Bruce & Merrilees Wins 2016 "Best Family Business"
Bruce & Merrilees Wins 2016 "Best Family Business"
PITTSBURGH, PA - May 21, 2016- Longtime local business Bruce and Merrilees has won the 2016 Family Business Award from the Pittsburgh Business Times, a publication covering business in the Pittsburgh region.
"We are proud to be recognized for the Family Business Award," said Justin Bruce, 40, a third generation family member who serves as Vice-president/CMO of the electrical business.
"We are a professional business "but a family business first," he said.
He works closely with his brothers Jay, 47 and Jonathan, 46, President/CEO and and Vice-President/COO, respectively, in the offices headquartered at 930 Cass Street in Shenango Township.
He said he and his two brothers left the business for other undertakings when they were younger, then returned over the years to fill specific needs in the business. Now they are running the day to day operations.
Some siblings might have trouble working together so closely, but Justin says for him and his brothers, it's a great arrangement.
"We trust each other, we work well together," he said. "There are a lot of great benefits to working with your family that you love and trust.'
He added that employees and associates are also treated like family at the business.
And their father, Robert Bruce, 74, spends a lot of time out of town these days, but when he is home, "he is here in the office." The elder Bruce remains very active in the company's different associations and labor unions and offers guidance and advice to his sons from the "tremendous amount of knowledge" he has gained over the years, Justin said.
The company was founded by Robert Bruce's father, J. Howard Bruce in 1948 as a residential, commercial and industrial electrical contracting company, which also provided electrical appliance repair and sales.
But Bruce and Merrilees has grown considerably over the years.
Today, they have offices in Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and will soon open one in Columbus, Ohio. No longer a residential contracting business, Bruce & Merrilees now works with large-scale electrical project solutions. These include transportation, high voltage, oil and gas, industrial and power, specialty contracts and services and commercial and institutional.They serve the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions and employ about 300.
Justin said the company worked on the shredder for Ben Weitsman Co., which recently located to New Castle, on the recent Jameson Hospital addition, as well as projects for Dairy Farmers of America and Westminster College, both in New Wilmington, to name a few local projects.
One criterion for the award was how well the business is planning for succession and longterm viability. Justin remarked that the fourth generation of the Bruce family, which includes seven children between the three brothers, works in the business during the summer and that one of them, Jay's daughter Diana, a college sophomore, just started a summer internship in the company.
Other employees of the company are also encouraged to to grow into increasing levels of responsibility and leadership, Justin said.
Another criterion for the award was the company's contributions to the community, which are extensive. The family is actively involved as board members for numerous local organizations including Jameson Hospital, the New Castle Community YMCA, the Chamber of Commerce, Relay for Life and many others, as well as contributing to many causes and providing an annual scholarship.
This is not the company's first award. It was also selected as one of the region's "Best Places to Work" for the past three years. The owners believe that this is because they acknowledge employees for their efforts "in the way that only family can."
