Business Spotlight: New owners build solid framework for Ozark Structures

Ozark Structures' future looked uncertain four years ago.

The company's founder and owner, Bryan Toombs, had died, and his widow Marianne wasn't interested in running the business.

So, she asked son-in-law Jim Datema to help her do whatever was needed to sell the business.

The two contacted Herb Cohen, a retired accountant who had worked for Toombs, and enlisted his help. Cohen agreed to help if Datema would run the business during the sales process. Datema agreed and arranged a six-month leave of absence from his job as a corporate identity consultant for Kiku Obata and Co. in St. Louis.

"I had no financial interest in the company," Datema said. "I was drawing a salary equal to what I was making at the company I worked for in St. Louis. My main objective was to build a self-sustaining company that would be appealing to buyers."

And Datema certainly met that goal.

When Datema took over the company in 1998, it had 50 employees, sales of approximately $6 million and a backlog of $80,000 in orders. Today, Ozark Structures employs 100 workers, projects sales of $17 million in 2002, and the company's backlog of orders is $14 million, according to Datema.

"Right now, we're growing as fast as our cash flow will allow us," he said.

Ozark Structures initially specialized in retail facilities, but the company has branched out and begun building hotels and motels, multifamily housing complexes, military housing complexes and assisted living facilities. Ozark Structures' client list now ranges from Applebee's to Hampton Inn to multifamily projects for Wilhoit Properties, Datema said.

New ownership

Once Datema got the company headed in the right direction, he took stock of his own situation. His six-month leave of absence had turned into a year. During that year, the field of potential buyers for the company had narrowed from 50 to three.

However, Ozark Structures wasn't the same company that went on the market a year earlier. It had become more profitable, had a strong management team and was self-sustaining, Datema said.

All of these factors led him to believe the original asking price was too low. When the three potential buyers balked at paying a higher price, Datema and Mike Burkhart, who is now the company's executive vice president, put together an offer to buy Ozark Structures.

"The deal we put together was better than anything the other potential buyers were offering, and we bought the company," Datema said. "Commerce Bank was tremendous through the stock redemption and refinancing of the business."

Datema became the company's majority shareholder with 95 percent of the company's stock.

In 1999, Datema traded approximately 10 percent of his stock to acquire a construction firm that Burkhart co-owned with his father Wiley, and the construction firm became a division of Ozark Structures.

Datema lives in St. Louis and telecommutes to the office via the Internet. He also visits the company's office in Brookline one or two days per week.

Turning it around

When Datema took over the daily operations of the company, his first job was to take stock of where the company was both internally and in the marketplace. Toombs, a professional engineer, considered his company to be an engineering firm first and a manufacturing firm second, and many of the projects Ozark Structures had undertaken were highly technical in nature. Engineered products that the company designed and produced included roof and floor trusses, wall panels and structural steel.

Datema also discovered Ozark Structures had a wheel-and-spoke-style management system.

"I think where a lot of small companies fall short is they become centered around one person," said Datema. "That's what happened at Ozark Structures. There was no succession plan in place and no real management team in place."

Datema began interviewing employees and put together a new management team. He also changed the organizational structure to promote communication between the company's departments.

Drawing from his background as a corporate identity consultant, he developed statements about the company's mission, core values and management objectives and gave Ozark Structures a "graphic identity." Then Datema established several five-year goals, the most significant of which was to offer more products and services. To accomplish this goal, the company switched its focus from engineering to sales and manufacturing.

Today, Ozark Structures delivers a wide variety of engineered structural components to all points east of the Rocky Mountains. These component materials are used in the building packages the company sells. Once the components are delivered, the company's construction division or a subcontractor erects the structure.