This fall, New Berlin-based Schroeder Solutions will consolidate its operations by moving to a smaller space with higher ceilings at 1920 S. Calhoun Road. The company is currently headquartered at 16150 W. Lincoln Ave. and occupies about 53,000 square feet there and in two other nearby buildings. The company will occupy about 43,000 square feet of space at the Calhoun Road location.
The company sells and installs high-end office furnishings such as flooring, moveable walls and cubicles, raised flooring to accommodate wiring, heating and cooling equipment, and sound-masking equipment.
Even though the company’s new facility will be about 10,000 square feet smaller than its current facilities, the new facility will have more storage space because it is being built with 26-foot-high ceilings, increasing the company’s storage capacity.
“Our 22,000 square feet of floor space will equate to about 60,000 square feet of equipment storage,” said Scott Gierhahn, president and chief executive officer of the company.
The move is necessary because Schroeder Solutions has had explosive growth over the past three years, Gierhahn said. The company has doubled its employees from 40 to 80, posted about 85 percent revenue growth and expanded its services, adding workplace design, office furnishings, record retention and an overnight carpet installation service for offices.
Gierhahn declined to disclose the company’s 2005 revenues.
The new building also will have about 7,500 square feet of space devoted to record retention, which will translate to about 13,000 square feet of storage. The record retention area will have card key access and clients’ stored documents will be catalogued for easy access, Gierhahn said.
Additionally, all of the company’s field employees will have work stations in the company’s new offices. The company has about 60 field employees who currently have no work stations when they’re in the New Berlin office.
The company’s expansion into addition services was an obvious choice, Gierhahn said, because clients needed extra services when they were moving or remodeling their office spaces.
“We became a full-service facilities management company,” he said. “The backbone of the company is corporate relocation and furniture installation. We also do services, maintenance and cleaning of the equipment. We’ve added workplace design, office furnishing and record retention.”
Schroeder Solutions was formed in 2002, when Integrated Office Solutions, an office supply firm, and Schroeder Installation Systems, an office installation company, merged. Both companies were founded in 1988, when Schroeder Moving Systems opened Milwaukee offices.
Schroeder Solutions is one of four companies owned by John and Jim Schroeder: Appleton-based Schroeder United, Milwaukee-based Schroeder United, Green Bay-based Total Relocation Systems and Schroeder Solutions. Schroeder United and Total Relocation Systems are all moving companies.
After three years of rapid growth and new services, Gierhahn said Schroeder Solutions is only planning for about
3 percent revenue growth during 2006. But Gierhahn recently told the company’s board of directors that he’s planning for another 20 percent revenue growth spurt in 2007. Eventually, he hopes for a two-year pattern to emerge for the company, where it will grow significantly for one year and have another year to manage that growth.
Schroeder Solutions won’t be adding more full-time employees this year, but will consider additional part-time and seasonal workers, depending on the company’s needs.
“We’ve built and built,” he said. “Now it’s time to manage better and take advantage of our new products with existing clients. This year is a strategic year to manage the business we’ve got and start growing with the right businesses.”
