Concrete Contractor Builds a $5 Million Company With the Right Equipment

Looking back, Chris Menn picked a bad time to start a business. 

“I was 19, and I quit my job in sales to start a concrete business in November of 2007,” says Chris, owner of C-R Menn Concrete in Fremont, Nebraska. “It wasn’t a great time for a kid to go out on his own and start something new.” 

While the timing might not have been perfect, Chris took an ad out in the Omaha World-Herald to see if he could turn his hobby of pouring concrete for friends and family into a successful business. Soon he was doing decorative and residential concrete work, but it couldn’t keep Chris’ attention for long. 

“I’ve got a stupid, dangerous appetite for growth, which led me to take the business toward primarily commercial work,” Chris says. 

A few years after he started C-R Menn Concrete, Chris began bidding on commercial projects. 

“We won a couple bids, and soon enough we were hiring more employees and buying more equipment to keep up with the demand,” he says. 

Now, Chris and his team take on a variety of large-scale projects, including school and hospital additions, new banks, municipal street pavings and fast-food sites. The company pours walls, footings and foundations and completes flatwork projects across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. 

“I have a hard time knowing when enough is enough,” Chris jokes. “I remember the first year we hit a million in gross sales, and I thought, ‘If I could double this, that’d be great.’ Then I tripled it the next year, and now we’re at $5 million – and working toward doubling that.”