GrowFL Announces 2017 Florida Companies to Watch Finalists

(Bartow, Fla.) Madrid Engineering Group, Inc. was among the first round of 2017 Florida Companies to Watch finalists recently announced by GrowFL. The awards event – now in its seventh year – honors 50 select second-stage companies from throughout the state for developing valuable products and services, creating quality jobs, enriching communities, and broadening new industries throughout Florida. Chosen from a candidate pool of more than 800 nominations, the finalists collectively represent $598 million in annual revenue and employ 3,200 full-time equivalent employees.

The company founder and president, Larry Madrid, said “being a finalist for GrowFL’s 2017 Companies to Watch is certainly a high honor. I think of it as a confirmation that the direction we are currently going is the right one for us. Our plan is to grow revenue by offering a wider range of services to a broader group of clients.” Not only is Madrid providing more services including geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, and construction engineering inspection (CEI), they are also providing technical assistance for a new roadway technology called CONSOLID, which uses polymers to chemically stabilize roadway construction materials. “This new technology could literally change the way roads are constructed in the US”, says Madrid, who claims his test results show that roads constructed using CONSOLID are stronger and less susceptible to water damage.

The Florida Companies To Watch program consists of two rounds of selections. Finalists now advance to the second round, where they will be further evaluated based on their performance in the marketplace, innovative products, services or processes, philanthropy and empowered employees.

“We applaud these first round finalists who have shown how they stand out in their regions as innovative business leaders, going to the next level to grow their companies.   They are true rock stars,” says Dr. Tom O’Neal, GrowFL Executive Director.

The Finalists represent a unique group of scalable, high-growth enterprises that are already located within Florida. These high growth enterprises are an important segment of our economy and their numbers have been steadily increasing, which contributed to Florida’s ranking of 24 on the Kauffman Index of Growth Entrepreneurship. According to this report, “entrepreneurship is not a monolithic phenomenon, and it includes many moving parts. Creating new businesses is a different economic activity from running small businesses, which in turn is different from growing businesses.” Florida Companies to Watch recognizes the different approach needed to successfully grow and scale a business, and celebrates those that are working to achieve this goal.

Presented by GrowFL and developed by the Edward Lowe Foundation, Florida Companies To Watch is a distinguished awards program specifically designed to seek out second-stage businesses from a wide range of industries representing all areas of the state, not just those in major metropolitan areas. In addition to evaluating past growth and projected success, applicant companies are judged according to their special strengths and impact in their markets, communities and within the state – thus deeming them “worth watching.”

The winners will be announced in MID July. The 2017 honorees will be celebrated at the awards ceremony October 14th at The Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, FL.

For more information visit www.GrowFL.com/flctw17.

Additional information about Madrid Engineering Group, Inc.:
Madrid Engineering Group, Inc. (MEG) is a 25-year old minority owned business located in Florida and serving the southeast US in the fields of geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, geology, and construction engineering inspection (CEI). The company has 45 employees and an office location in Bartow (central Florida). MEG has completed over 8000 projects primarily in central Florida but spanning the entire state. Madrid has an in-house fleet of track and truck-mounted drill rigs for SPT and auger sampling (by land or barge), well installation, etc. and a CMEC- and AASHTO-certified soils and materials laboratory.

Highlighting their technical capabilities and innovation, Madrid Engineering won Project of the Year in 2014 and 2016 from the American Society of Civil Engineers, Ridge Branch for shallow soil mixing and specialty deep foundation design, respectively. They are currently working on some exciting and challenging projects using innovative soil stabilization technologies such as GeoFoam®; lightweight cellular concrete; PhosphoCrete ™; wick drains; and CONSOLID. The company has been honored as a Best Place to Work for 4 of the last 5 years, and is an Employer of Distinction, so honored this year by Career Source Polk.