In 2018, ENR Southeast—and ENR’s other Regional Editions—initiated a new way of researching for our respective “Firms of the Year.” For our Top Design Firms, Top Contractors and Top Specialty Contractors surveys, we added two simple questions: Does your firm wish to be considered for recognition as Firm of the Year? And, basically, If so, why?

Those simple questions have yielded some valuable and interesting information. In the case of ENR Southeast, the responses have definitely helped us to broaden our search for worthy candidates, while also kick-starting the research effort. (This year’s Top Specialty Contractors survey remains open.)

In case you missed them earlier, readers can look back at this year’s Southeast Design Firm of the Year and Southeast Contractor of the Year.

Which brings us to Southeast Specialty Contractor of the Year—Wayne Brothers Inc. First, the Davidson, N.C.-based concrete and civil construction contractor experienced good revenue growth in 2017, the year covered by this year’s survey. The firm’s Southeast revenue for 2017 totaled roughly $96.7 million, up roughly 16% from the $83.38 million it reported for last year’s ranking.

Now with more than 450 employees, the company also noted recent geographic expansions, with new offices in Clarksville, Tenn., and more recently, an office in Savannah, Ga. Also, in March 2018, WBI acquired Intespec, Inc., which provides equipment installation services, such as rigging and setting, associated piping installation and system design and layout.

Perhaps more importantly, the contractor marked a recent safety achievement, having logged more than 929,000 work hours since July 2017 without a single lost-time accident. Readers will be able to learn more about Wayne Brothers’ efforts when ENR Southeast profiles the firm in the upcoming Sept. 3 print edition.