BOARDMAN – When asked how Lencyk Masonry went from a small, two-man operation to a large business with fingerprints all over the Mahoning Valley and Ohio, owner Larry Lencyk Sr. is unsure how to answer.
“Dumb luck,” he offers at first.
Then, “I was willing to do whatever it took to satisfy the customer, no matter what I had to do,” he adds, realizing he wasn’t satisfying the interviewer.
Finally, he admits to some level of accomplishment, although he’s quick to spread the credit.
“Sometimes it boggles my mind. To come from where we were to where we are now. I attribute that to the wonderful people that we have,” he says.
Lencyk founded Lencyk Masonry in Boardman on March 26, 1984. After attending Youngstown State University, Lencyk was drafted into the military.
Upon his return, he started an apprenticeship as a bricklayer, finding work in the trade during the early 1980s, although opportunities soon began to diminish.
“There wasn’t much work going on. Houses were dead and interest rates were sky-high. I didn’t find work for a year,” he says.
But for Lencyk, who had just become the father of his first child and bought a house, the downturn looked like an opportunity.
“I always wanted to go into business and that kind of got me going. It turned out to be at the right time.”
Lencyk took out an ad in The Vindicator, reading “Quality work. Reasonable prices,” and started doing small jobs, mainly residential.
His first and only employee was a family acquaintance, fresh out of high school, Kenny Vrona.
“He said he was going to start a business and asked me if I was interested,” Vrona recalls. Today he is head of labor at Lencyk.
The company’s break came in 1987 with a $240,000 contract for Toys ‘R’ Us, facilitated by Boardman developer Chuck Bishara.
“He treated me very well on that project. It was a difficult project. But I attribute a lot of my success to Chuck Bishara,” Lencyk says.
Vrona, who was not a bricklayer by trade and who came into the business “blind as a bat,” also recalls the company’s first big project.
“I’ll never forget – 12-inch white block and it was probably 90 degrees,” he says.
At that point the company owner was performing every job required, including equipment maintenance, bricklaying, estimating and payroll.
The project marked a turning point, elevating Lencyk Masonry’s profile and leading to a significant expansion of its workforce and portfolio, boosting the number of employees to 17 and allowing Lencyk to hire a payroll firm.
The business was starting to gain momentum, though again, Lencyk deflects any credit.
“When I did that $240,000 job I was just guessing,” he says, laughing.
Guessing or not, over the next 30 years, Lencyk and his company would go on to help build many of the most recognizable structures in the Mahoning Valley.
The short list includes the Davis Family YMCA, St. Charles Church, Fellows Riverside Gardens, the Williamson College of Business Administration, and St. Elizabeth Hospital in Boardman.
Today, Lencyk employs 175 and does most of its work out of town. On the books are about 30 projects in locations such as Cleveland, Steubenville, Cuyahoga Falls and Akron.
“The difference for me personally is I don’t even see most of the jobs we do. We’ve got jobs all over the state of Ohio,” Lencyk says.
Another big change is the availability of manpower, which Lencyk says has dropped over the last five years.
“We’re turning work down and we’ve never done that before.”
With annual revenues of about $26 million, Lencyk says his focus is on safety and customer satisfaction.
Vrona, who plans to retire in a few years from the only job he’s ever had, says it’s obvious why Lencyk, and the company have left such a lasting mark.
“Service, quality and excellence. That’s why the company is where it’s at today,” he says. “You’re not going to find a better guy or a better company to work for, to be honest with you.”
For Lencyk, it’s hard to believe.
“Sometimes I feel that I’m living a dream,” says Lencyk, thinking of all the work his company has done and the people his work has affected.
While he says he was often too busy to take notice, members of his family, including his father, made sure to let him know what his work meant to them.
“They realize it more than I do and they’d say, ‘I’m so proud of you.’ And I’d think, ‘You know what? Maybe I did OK.’ ”
Pictured at top: Larry Lencyk Sr. struck out on his own in March 1984. At first, he was the sole employee. Today, Lencyk employs 175.