Buildcor Projects: Construction Solutions for the Discerning

Since it commenced operations in 2009, Buildcor Projects has established a strong name for itself in the construction industry. Their key personnel have over forty years of experience in the field.

Based in Perth, Western Australia, the company is now in a period of growth. Initially, their clientele was restricted to the residential segment. After a while, it shifted more towards the commercial market. Today there is an equal balance between residential and commercial projects.

With a wealth of experience available in its management team and long relationships having been established with contractors over the years, Buildcor Projects has  been able to take on challenging jobs and has undertaken  a large array of projects including single and multi-storey homes, restaurants, café’s, large office refurbishments, medical centres, dental clinics and  tilt panel construction assignments.

“We construct both residential and commercial building projects. The company was started by Rocco Lumbaca, who has a long 40 year track record in the industry. And I’ve grown up in and around the industry. I started out working in the Surveying Industry, before I took up the role of Project Manager in the company upon its inception,” says Buildcor’s Project Manager Anthony Lumbaca.

As their project sizes can get quite big, Buildcor has established an array of key working relationships with different sub-contractors.

“Being a commercial and residential company, we don’t solely use one or two companies for every job description. A lot of our suppliers and sub-contractors that would do residential for instance,  they don’t then go and do our commercial work. We’re tied up with a lot of large companies around the place, and also have relationships with the specialised smaller companies.

So we have many, many suppliers. More than a large project builder would have, just because of the different types of work that we do.”

Although some spec home designs are available on the Buildcor website, Lumbaca says they try to be as personalised as possible. They will meet with the client to get an idea of what they are looking for and go from there.

“We build custom-designed projects. We don’t rely solely on just doing spec homes. A client will come to us with ideas and we will just sit with them, learn their vision and basically turn their ideas into reality. We work with them right from the start and stay actively involved until completion.”

Lumbaca believes the personalised service and direct interaction with the customers are two key success factors behind the company’s continued growth. The experience within their company has given them a snapshot of what exactly the customers are looking for. Their in-house staff is five people strong and growing, and their intimate interaction is what clients like.

“A lot of it also comes from the experience within our company. We find that we get a lot of our clients that come to us with horror stories of their previous build. And they don’t want to go through that again. They want that experienced builder with a boutique company that’ll be with them right through the course of the project.

Basically, we go through our procedures really quickly because the company is smaller and very structured and we kind of tick boxes very quickly all the way through.”

Modern technology has changed the dynamic of the construction industry. It has improved the company’s overall production and efficiency. Whereas projects in the past would involve a lot of paperwork, modern software provides a smooth continuous level of operations. Lumbaca says that keeping up to date with innovations in technology improves Buildcor’s capabilities and makes them the more attractive option to work with on a project.

“We believe it is imperative to stay on top of the fast moving world of technology. By having up-to-date software systems, it allows the continuous smooth running of the company and provides productive communication between the office and site. We can do everything through cloud software. It has totally changed the face of the industry I think. We also like to stay in tune with new innovations and technology which can be applied to our projects and provide our clients with futuristic technological options.”

Sustainability and eco-friendly initiatives are also emphasised. Owner occupied buildings in particular see requests for green initiatives to improve energy efficiency.

“Since our inception we have been strong supporters of the green initiative.  Our Interior Designer always attempts to apply feasible, effective products and selects innovative ways to apply it through the lighting, wall and roofing applications, rainwater and grey water, etc. You find that especially for more investment-type projects, our clients aren’t too fussed about the green initiative. But when it is owner occupied you definitely get more requests for that. Everybody wants a good energy efficiency rating and it definitely makes a difference in the house.

In 2012, an experienced Interior Designer joined our team and has been working closely with each client, ensuring their project is designed to complement their business or home.

We have grown so quickly by offering the personalised service that we’ve been able to offer all of these years. Everybody in our company works closely with the client. There’s no real shuffling from team member to team member, so the client likes walking in and seeing everybody’s face.”

Their marketing approach is simple. To let their finished projects speak for themselves and let word of mouth generate new clients. Lumbaca emphasises they haven’t marketed the company heavily to new clients. With the volume of requests which they get for their work, it seems that indirect marketing is working just as effectively

“The work which our company has done has led to a chain reaction of further work. By offering a very personalised service to our clients and delivering on our promises, the word seems to spread quite quickly. And we get a lot of satisfaction out of client referrals. “

The company has recently relocated to Perth. Demand for their work in the city is high. They are happy to continue growing in Western Australia and see it as their main area of business for the foreseeable future.

“After spending the last 5-6 years establishing the company structure, we aspire to spend the next 5-6 years in a period of continuous growth but maintaining our personalised service that has been getting us our strong client base.”