Builder's Choice, Inc.: taking manufacturing to a new level.

• Author: Sharpe, Margaret
• Position: Alaska's Top 49ers: Featured 49er - Company overview

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Newcomer to the Top 49er list is modular design and manufacturing company Builders Choice Inc., (BCI). Established in 1996, the company started out as a wood truss manufacturing operation. In 2001, Mark and Sandi Larson bought out their partner and became co-owners. As president and CFO, respectively, the couple took it from a five to ten-worker operation to a company of more than three hundred employees.

"The reason that we got into this in the first place was it was something we could do together," says Mark Larson. "We have a unique marriage, and we actually like doing things together and like being a part of projects, seeing things tome together." The pair complement each other, with Mark as the "big picture" front man and Sandi in the background making sure that all the decimal points line up, bringing structure to Mark's vision. "Sandi is the smart one," he says, "putting numbers together and understanding the complexities, how to account for things and how to create systems that make the rest of the team around here function really well."

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Successful Formula

The husband and wife formula has indeed been functioning well for BCI, with the Larson team guiding the company on to new enterprises. "When Sandi and I came onboard, our primary focus as owners was to expand the business, reach outside of the business, and go after the general market," says Larson. "We were looking for other ways that we could bring prebuilt components to the marketplace in a way that made sense and made money for the end customer, had an added value of some kind." They started providing trusses and engineered lumber packages (wall panels and prebuilt pieces) to residential contractors. "That was our principal business," he says, "and that expanded into modular construction in 2005."

Initially, that expansion did not bear fruit. "We stumbled a little," Larson says. "We thought that being from a residential background, it made sense to build modular for residential homes." After a year, they realized that residential wasn't the best value for using modular. "So we opened up a bit into the oil industry for a project for BE And that is what really shot us through the ceiling; that's where we found our niche."

A lot of the BCI modular units are used in the oil and gas industry. Coming off of the success of the BP job, they focused on building for bigger projects that were more residential/commercial minded. "Our mission...