business

I've spent more than 40 years trying to dream up a scheme that would make me rich.

Mike Gresser and Matt Barron, neither of whom has lived that long, did some doodling on a cocktail napkin one day in 1999 and wound up with an idea that generated $1 million of annual revenue in just three years -- headed for a bundle more in 2004.

Their product: an oversized block of concrete.

I tell ya, there ain't no justice.

Gresser, 35, and Barron, 36, are cofounders of Minneapolis-based ReCon Wall Systems Inc., one of the country's first producers of large-scale retaining-wall blocks. The concrete behemoths weigh upward of a ton, provide 5.3 square feet of wall face apiece and are easily shaped and stained to resemble natural stone.

The blocks are designed to provide durability and aesthetic benefits similar to a poured-concrete wall but at half the cost. And they offer an affordable option to the smaller, occasionally problematic 8- by 12-inch retaining-wall blocks that were developed by Twin Cities companies 30 years ago and have dominated the market ever since.

You might say the careers of both founders are set firmly in concrete. Gresser is president of Gresser Companies Inc., a $40 million-a-year Eagan concrete and masonry construction firm he bought from his parents several years ago. Barron, a high school buddy, owns Hardscape Construction Inc., a Burnsville retaining-wall contractor with annual revenue of $1.2 million.

Armed with investments from the founders and five others, ReCon started business late in 2000 and focused primarily on the Twin Cities market. Since then, however, the strategy has expanded to licensing the concept and selling ReCon's patented forms and patent-pending process to producers throughout the country.

2004 sales might double

The result: Revenue climbed from $100,000 in 2001 to $1 million last year. Given the progress of negotiations with prospective licensees, among other salutary developments, $2 million in revenue is expected this year.

When Gresser came to Barron for help in designing the process for his big-block idea, they thought they'd have the market to themselves. What they didn't know was that a Michigan company had developed a similar process several months earlier.

The Michigan rival already has signed up more than 30 licensees nationwide versus eight for the Minneapolis company. Meanwhile, at least two other competitors have entered the market in the past 12 to 18 months, Gresser said.

But Stan Hamilton, the former chief financial officer at Medica, who became ReCon president in 2001, said recent negotiations promise a total of 20 licensees by year's end. And one of the world's largest producers of the smaller retaining-wall blocks has agreed to help market the ReCon product.

What's the big deal? For one thing, the blocks can be built up to 10 feet high without the costly foundations or other reinforcement required by poured concrete to keep it from cracking under movement caused by settling or changing temperatures, Hamilton said. Because they do not have mortar connecting them, the blocks can move without damage, he said.

This also gives ReCon blocks a practical edge over taller walls made with the smaller blocks. The reason: They eliminate the cost and inconvenience of small-block reinforcement systems, which require excavation space that can encroach on trees or property lines.

ReCon blocks "solved a real problem for us" at a housing project in Lonsdale, Minn., said Don Westerman, president of H.E. Westerman Lumber Co. in Montgomery, Minn. "It let us place a wall near the property line, where there were trees and little room [for excavation]."

Perhaps more important, the ReCon system uses a so-called "wet-cast" process similar to that for poured concrete, which produces a comparatively impervious finish that resists damage from freezing and thawing or deterioration from road salt.

By comparison, the smaller blocks more commonly used are made with a "dry-cast" process that uses a limited amount of water to accommodate the automated mass-production system. This makes the blocks more porous and more vulnerable to deterioration.