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At the
turn of the 20th century, the era of grand scale public-works projects had
begun to unfold. From subways to bridges and tunnels to the expanding
network of roadways and byways, Americans embraced industry and progress.
An engineering revolution that had begun in the 1870s with fervent
innovation swept through the urban streetscape pushing the boundaries of the
metropolis. Skilled and unskilled laborers, tradespeople and craftsmen
flocked to America's shores by the hundreds of thousands in search of work
and a better life.
Like so many immigrants, Leonardo Suzio, founder of the Suzio York Hill
Companies, saw a country that epitomized wide-open space, freedom and
boundless economic opportunity.
In many ways the history of his company parallels the spectacular history of
modern engineering. Like so many periods of growth and development, it is a
story of transition, born of challenge and prescience, at once deeply
personal, social, historic, economic and political.
Now in its third generation, the company still bears Leonardo Suzio's
original motivating principle: opportunities are limited only by the
imagination.
is family's execution of it, the Suzio York Hill Companies have earned
Business New Haven's 2005 Founders Award for companies in business more than
a half-century under continuous ownership.
It all began in 1888, the year the Great Blizzard paralyzed cities up and
down the eastern seaboard. Leonardo Suzio emigrated from Benevento, a
mountainous region in southern Italy. He had just turned 20 when he arrived
in America and soon found work as a teamster driving horses and hauling
material. Within a decade, he founded a construction company with a mason,
later adding an engineer and hiring day workers as needed.
At the time building dominated the national mindset and would preoccupy the
country for the next 50 years and through two world wars. The society's
preoccupation with growth had a profound influence on Leonardo's strategy,
and he quickly focused his efforts on residential, commercial and
institutional projects demonstrating a vision burly enough to stay one step
ahead of the game.
By 1912, he had expanded into road building and opened his first quarry to
produce crushed trap rocks in the Mt. Carmel section of Hamden. This was the
dawn of the automobile age. Massive road-building projects escalated over
the next two decades and by the mid-1930s, the Works Progress Administration
(WPA) was hiring firms to grade, drain and hard-surface countless miles of
muddy streets.
As it did for hundreds of thousands of Depression-idled workers, the WPA
provided a tremendous boost for Suzio's fledgling business and Leonardo won
large-scale contracts from the state for highway projects.
At the same time, he established a ready-mix concrete supply company, an
asphalt company and a mason supply business in order to control the source
of raw materials. By the outbreak of World War II, he had successfully
elevated a mixture of cement, sand and stone - concrete - into a new form of
grey gold.
Leonardo Suzio died in 1945, the year the war ended. His sons, Lorenzo and
Leonardo C. were just kids at the time - too young to assume the reins of
the business. Instead, Leonardo's trusted business partner, Henry Altobello
(the third generation of Suzios' grandfather on their mother's side), who
was running a Suzio quarry in Southwick, Mass., took the helm, eventually
steering the company away from construction to focus on the materials supply
side. By mining their own raw materials, Altobello reasoned, the quarries
would provide a foundation on which to pursue growth.
"He had the sense," says Len Suzio, 47, who today is responsible for
administration and finance for the companies, "that it was more profitable
in the long run. And in my mind, he made the right decision at the right
time."
Once Altobello (who was elected mayor of Meriden in the 1950s and was also a
state senator; he even has a state highway - I-691 - named after him) took
over the business, the country was embarked on a frenzied post-war housing
boom. Acres of idle tracts of land outside cities was being gobbled up by
cookie-cutter housing developers.
A new automobile-oriented culture worked its magic on Suzio York Hill,
transforming it into what it is today: providers of crushed rock and
ready-mix concrete products for highway, commercial and residential
construction projects throughout central Connecticut. The company today
encompassed three interrelated firms: the York Hill Trap Rock Quarry Co., L.
Suzio Asphalt Co. and the L. Suzio Construction Co.
The company today occupies a prominent place in the greater transportation
community, according to Sean W. Moore, president of the Greater Meriden
Chamber of Commerce.
"If you mention T21 authorization, federal money for transportation
improvements, you immediately think of Suzio," says Moore. "They have been
prolific advocates in Washington for transportation funds for the state.
They truly work to strengthen the industry, not just themselves. On the one
extreme they provide raw materials for the state, on the other, they bring
years of advocacy and lobbying for the building and transportation
industries. They run the whole spectrum: they deliver rock and deliver
funding."
Suzio's high-profile projects read like a wish list of ideal development
projects: from Ikea to Yale to the Lord & Taylor wing at Westfield Shopping
Town in Meriden, to the I-95 New Haven corridor highway widening project,
its ubiquitous green-and-white cement mixer trucks are a common sight on the
roadways. For those who can't get enough, they're now available, thanks to
younger brother Ric, 37, in collectible die-cast versions (rolled out in
1998, they've turned into hot-selling items with scarce models fetching more
than $150 on eBay).
While the company has made an extraordinary impact on the region and the
state, the Suzios are perhaps proudest to have remained family-owned and
-operated for more than a century. Today it is managed by five grandchildren
of the original founder (their father, Leonardo C., who used to run the
company, passed away in 2002.) The company is owned by them and their uncle
Lorenzo (Leonardo C's brother.)
The siblings' roles and responsibilities are divided by interest and
ability. Senior sibling Cheryl, 49, president of L. Suzio Asphalt,
specializes in health, safety and risk issues. Linda (Munson), 48, is
treasurer, while Len (Leonardo H.), 47, president of York Hill Trap Rock
Quarry, is also in charge of finance and administration for all the
companies. Scott, 42, runs L. Suzio Construction, managing operations,
maintenance and production, while the youngest, Ric, focuses on sales,
customer relations and labor issues.
With 100 employees, Suzio York Hill has changed quite a bit over the years
and is now fully automated with computers monitoring trucks, mixes and
products. Currently, the company is equipping all 50 of its trucks with
global positioning systems (GPS) to reduce costs and increase delivery
efficiency.
The Internet has played an important role as well giving customers,
architects and designers access to detailed information via the Suzio Web
site. Company clients, says Ric, have been instrumental in new product
development, challenging Suzio to create more environmentally friendly
products, stronger and high-performance exotic mixes.
Clients like Yale University (Suzio supplies 99 percent of Yale's concrete
needs) require the company to use a percentage of renewable resources and
endorse building designs that are low-energy consumers. To meet these new
challenges, says Ric, the company recently added a recycling business for
concrete and asphalt with future plans to expand it. Right now, they charge
a small handling fee but are confident the recycling business will grow as
it prolongs the life of natural resources and rids blacktop from landfills,
he says.
The company has looked into recycling other products, too, such as plaster,
porcelain, even roof shingles, and expect to offer additional services.
Future plans for the company include expanding the asphalt business, looking
at a possible acquisition of a sandpit or developing a new plant.
The five brothers and sisters get along well (as each will attest without
much prompting) and spend holidays as well as most Sundays socializing and
eating together (as many Italo-Americans do) inadvertently chatting about
business when it creeps into the conversation. As it usually does.
All are deeply involved in industry and community associations too numerous
to enumerate. And, as the Meriden chamber's Moore explains, they are not
just merely members, but very actively involved.
They trade off industry involvement between them when they can. Len current
or recent affiliations include the boards of the Connecticut Construction
Industry Association (CCIA), the Connecticut Ready-Mixed Concrete
Association (CRMCA), the National Ready-Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA)
and the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA.)
His primary nonprofit involvement these days (among others) is Leeway, a
skilled nursing home in New Haven dedicated to the treatment of people
living with AIDS. In April he will become chairman of the Greater Meriden
Chamber of Commerce.
Cheryl is past chair of the Safety & Health Committee for the NSSGA, and is
past chair of the National Safety Council's Cement, Quarry & Mineral
Aggregates section. Ric, in addition to industry associations, is deeply
involved with the Boys & Girls Club in Meriden, currently serving as its
vice president. The company is a founding sponsor of the annual Daffodil
Festival, a fundraiser for local Meriden nonprofits now in its 27th year.
The family also supports such diverse and venerable institutions such as the
Smithsonian Foundation and the Goodspeed Opera House among countless other
charities and fundraising activities.
Ric and Len say their community and industry involvement is a legacy of
their mother, Henrietta, and her father, Henry Altobello, who was active in
state and local politics as well as many industry groups. "The example of
their involvement as well as my mother's inspires our participation in a lot
of groups and nonprofit organizations," explains Len. How do they do it? "I
don't know, we just do it," says Len. "We simply don't know how to say no,"
adds Ric with a laugh.
Discussing the legacy of the Suzio name in the state, most knowledgeable
observers have a hard time disguising their admiration, as Marvin
Morganbesser, president of Connecticut Construction Industries Association (CCIA),
who has known the Suzio family since 1967, makes plain.
"It's a wonderful company," Morganbesser says. "They are wonderful,
wonderful people. They are one of the stellar companies in the industry,
fulfilling a great niche. The family is extremely competitive and very well
thought of - just an incredible asset to the community and to the
construction industry."
Morganbesser recalls leaders Henry Altobello and Leonardo Sr. (Leonardo C.)
fondly. "They were well-known for their credibility and genuine warmth," he
says. "Both were low profile, regarded very highly, just delightful."
Tim Arborio, a longtime customer of Suzio York Hill, couldn't agree more.
His family has worked with the Suzio family for three generations.
"They are a great civic-minded family with an excellent-run business - and
it's very nice to work with them," he says. "In our industry, to have a
company last that long on the materials side and be run so well is unusual.
It attests to their commitment to the business and to their customers."
Looking ahead, the family hopes to continue running and growing the business
for generations of Suzios to come. "That's the goal," says Len.
The odds are stacked against them, though. Many of Suzio's competitors, once
family-owned, have been acquired by multi-national companies. "There aren't
many family-owned businesses left," says Ric. "I'm never comfortable when so
many foreign countries own so much of our natural resources."
For now though, they are honored to be acknowledged as a family business and
as a team. "We make a conscious effort to be committed to our industry, our
business and the community," says Ric. And it shows. ##
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