Firm moves and expands -- without gov't help

The building industry is still mostly in the dumps. But a Gulf Coast firm that supplies aluminum for everything from parking garages to schools to custom homes offers a much rosier outlook.

In fact, the company, Sarasota-based Mullet's Aluminum, recently opened a 16,000-square-foot welding and fabrication facility. The plant is near its showroom, and it features state-of-the-art fabrication gear and equipment, says Mullet's marketing director Nate Yoder.

“It seems like things are coming back,” Yoder tells Coffee Talk. “Our products are becoming more and more in demand. We are seeing a growing trend in renovations” of existing buildings.

Yoder says Mullet's has jobs and pending work in Maine, Chicago and the Caribbean, in addition to Florida. The firm has 100 employees, and in a 2008 Business Review story, owner Butch Mullet said the firm does about $15 million a year in sales. Yoder declines to discuss more specific and current sales.

The new Sarasota facility is in a building Mullet's has owned for a few years. Yoder says the building was completely gutted to make room for the fabrication plant. Yoder declines to elaborate on its cost, only to say it was a “significant investment.”

Also significant: The company's previous fabrication plant was in Manatee County, and even though Mullet's eventually plans to hire more in Sarasota, it didn't receive any government subsidies to move, says Yoder. That's certainly unusual in the current environment.

“The owner made a business decision to do this,” says Yoder. “We see signs of the market improving, and we want to be in a good position.”