F E AT U R E Developing the Next Generations of Plumbers in the Grand Canyon State by Mike Brewer, Brewer Companies In 1978, I began working in the construction trades, and after ten years, purchased the business. More than four decades later, I am the Founder and CEO of Arizona's largest plumbing company, Brewer Companies, working alongside a leadership team of friends I have known for more than thirty years while leading an organization of more than 350 team
that the number one challenge facing our company was building and maintaining the labor force necessary to support our current operations, and growing our businesses by identifying qualified tradespeople capable of producing the quality labor required to fulfill our needs. Unfortunately, with a fixed number of trained plumbers in Arizona, one company's
and elevate the concept of construction trade workforce development throughout Arizona. That meant a new emphasis on public relations and substantive relationship development beyond our traditional trade partners and industry leaders. I began engaging with state legislative leadership and helping them understand our industry needs and the
members, including four of my sons. Today, our Brewer family of companies consists of Brewer Enterprises – residential new construction, building over 7,000 houses in 2020, Brewer Commercial Services – providing new build and services to the commercial marketplace, and Benjamin Franklin Plumbing – 'on-time' residential service and repair to homeowners. As our organization grew, we discovered
gain in headcount meant another company's loss. That meant that recruiting had become a zero-sum game without expanding the talent pool for individual employers and our industry as a whole. With an emphasis on positioning my business for the next generation of our family and maintaining the high level of quality and service that Brewer customers have come to know, my team and I began developing a plan to increase relevancy
negative impact that the construction trade shortage was having on both homebuilding and commercial contracting from a bottleneck perspective. One of our greatest long-term wins was connecting with the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, Arizona's largest Chamber, and developing an industry-led, multi-year marketing campaign to promote the construction trades. This partnership culminated with the launch of Build Your
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