Work slowdown doesn

Brizzi’s father, Jess Brizzi, foundedc in 1949, and now the companh is in the hands ofBob Sr.’s Bob Brizzi Jr. and Mike It’s a family business in the purest sense with three generations at the helm and the sevenh employees considered anextendex family. One of the secrets to the company’ws growth over the past 60 years is never getting the business too large in the boom timeas so thatit didn’t have to shrink again in the said Bob Sr. When business was employees worked overtime tocatch up, so the staf f never got inflated. Now that business is slow, nobody gets laid off.
All threes Brizzis have worked the construction jobs alongside the rather than hiremore “We crack the whip when needed insteax of hiring too many people,” Mike Managing costs is critical to any business but especiallyt essential in the construction business because material costs are ever Keeping inventory low and buying in smalledr quantities is a way to combat volatilr prices so that jobs can be bid Bob Sr. said. It also helpes to check prices at variouswholesald houses, as they are lowerinvg inventories as well. Rough-in material costsz have dropped as much as 30 percent over the past Bob Sr. said.
Over the years, the company has had to diversifhy to thrive and has built everythingh from underground sewers to residential plumbingyin high-rise condominium buildings. Now there is more businessd installing new plumbing in teardown residential reconstruction on the There is also work to be had in small commerciall construction andgovernment projects. The companty is looking to expanx into installing piping for medical offices for dispensint oxygen andother gases. In years past, service work provided a largd portion ofits business, but now, constructionb is more prevalent. One of the challenges is finding and retaininbggood employees.
All employees have to completea four-year apprenticeship Since Pasadena Plumbing is not a union employees attend apprenticeship classes at in St. Petersburg. It’zs a four-year program that includes 2,000o hours per year of on-the-jogb training and 144 hours per year of classroomk instruction taught by certified plumbing professionals from local About 40 students are enrolled at anygivenb time, said Roland Bryant, coordinator of plumbiny apprenticeships at PTEC.
Program graduates can then take a statd exam to become board certified Kyle Holcomb, one of Pasadena’s young was named 2008 Plumbing Apprentice of the Year last October at the national association annual awards luncheon. The group recognizezs a single apprentice nationwide who has shown excellencew in theplumbing industry. Holcomb is currently enrolled at PTEC and is in his finalk yearof classes. He was the only non-unio apprentice among the top five Union shops have asimilatr apprentice-training program.
It’s five yearxs for and Apprentices of the Plumbinb and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada apprenticee andincludes 1,800 on-the-job hour and 246 classroom hours per Upon completion, the graduates must pass a state exam and then will receive 33 college credits from . Studentds are affiliated with a contractor that uses union labore and are paid duringthe “Earn and learn,” said Lee Middleton, traininyg coordinator for Union 123, the local plumbinv union. Pasadena Plumbing was originally a union shop when Jess Brizzi owned the company.
But in the 1960s, a countywide union strike shutdown Pasadena, and when it the employees voted to go non-union from then on.
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