Winter 2020 Trade Newsletter | Superior Concrete

From Our CEO

As we start a new calendar year, it is important to reflect on the past year, as it stood out, with its many challenges, compared to previous years. Trade Shows were not the place to be in 2020, The word is not out yet for 2021. 2020 was a year for thinking on our feet, or perhaps, to think from a linear foot and square foot perspective, on our keypads, computers and cell phones. While we do what is needed day in and day out, the importance of evaluating our lifestyles is paramount, in order to find a balance between the challenges we face personally and in business. Superior was proactive in 2020 in response to the COVID-19. We took swift action to assure the health and safety of our employees. My thanks to Victor Gonzalez, our HR Manager, for taking the lead in this effort.

Superior continued to plow through barriers and acquired new customers while striving to improve the relationships with our existing customers. 2020 was also the year we introduced our newest product, Superior Cut Stone, which has been receiving great reviews. Our projects continued to span the country in 2020, with customers requesting Superior’s products and services, from Oregon to New Jersey and states in between. 2020 was a year for the record books at Superior, for Texas, the USA and the world. We survived and thrived. As we head into 2021, we are grateful for the support of our many loyal customers. We look forward to providing them with even greater service. 

Welcome Our New Safety Manager

Superior Concrete Products is excited to welcome Luis Lozano as our new Safety Manager! Luis, an Air Force veteran, has 15 years of experience in the field of safety. He has worked in a variety of manufacturing industries such as chemical and food processing plants along with safety work in detention centers and government agencies.

Mr. Lozano is using his knowledge to develop a new company Safety Manual and Safety Orientation for the onboarding of new employees. This will be a key factor in the company’s continuous improvement moving forward into 2021 with a renewed focus on safety, quality, and customer satisfaction.

We welcome you to explore the many helpful sections that our site has to offer. You can find the sections most relevant to your interests and background in the tab called “Who You Are”. Should you prefer to get straight to our product listings, just click on “See Our Products,” or the “Products” tab at the top of the home page. Under the tab called “Product Information” you may also want to check out our photo gallery to get an idea of how our products can add to the aesthetic quality of your projects. In keeping with our commitment to continually improving our level of service to customers, we have just launched our new and easy to navigate website: www.concrete-fence.com.

From Our Plant Manager

Quality is something we focus on, daily. We have an NPCA-certified plant, and we constantly pass the quality standard test, so we are confident in our product materials. The supervisors’ audit the finished product on the factory floor, the prepour as-well-as the post-pour inspections on the molds.

They also check the product’s thickness and dimensions to make sure that they are the right ones to work with. The production workers look for quality in our panels as well. If there is an irregularity in a product, it is trashed, so only the proper one’s ship to the customer. One of the new machines we have purchased for the factory is called the EZ Grout, a portable mixer for the panel department. It has a chute to it and a paddle inside the Hopper, which acts as a storage tank.

This saves us a lot of manufacturing time and helps get the customer’s product ready sooner. The most significant advantage is that we are a turnkey company. This means, when you ask for the materials you need, we will have it ready after a few required steps. Everything is completed inhouse. Our products have the greatest strength, so if you look at a project that was completed thirty years ago, it seems like it was built yesterday. The texture will stand the test of time. 

The fastest-growing product we have this year has been our Superior Brick. We have many jobs nationally that use this specific product. One of our newest products, Superior Cut Stone is already designed and in production. In August, we have a job lined up for its installation. We also have a newer texture that is coming later this year, called Superior Chisholm Stone, which has a ledge stone texture but is sharper in detail.

Here at Superior Concrete Products, we always make sure that our products are delivered on time. That is why we have weekly meetings to prioritize each project. From the manufacturing team to the installers, we always make sure everything gets done promptly to avoid delays unless there is a weather-related incident. 

From Our Project Manager

We are very proud with a substation project we have completed in Montana, This is the most impressive installation our crews have completed to date. In the field, we follow shop drawings as designed for each plan. We rely on accurate shop drawings, as supplied by our engineers. Then we execute any project changes that are necessary.

There have been some challenging projects and one was our Creekside project on the East coast. We had to install a twelve-foot fence on the guard rail slope near an exit ramp. We have an MPS that we prepare every Tuesday.

We make big decisions on project moves and get installation and manufacturing to comply with upper management’s directions. Hence, we make sure this is all taken care of before any execution of any project.

From Our Vice President of Sales & Development

We have witnessed a complete restructuring of sales to adjust to the new COVID-19 realities. With all the hardships associated with internal lockdowns, customers have become wary of meeting in person to discuss future projects. Not to mention, cautious of their spending and more in-depth reviews of their purchasing decisions. In turn, our sales department had to react and offer more flexible solutions to promote our products and company as a whole. Some sales trends we will continue to see in 2021 are virtual Lunch & Learn opportunities, telecom conference calls and videos via Zoom, Teams and FaceTime. Staying relevant and fostering relationships are extremely important to our success and with these tools, they will allow us to communicate face to face, so to speak.

Design technology has already been a popular construction trend before the pandemic, and there’s simply no stopping or disrupting it. The promise of constructing our retaining walls and screen walls in virtual space before building it in real life is just too great to be ignored by our customers who, are engineer and architect firms, GC’s and developers. Our in-house engineers use an industry leading program REVIT, which is a fundamental re-thinking

of the design and production process. This will give our customers and design partners the ability to see our retaining and screening walls and how it interacts with the rest of their project without having to meet in person, all while practicing social distancing.

Safety will always be our well-being, but in the Covid-19 environment it rises to the top of the list. Adjustments to mitigate the spread of disease will focus on social distancing of workers and enhanced equipment and cleanliness protocols. Also, in our corporate office, you will see many continue to work from home as needed when being exposed. Our in-office, factory and job site employees are equipped with enhanced protocols that include the expected things, like masks and hand sanitizer, as well as things specific to installation and construction. The passing around of tools, sharing of gloves and hard hats will be curtailed. We’ll all likely be writing our names on things and using only our own protective equipment. The disruption to our supply chains has forced Superior Concrete Products to find alternative suppliers and, in some cases, to pay higher prices for materials.

From Our Vice President of Operations

During 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption and an awareness none ever knew would be upon us in such a huge way. Protection will always be a distress, but in the Covid-19 environment it rises to the top of the list. Adjustments to mitigate the spread of disease will focus on social distancing of workers and enhanced equipment and cleanliness protocols. Also, in our corporate office, you will see many continue to work from home as needed when being exposed. Our in-office, factory, and job site employees are equipped with enhanced protocols that include the expected things, like masks and hand sanitizer, as well as things specific to installation and construction. The passing around of tools, sharing of gloves and hard hats will be curtailed. We’ll all likely will be writing our names on things and using only our own protective equipment.

The disruption to our supply chains has forced Superior Concrete Products to find alternative suppliers and, in some cases, to pay higher prices for materials. There’s no indication that this is going to improve in the near term. This will allow us to search for new suppliers to make sure we are getting the best value for our raw material, in turn, giving our customers the absolute best pricing.

SCP has restructured our construction management team, means, and methods. This will no doubt allow us to insure continued customer service, project communication, real time updates, and status reports. The dedicated attention to these details will result in on time delivery and project completion. Achieving the ultimate goal of customer satisfaction, repeat business as well as generation of new projects through our reputation.

And to our SCP team: Remember, we can do anything, but we cannot do everything, at least at the same time. So, think of your priorities not in terms of what activities you do, but when you do them, timing is everything. 

Download our Winter 2020 Trade Newsletter | Superior Concrete

logo-113bc9ca-b4bd-5bbb-a6b8-916a81dcd5a4
logo-33c2485b-0b73-537b-b856-a66bbcd90297
logo-a316487e-659c-5cdd-ad21-d4a52de6514a
logo-70cae00e-787c-55e5-8bf8-e6d5eb89d56f
logo-241bae82-58e1-575b-bab1-6425c8152aad
Free Consultation

Call now to speak with one of our professional engineers or consultants.

Copyright ©2022 Superior Concrete Fence of Texas, Inc. Affiliated with Superior Engineering