ForConstructionPros.com

When Jim Bostick looks back on the origin and growth of J.B. Bostick, a West Coast pavement maintenance company, he can't help but feel some pride in what he and partners Jerry Hamlin and Tim Crowley have accomplished.

Started with $1,675 by Bostick in 1969, doing driveway repair and sealcoating out of the back of a pickup truck, J.B. Bostick today operates two independent divisions – in Anaheim and Roseville, CA – that in 2005 generated almost $30 million in sales.
"We started out small, very small, but through word of mouth we've expanded," Bostick says. "We're proof that you can have natural growth if you do a cut above for your customers and if you do what you say you're going to do.

"We have customers today, big property owners, that we started doing work for in 1970," Bostick says. "The reason we have them still is because we spoil them and treat them how we would want to be treated. It's that type of business philosophy, all about service and delivery, that has enabled us to grow. When you tell someone something, make it happen. No excuses. That's how we operate."

Dividing a big state

Initially J.B. Bostick operated only out of the Anaheim office, managed today by Jerry Hamlin, who has been with the company 27 years. The office employs about 60 people, 40 of whom work in the field. Hamlin says the Anaheim operation generates 90% of its sales from pavement maintenance work, including fabric overlays, sealcoating, pavement repair, patching, sealcoating, concrete work, and striping. The Anaheim operation generates all its work from shopping centers, industrial parks, apartment complexes, and homeowners associations, and has successfully mined an unusual niche – mobile home parks.