Behind the virtual and brick-and-mortar storefronts of the modern retail economy lies a network of giant warehouses. And underneath those warehouses lies a lot of very precisely laid concrete. That is the market niche where Lithko Contracting thrives.

"As distribution centers in the e-commerce infrastructure have come to rely more and more on robotics and conveyance, there has been a flight to quality in concrete contracting," says Ben Cutting, Lithko's CFO. "Robots that are navigating via lasers are thrown off if the floor is too shiny or if it has seams. That is one example of the types of specialty, midmarket industrial concrete jobs that Lithko focuses on."

Because of its role in the e-commerce sector, Lithko's business actually grew during the Covid-19 pandemic. "Concrete is about as old-school an industry as you can get, yet we've grown revenue by $1 billion over the past four years," Cutting says. He believes the expansion is partly attributable to the company's grassroots approach to management.