Page 42 - BusinessWest September 14 2020

having many safety concerns or incidents.”
At least one trend in the year of COVID-19 has
been a positive for J.L. Raymaakers, whose yard- products division, ROAR, has been extremely busy, adding more than 600 new customers this year and tripling sales.
“That’s partly through marketing and word of mouth, but partly because of COVID,” Raymaak- ers said. “People have been home, not at work, and they were sprucing up their yards and plant- ing gardens.”
Those two elements of her business — public
“People don’t realize you can make a good living, and we’re hearing that everywhere; it’s very difficult to find employees. If the the trades are dying, what’s going to happen then?”
infrastructure work and yard products — have not only helped Raymaakers and her team weather an unusual year, but thrive during it. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t recognize acute needs elsewhere.
“Because we’ve been so fortunate this year, and so many people and organizations have been struggling, we upped our charitable contribu- tions to help out with food banks as well as the Westfield Boys and Girls Club, making sure we
J.L. Raymaakers & Sons recently completed an extensive project at Swan Pond in Forest Park, which involved creating a temporary dam and replacing a century-old culvert.
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CONSTRUCTION
BusinessWest
give back to the community and those that are struggling.”
One trend that has not changed this year, even with so many people out of work, Raymaakers said, is a persistent shortage of workers.
“For ourselves as well as other construction companies, as much as we’re busy, it’s very dif- ficult to find employees or crew — equipment operators and laborers — in this industry,” she told BusinessWest.
“People don’t realize you can make a good liv- ing, and we’re hearing that everywhere; it’s very difficult to find employees,” she added, noting that many of her firm’s supervisors and project managers started on the ground floor and worked their way up. “If the the trades are dying, what’s going to happen then?”
It’s not a local- ized phenomenon. According to a work-
Construction
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