The Anderson family includes, from left, Dejah Anderson Douglas, Kelly Anderson, Rick Anderson and Erick Anderson. Photo contributed

It isn’t rare to hear of Central Valley businesses serving different parts of the country or even the world, but it is a bit rarer to hear of a woman-owned business doing so.

Anderson Striping & Construction, Inc., is a paving and striping company operating out of Kingsburg for over 35 years.

The company specializes in asphalt pavement management, pavement markings and related services, catering to a variety of clients including government, commercial and industrial.

Anderson Striping & Construction extends its services throughout California to Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Utah, with plans to expand to more states.

They have three facilities in Kingsburg and employ 40 workers.

The company was founded in Reedley by Kelly and Rick Anderson in 1988 with just a house sprayer and ambitious goals.

Anderson Striping incorporated in 2007 with Kelly at the helm. In 2009, they opened their seal coating and crack-fill division and in 2020, they created their asphalt paving division to continue meeting their client’s needs.

As a family business, the company continues to grow with Kelly and Rick’s children Dejah Anderson Douglas and Erick Anderson helping lead the company. 

Douglas works as the chief operating officer and Erick works as an estimator.

 

Douglas said one of the company’s early clients was Fashion Fair Mall, which they still service to this day.

Throughout the ‘90s Anderson Striping was kept busy with commercial box stores, which allowed them to grow, earning contracts to restripe hundreds of parking lots in various states.

Douglas said clients are becoming more aware of parking lot maintenance. The company stresses the safety provided by properly striped and paved lots.

“Even in a parking lot, if you don’t have arrows, directional signage or stop bars, it can cause a lot of accidents,” Douglas said.

Some clients restripe their lot each year to significantly reduce parking lot accident claims.

Maintaining the asphalt is just as important — seal coating and crack filling saves a lot of money. Douglas said it’s more expensive to replace a lot where the asphalt is oxidized and turns into rubble.

Even a small parking lot can cost upwards of $1 million to repave, she said.

Since construction was considered an essential business at the start of the pandemic, Covid-19 didn’t bring a major blow to business itself, but problems arose from the labor force breakdown, the storms that rocked Texas in 2021 and traffic paint production falling to nearly zero for a time.

 

That forced the team to reach out to different paint manufacturers outside of the large ones they’d normally go to.

There has been a slowdown in spending from their large commercial clients, Douglas said, and she suspects they are waiting to see if there is going to be an economic recession and how it will impact them.

In the last seven years, they have seen more distribution centers like Amazon request their services. In the last few years, more cities are spending money to redo parking lots and roads, especially after the heavy rains earlier this year.

There are plans to expand to Hawaii, New Mexico and Idaho by the end of this year.

Douglas said as the leading paving and striping company on the West Coast, many of their clients might not have a company to do the work in Hawaii. She said Anderson Striping is their logical choice.

Expanding to Hawaii will provide even more contract opportunities.

Within the next five years, the plan is to open other branches, potentially around Phoenix, Arizona, and southern Washington.

Even with their three facilities, Douglas said demand is so high they need more space.

They are looking to lease, preferably purchase or even build a new facility on four acres that would be at least 15,000 square feet within the next year.

Though the company is expanding across the nation, Douglas said they want the new facility to be in Kingsburg.

“This is where we’ve been for a long time, and it means a lot to us as a family. It’s a special place to have business. We want to stay here,” Douglas said.

Douglas said it is rare to see women in leading positions in the construction industry, and even more so when her mother first started in the 1980s.

Anderson Striping has been recognized by First 5 California for its Family Friendly business awards. Douglas said the construction industry is hard to make family friendly — mostly because of the schedules.

Sometimes income can be inconsistent if a worker works less one pay period and a lot more in another. As women in the industry, Douglas said she and her mother try to be flexible and work with employees so they can spend time with their families.

Women also have different perspectives in the field, Douglas said, and pay attention to fine details and organize efficiently.

“Ideas from women bring a new perspective from the traditional male construction worker. The blending of those two together, and being inclusive in the industry, is going to innovate it and make it better for everybody,” Douglas said.