On the morning of December 14th, the Fortney family and Fortney & Weygandt, Inc. employees continued their annual holiday tradition of passing out 1,000 turkeys and 1,000 sacks of potatoes to the less fortunate in the Greater Cleveland area.
We often write about the importance Fortney & Weygandt, Inc. places on building mutually beneficial relationships with our clients. We firmly believe that loyalty and trust are the foundations of our relationships with our clients. Trust builds confidence and confidence builds repeat customers.
Throughout this week we have watched wild fires ravage through the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area reducing homes and businesses to piles of ash. We mourn for the lives lost and feel the grief of those who have lost so much.
Fortney & Weygandt, Inc. is no stranger to such disasters. As a construction general contractor, we have been called upon in the past to help businesses and communities rebuild. When Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast in 2012 leaving devastating damage in its wake, we were there to assist a national pharmacy chain restore the availability of critical healthcare supplies to the residents of Rockaway, New York by constructing a temporary “drug store” which Fortney & Weygandt crews accomplished in just three days. Early this year we stood ready to assist with reconstruction of businesses in Missouri and Illinois due to the destructive flooding in the Midwest. So we understand the need and sense of loss now be experienced by the people of Gatlinburg.
Fortney & Weygandt received the Award of Merit from The Association of Builders & Contractors (ABC) for our renovation of Mabel's BBQ. The Excellence in Construction Awards event was on Friday, October, 29th at the A Loft Hotel in Cleveland. Jerry Gentz, Director of Business Development, was in attendance to accept the award.
Fortney & Weygandt has been a longtime supporter of the Make A Wish Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana chapter and has been looking for a way to get more involved with the organization. Keri Haibach, Director of Individual & Planned Giving, came to us with a unique opportunity to sponsor a wish for a local 14 year old named Calvin, who has had a brain tumor since 2010.
Calvin’s Make A Wish team asked him what he would like his wish to be, he happily decided on a game room in his house similar to Joey and Chandler’s apartment on the TV show, Friends. He decided he wanted a pool table, shuffle board table and a flat screen TV to play his video games. The game room was finished off with a couch, bar stools and a bar table. None of this would have been possible without the help of Sears, Danny Vegh’s, Levin Furniture and GameStop. The room was renovated by Fortney & Weygandt volunteers, Make A Wish volunteers and friends and family members of Calvin’s.
We revealed the room on September 17th and are very proud to have been a part of this wish for Calvin.
Fortney & Weygandt, Inc. had 3 college interns in our office this summer. Alexis, Adam and Ryan have been working in our Accounting, Rollout and Estimating Departments as well as shadowing Superintendents in the field. They have all enjoyed learning about the ins and outs of our company and the general contracting world.
Since the mid 1980’s Fortney & Weygandt, Inc. has been active in retail rollout programs. These programs consist of performing the same scope of work in multiple locations across many states. The schedule for each specific location may be as short as one day or as long as three weeks. We have found ourselves adding cigarette display units in 1,600 locations in 6 weeks as well as performing 300 intense remodels in six months. No two programs are alike and the performance parameters are always a challenge.
A few years ago Fortney & Weygandt, Inc. commissioned Gianfagna Marketing & Communications, Inc. to conduct a market study and one part of that study dealt with the perceptions of our clients, developers and architectural associates towards our company. One attribute that respondents in the study mentioned repeatedly was the company’s “superior project management capabilities”, such as comments like:
Fortney & Weygandt, Inc. and The Fortney Foundation were proud to support the Kidney Foundation of Ohio this past weekend as sponsors of their annual Gala. The proceeds from this event go towards their programs and services that directly help individuals struggling with kidney diseases and failure. Fortney & Weygandt, Inc. has sponsored this event and has supported the Kidney Foundation of Ohio for many years.
Store construction and remodeling is full of challenges and obstacles that can be a challenge to any organization and their contractor. Like any service, once you find a good provider you tend to rely on them and use them for multiple projects.
There is tremendous value in knowing your chosen vendor is working with you for the long term success of your company, not just the success of one project. Once that has been established, there are many benefits to an owner, most importantly an abundance of knowledge and resources to provide excellent services.
