Henry Liang

The Business Journal has listed the Fresno branch of a statewide civil construction firm as the fastest-growing business in the Central Valley.

According to The Journal’s Fastest Growing Companies List publishd Oct. 23, MKN & Associates’ Fresno office went from 2017 revenue of $60,653 to $1,035,295 in 2019 — for growth of 1, 577%.

According to Henry Liang, principal for the Fresno office, his eight-person team has been able to grow thanks to an increased demand for infrastructure — particularly water and wastewater works.

“That’s really our bread and butter, so we’ve been fortunate to be able to serve clients that have heavy infrastructure needs, or heavy planning needs,” Liang said. “And we’ve just been able to focus on providing them with excellent service, meeting their project demands and helping them plan ahead and anticipate what may be coming down the pipeline.”

It was a good period for engineering firms and construction companies in general, with five of them making the list, including four in the top 10. Those include RJ Miller Construction in Fresno (No. 4), California Builders Services in Clovis (No. 5) and Fresno’s TETER (No. 8), in addition to MKN.

The 2017-2019 period used to determine revenue growth also saw significant gains for solar companies in the Central Valley. Like construction and engineering, three companies managed to land in the top 10. The most successful of these was Solar Maintenance Pros, Inc. (Solar Negotiators), which grew 1,290%, making them No. 2.

Energy Concepts Enterprises in Fresno came in at No. 7 and SunPower By Quality Home Services in Fresno ranked at No. 10.

Another avenue for growth was in the financial sector, with banks and accounting firms making up nearly half of the top 20 list — or eight businesses in total. Leading these was Suncrest Bank in Visalia. Suncrest was the third-fastest growing business in the Valley, seeing growth of 252%.