Garco, Bhp Steel Plan Joint Venture

A new joint venture with BHP Steel Building Products USA will increase the quality as well as the quantity of business for Garco Building Systems, Vice President Joe Loomis said Tuesday.

The relationship also will allow both companies to extend their product lines without the need for new production facilities, he said.

BHP, based in Sacramento, Calif., specializes in steel roofing and paneling, Loomis said. Garco engineers and manufactures framing and other building components.

Loomis said the companies have worked together before on projects, but mostly through third parties.

BHP is very well regarded in the construction industry, as is Garco, he said, but BHP is better known.

“They’re very sophisticated in the marketing area,” he said, estimating BHP would triple Garco’s exposure.

Loomis said Garco already has an extensive backlog, up 32 percent from a year ago, and revenues increased almost 20 percent last year.

The company, which employs 154, is slowly outgrowing its existing quarters in Airway Heights, he said, so the owners recently bought an adjacent 15-acre plot to accommodate future expansion.

, DataTimes