Q&A Best of Upsize
Uncommon sense
'KEEP IT SIMPLE' IS GOAL ONE FOR HIGHLAND ELECTRIC'S BOSS
Upsize: Describe your company as it stands today.
Rick Lowenberg: We got a call in the sum- mer of 2008 from Alliance Bank in St. Paul that they had a troubled electrical contractor. At the time we were putting in a paint line at Minnesota Elevator and we were going to lose about 5,000 square feet. The building that Highland Electric was in had the space, so we relocated Minnesota Elevator to St. Paul.
In talking to the bank, we learned that Highland Electric had three distinct areas they were working in: residential, which started in 1965. And then they had their commercial division, where they were los- ing money, because they had underbid a lot of school work. They also were doing some commercial buildings that they had trouble with. When we bought it we were
Rick Lowenberg, Highland Electric 20 UPSIZE ONLINE THE GROWTH GUIDE 2012 www.upsizemag.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY JONATHAN HANKIN