Case taking industry by storm

PLANNING AHEAD: Nate Fiske, right, Case Snow Management Inc. regional director of operations, and shop foreman Ken Maynard equip one of the company’s trucks with a tablet loaded with Case’s management software.
PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
PLANNING AHEAD: Nate Fiske, right, Case Snow Management Inc. regional director of operations, and shop foreman Ken Maynard equip one of the company’s trucks with a tablet loaded with Case’s management software.
PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

2019 PBN Fastest Growing Companies: $25m – $75M
1. Case Snow Management Inc.


CEO (or equivalent): Jason Case
2018 Revenue: $42,241,933
2016 Revenue: $19,955,219
Revenue growth: 111.7%

WHEN WINTER HITS and the snowflakes fly, many people see a whole lot of misery. But to the folks at Case Snow Management Inc. in North Attleborough, those flakes may as well be dollar signs.

Case, founded in 2009, has seen steady growth, from nothing at the start to $43 million in 2018. What started out as a small local snow-and-ice management company has mushroomed to virtually all of the northern states, where winter is anything but manageable for most. Case operates from Alaska to North Carolina and everywhere in between, primarily using gear from heavy-equipment supplier Caterpillar.

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Case has been named to Inc. magazine’s Top 5000 every year since 2014. In its 2018 listing, Inc. noted that Case had a three-year growth rate of 255%. That growth has earned Case consistent, year-after-year top-five rankings for the Top 100 Snow and Ice Management Companies in North America in SNOW Magazine, a publication of the Accredited Snow Management Association.

Case utilizes hundreds of subcontractors, which they call “partners,” across the country, with Case-branded trucks and field Case employees to provide support and backup to their partners wherever they may be, said Holly Brown-Ayers, Case’s marketing manager.

“One thing that’s really helped growth is we’ve honed our customized technology platform to manage all our services in real time, which allows us to see it on GPS and through on-board photography,” Brown-Ayers said. “As the work is being done, we can see it here, using our customized Case app. We are really devoted to data analytics.”

Case Snow Management has its roots in the J.E. Case Cos., started in 1951, which over the years evolved to include waste disposal and recycling. After successfully growing the snow and ice division of his father’s company, Jason Case, grandson of the J.E. Case founder, started his snow management company in 2009.

“Being so embedded in the snow industry, it was a natural evolution to go national,” Brown-Ayers said about the decision to spread the company’s reach far beyond the Northeast. “Talking to clients on the national level that we’ve dealt with in their local locations, we felt we could address their pain points with our hybrid model.”

Case specializes in commercial properties large and small, such as strip retail centers, stores and office buildings, regional malls, large shopping centers, and office and industrial parks, using what Brown-Ayers said is “the largest snow and ice fleet in the country, in terms of equipment.”

A challenge of continuing growth, she said, is “making sure we grow at a rate to maintain our service delivery standards, making sure we continue to put our customers first.”

One more recent area of growth: Expanding into a landscaping division in the last two years.

“A lot of clients on the snow side expressed an interest in bundling snow-removal services and landscaping,” Brown-Ayers said.

One consistency of winter weather is its inconsistency, with record snowfalls one year and a drought of white the year after. Case Snow Management factored that into its business model, she said.

“We have one contract arrangement that’s ‘per push,’ charging a customer per snow event,” she said. “And we also have seasonal flat-rate contracts, looking at the 30-year history of snow in whatever area the customer is in, and coming up with an average rate and charging for that.

It’s a double-edged snow shovel, she said, in that “when there’s less snow than average, we get the same amount, but if there’s a lot more snow than expected, we get the same amount. But it generally balances out.”

To factor the forecast into the mix, Case uses New Jersey-based WeatherWorks, with dozens of meteorologists providing the company with constant weather updates.

“Last winter, there wasn’t much snow, which was good for everyone – but us,” Brown-Ayers said. “This year, the forecast is for a lot more snow, a more traditional amount.”

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