Ruby + Associates hired 5, 5 more to come

With Michigan's auto industry declining, it wouldn't seem that a steel structural engineering company would have had a 50 percent profit increase in the past year.

But that's exactly what happened at Ruby + Associates, a Farmington-based firm.

"We've really diversified our client base and geography," says CFO/COO Tricia Huneke. "We're well-respected nationally, and we've grown into that reputation and trying to build on it - as our local clients are moving out of state, they're taking us with them as well."

Huneke and brother Jay Ruby are the second-generation owners of Ruby - the company was founded by the pair's father in 1984.

"Around 2003, it was by far the worst this industry had seen," Huneke says. "9/11 caught up to everybody and dollars came to a standstill. We were down to about 17 people at this point, so we started looking at new markets and new areas. We started doing more connection design, we hired an outside person to open some doors for us, to get into a few new markets that we hadn't been in in the southeast and southwest... and we got a lot of clients."

So many clients, in fact, that Ruby + Associates has recently hired five structural engineers and is in the process of hiring five more.

The additional workers, Huneke says, will help handle the company's increased workload.

Huneke points to a strategic plan crafted last year as part of the impetus driving Ruby's growth.

"It brought our company together and gave us a common sense of purpose," she says. "We were able to talk about defining who we were and who we wanted to be, and it made making decisions about clients easier."

Source: Tricia Huneke, Ruby + Associates
Writer: Nancy Kaffer