Dirty job sustains Durham-based company.

• Position: Mid-Market FAST 40 - DunnWell LLC - Company overview

DunnWell LLC made its mark by taking care of chores chain restaurants would rather not worry about, such as cleaning kitchen exhaust systems and maintaining fire-suppresion equipment. It's a growth business: Revenue doubled between 2008 and 2010, and its workforce grew by 50%.

The Durham-based company doesn't clean the exhaust vents or check sprinkler systems itself. Instead, it built, and now manages, a national network of vendors that cleans and maintains those systems. It also uses technology to document customer expectations and job results.

"Our value is in providing information and intelligence about services being performed in their facilities and also providing management and oversight," CEO Joe Dunn says.

He founded the company in 2003 as a commercial-kitchen exhaust-cleaning service, with the work done by his own technicians. He also sold a few DunnWell exhaust-cleaning franchises, but they didn't have enough long-term revenue potential so he bought them back in 2007 and refocused on providing building management and oversight for large restaurants.

DunnWell targets multistate chains and works with a single point of contact who makes decisions for the entire chain, instead of with individual managers. DunnWell's largest customer is Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants Inc., which operates 1,600 eateries, including Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and The Capital Grille. DunnWell...