Alcan Electrical & Engineering Inc.: family business succeeds by adapting.

• Author: Stomierowski, Peg
• Position: 2009 Alaka's Top 49ers: TRAILBLAZERS LEADING THE STATE'S TOP BUSINESS - Company overview

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Scott Bringmann, president of Alcan Electrical & Engineering Inc. headquartered in Anchorage, said the company had a good year in 2008, largely as a function of overall business volume. Revenues at Alcan, a family business started by Scott's father, reportedly rose from 42.1 million in 2007 to 50.5 million in 2008.

In a local market driven by such big forces as military spending and oil prices, principle electrical activities also include Alcan's telecommunications construction division, AlcanTel, which was started in the early 1990s.

OIL DRIVES BUSINESS

While oil prices continue to fluctuate and military spending has slowed amid historic recession pressures, Scott is gratified that Alcan in Alaska has enough of a backlog to keep busy next year. That's including the Goose Creek Corrections Center project, which is scheduled for nearly three years of construction with as many as 50 to 60 electricians employed.

And "if the price of oil keeps going up," he said, there will be a lot of work. High oil prices tend to spur private development, he said, and to succeed in such a climate businesses must adapt.

While overall Alcan works on commercial, industrial and institutional facilities, the company over the last 15 years has leaned more to a design-build approach, including pre-construction services and design assist for all sectors of construction, Scott said. "It's what we're good at."

HISTORY

His father, George Bringmann, came to Alaska in 1968 from southern Oregon, where he lives now in retirement, to work as an electrician during a time when underground nuclear tests were being done on Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands. In 1972, he and a partner started Alcan.

Scott's brother, Skipp Bringmann, is vice president, and the firm has 185 employees, with offices additionally in Wasilla, Juneau and Fairbanks.

Alcan has played a role in many projects around the state. In the "80s, at several middle schools, grocery stores and the BP office building; during the "90s with Alyeska Prince Hotel and the Elmendorf Hospital; and in the early 2000s, at Bassett Hospital in Fairbanks, the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. building and JL Tower. Current projects include the Providence southwest-campus expansion.

BUSY WITH PROJECTS

By summer's end, Alcan was working to finish Clark Middle School in Mountain View, the integrated science facility at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and the terminal at Fairbanks International Airport. It also...