GBM cleans up in building maintenance – Minority-owned firm sweeps to $22 million

The president of one of Atlanta’s fastest-growing janitorial and facility maintenance companies hopes that one day his employees will leave him for a better life. He’s even helping them save money to start their own businesses.

When General Building Maintenance Inc. (GBM) President Sunny Park realized that high turnover was an inevitable part of his business, he decided to help people on their way by paying cash bonuses to cleaners and other low-wage employees who open savings accounts. “These people never had a savings account. And I thought about their future. I didn’t have money once before,” he said.

Park came to the United States from Korea in 1967 to attend Indiana University. Five years after he moved to Atlanta, he started GBM because so many people in Atlanta’s Korean community asked him for help finding a job.

“I found out I can create a business and utilize that as the job provider for those people,” said Park.

At the time, he was an insurance agent. He started GBM in 1983 with a contract to clean the Presidential Office Park complex near Doraville. Today, the company owns the complex and is headquartered in 8,800 square feet there. GBM also has 12 branch offices from Baltimore to Dallas. Employment has doubled and revenues have nearly tripled since 1991, when the company had 250 workers and $7.6 million in revenues. In 1997, Park said he expects GBM to reach $22 million in revenues.

When Park started GBM, most facility maintenance companies used part-time labor. However, part-time employees work with a specific goal in mind: paying off a car, buying a TV, paying a bill.

So Park hired full-time employees, who he said focus more on quality and are more loyal. Hiring for full-time jobs prevented some turnover, but, he added, “As we grow, we are finding a problem keeping good people. We train people and then people leave. So we’re losing a lot of investment.”

In addition to offering full-time work, the promise of advancement in the company and other benefits, Park made it a policy to pay a little more than the competition.