Sweetman's Success Story

Sweetman's Construction Runner Up of the Vicki Clarke Prairie Family Business Award

The Sweetman Family

Sioux Falls Boyd Hopkins Excellence in Family Business 2010

The Story:

Founded in 1930, Concrete Materials produced crushed rock from a small processing plant in west Sioux Falls. The company later added a small sand production plant near Rowene and, after World War II, opened Sioux Falls' first ready mix concrete plant adjacent to the original rock quarry. When Richard S. Sweetman purchased C.A. Wagner Construction Co. in 1952, the company specialized in heavy highway construction because the interstate system was under construction.   
Richard and his sons, Gerald (Jerry) and Dick ran the business together for many years.  In 1986, Jerry sold his shares in the family business to his brother.  Dick stayed here and Jerry and his family moved to Colorado Springs where he had several manufacturing businesses.
In 1996, Jerry came back and bought the business from his brother, and Jerry’s son, Patrick returned in 1996 to begin working with his father.  Patrick grew up around the family business until he was 14, and when he got back in the business in 1996, started doing the same type of work out in California to gain more experience.
Since its inception in the 1950s, the company has continued growing and expanding. Concrete Materials owns and operates aggregate and concrete production facilities in Chancellor, Yankton, and Sioux Falls, they also have a stone quarry, sand and gravel processing plants, ready mix concrete plants, and asphalt plants. Now, in 2010, Sweetman Construction has changed its operations to be a major supplier of raw materials such as block, stone, sand, concrete and asphalt for other companies.
Jerry Sweetman, is now the chairman of the board of directors after being the president and chief executive officer since 1996. His son, Patrick, took over the reins in June this year. Patrick Sweetman is the third generation president and CEO of Sweetman Construction.

Like Boyd Hopkins, Sr., the Sweetman family demonstrates the qualities for which this award is presented:

1.Determination and Foresight:   The Sweetman’ s  saw the economic downturn coming before it actually hit the Midwest, and because of constant contact with companies in different markets across the nation, were able to take some preventative measures; mostly by operating efficiently and wage planning.
Like other companies, Sweetman Construction did feel the pinch of the most recent economic downturn, but as Pat Sweetman says, “our people did a great job of buttoning down the hatches.”
In addition, a few years earlier the company started strategic planning, something Sweetman Construction had never did before. “It has been our lifeline,” Jerry Sweetman says.

2.Strength:  Demonstrated in their value statement:

• Safe and secure work environment
• Honesty and integrity in all our dealings
• Diversification, innovation and growth
• Providing value to the customer
• Commitment to quality
• Teamwork and Communication
• Midwestern work ethic
• Leadership to family, employees and community

Jerry says that the employee family members of a family owned business must remember that they are employees like everyone else. “Don’t milk the business or take advantage of it,” he says. “The business is here to provide for the families of all the 260 employees.”       Community Service: (name a few)