Wisconsin facilities onto a 21.97-acre complex with a much larger production facility in 2024, when it finished building its new, state-of-the-art headquarters in Waukesha. At the same time, the company opened a new office and production facility in Tolleson, Arizona, to expand its activities in the West.

The employee-owned advantage
“What you get with an ESOP that you may not get with other organizations is a sense of ownership and a stake in what you do, day in and day out,” says Patrick Stapf, Senior Marketing Manager. “It appears that people who spend the most time here, like those with longer tenures, tend to care more. That’s why I think ESOPs outperform non-ESOPs in a variety of categories.”

Mike Twitty, Outside Regional Sales Manager, agrees. “A lot of our team members take a personal vested interest in making sure our customers get the best experience and that their projects go as smoothly as possible,” he says.

Along with its ESOP status, Stapf also attributes Wildeck’s longstanding success to its engineering expertise and level of craftsmanship in the shop. “When you’ve got employees who care a bit more, you expect that to show in the product you put out,” he stresses. “The scope of product is definitely a specialty of Wildeck.”

Breadth in the market
From smaller-scale machinery and structures to those that span multiple football fields in length, Wildeck has done it all. “Everything we do is custom, designed and fabricated to our customers’ application requirements—that’s the name of our game,” says Stapf. Customers come to Wildeck with very particular applications, and the company then designs and manufactures to those requirements.

Customers include some of the largest players in the e-commerce sector, who often rely on Wildeck’s product to be the first in the door. In fact, when building a brand-new distribution center, Wildeck’s steel structures are often the first installed, followed by the rack, shelving, and automated systems. “If our product isn’t there on time or parts are missing, that carries down the line,” says Stapf. “It’s very important when working with a supplier in the category we’re in that we do our best to make sure everything is high quality and on time.”

Apart from its foothold in the e-commerce industry, unique, public-facing projects over the years have included viewing platforms for the National World War II Museum in New Orleans and a material lift on Fremont Street in Las Vegas for the SlotZilla Zip Line.

“A big advantage for us is the breadth of the market we work with,” adds Twitty. “Anything from fulfillment centers to pharmaceutical hubs, data centers, food processing, heavy manufacturing, or even museum spaces. Such widespread application allows us to help a wide spectrum of customers.”

Customer care always comes first and helping businesses achieve maximum productivity is key. “We help our customers get the most out of their facilities for safety, efficiency, and capacity,” says Stapf.

The Wildeck way
A major player in the material handling equipment industry, Wildeck services those with material, tangible items that need to be stored or protected. Clients come to Wildeck when they’re running low on capacity and need to add a second or third level for increased square footage. They may also seek the company out if they’re looking to improve safety with steel barriers for forklift traffic or if they require assistance with efficiency.

“If they need a safer or faster way to move materials from the ground level to a second or third level on up, they’ll seek us out for our material lift products, and all of our products can tie together,” Stapf says. “If you choose us for a mezzanine or structural steel platform, maybe you also need a safe or efficient way to get materials up to that mezzanine level. We can offer our material lifts that attach to our steel decks to allow customers to do that as well.”

It really comes down to Wildeck’s superior structural design elements, adds Twitty. “Where many of our competitors may only do a certain design type, like cold form C section, for example, or only beam and bar joist, we do it all. We’ll design whatever makes the most sense for the application, whether it’s a light-duty, cold form structure all the way up to a 40 or 50-foot span. The product quality at the end speaks for itself, and I think that’s why customers continue to come back.”

Committed to community
In addition to its customers, Wildeck is also deeply committed to its home and community, says John Murphy, Senior Director of Sales. “We’ve stayed local to Waukesha for the entirety of Wildeck and are highly involved in the community,” he says.

With all products proudly made in the USA, Wildeck works with a variety of steel suppliers, primarily in the Midwest, to add value through its products, whether that’s cutting components down to the proper size, drilling into structural framing members for assembly, or doing the welding and painting on-site at its campus. “Essentially, we’re taking all these components from various steel suppliers—mostly local—bringing that into our shop, adding value to it, and then the result is essentially building components that we place on a truck and ship out to our customers,” Stapf tells us.

It’s a ground-up operation, adds Twitty. “We’re taking the raw materials, we’re doing all the engineering and design work in-house for our structural design, and we have been able to own all the manufacturing processes to output a product that we have control over,” he explains. “That provides extra value to the customer, because we’re not reliant on as much outsourcing as others may be in the industry.”

The company has its own team of engineers, including structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers, and has found a great deal of success in hiring through local colleges in the area. Being an ESOP company, meanwhile, means offering an attractive culture that welcomes communication and transparency amongst team members. “I think that lends itself to a lot more buy-in and individual ownership of each project, being able to leave your mark,” says Twitty.

It is in part this culture that has led to so many employees staying with Wildeck for decades and eventually retiring with dignity. The everyday atmosphere at Wildeck celebrates and supports the community, whether that’s participating in an Office Olympics or March Madness event, gardening programs, or charitable efforts, such as a holiday food drive through the Food Pantry of Waukesha County.

Eyes on the future
Looking ahead, Wildeck is excited to be back at MODEX 2026, the premier supply chain experience trade show—its first appearance since the pandemic—with a new product soft launch: upgrading its line of lift products and becoming more standardized with components, an effort led entirely internally with a dedicated team of employee owners.

“Essentially, we’re standardizing components to make it easier to have our product assembled on site, easier to troubleshoot, and easier to order components as needed,” Stapf explains. “We’ll still be making fully customized units for those that require it, but we’re offering a more simplified solution for the majority of applications.”

This pre-engineered and pre-configured aspect also lends itself to greater efficiency in delivering quality products on time and quickly, says Twitty. Having those units to fall back on as a baseline, and then expanding the portfolio from there, will serve to improve the customer experience. “They’ll have some good baseline products to reference, and that will cover the bulk of applications,” he says. “We’ll be able to expand from there for anybody who wants to take advantage of all the custom designs right now, but we’ll have some things that are locked and loaded and ready to go from the get-go.”

Aside from MODEX, the Wildeck team is looking forward to continuing to grow. Nowadays, it’s running two shifts to keep up with demand, utilizing all the new equipment and planning for future expansion. “The number of projects really saw a large uptick through the latter half of last year—a healthy challenge for our design team, our engineers, and all of our shop employees as well,” says Twitty. “We’ve found ourselves scaling up to accommodate that.” That included a hiring spree over last summer, adding new positions at both locations in Arizona and Wisconsin.

On the marketing side, Stapf looks forward to promoting Wildeck’s new products and letting the world know what sets the company apart. “On a personal level, I’m excited to see how these take flight over the next year or two as we build momentum on those standard units,” he shares. At the end of the day, he says, “our bread and butter is upgrading facilities.”

Even with its many impressive achievements—including the upcoming 50^th anniversary—it is Wildeck’s people and their commitment to quality that truly differentiates this company. “The longevity within the company definitely helps set us apart,” says Murphy. “It’s the long-tenured people who work here that are not only doing a fantastic job but are mentoring our new employees to ensure we pass those levels of service on down the line. We’re committed to meeting and exceeding customers’ expectations.”

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