Clark has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Obayashi since 2005 and experienced dramatic growth in ’06, ’07, and ’08 with annual revenues peaking at over $325M and the total number of employees reaching 350.

Mr. Hennings characterized the recent years as “challenging”; “The first few years after the Obayashi acquisition were very exciting as we managed rapid growth in our traditional markets and took advantage of increased bonding capacity and the experience of our new parent company and new “sister” companies. But when the economy plunged into recession, we were heavily dependent on retail and warehouse/distribution construction which was especially hard hit. We chose to enter the public bid market to maintain revenues and avoid drastic layoffs. As the number of projects dwindled and the number of competitors increased, potential profits disappeared as some contractors bid projects at below their costs, just to have enough work to stay afloat. We never adopted this philosophy and continued to compete and win projects in the public sector with modest profits included. However, as the market continued to shrink, the number of subcontractor defaults and bankruptcies reached record heights, further eroding profits. While Obayashi has been very supportive of Clark, the downturn in the economy has taken its toll.”

Recognizing that the company’s traditional markets are growing once again, current management at Clark has decided that the time is right to try to repurchase the company and position it to take advantage of the rebounding economy.

“Our plan is simple and would be implemented quickly, “Mr. Hennings continued. “In order for the new organization to be successful, we will merge our Mount Airy, Wilmington and Winston-Salem Divisions into one operating group.”

Clark CFO, Greg Marshall added, “Our streamlined operating structure will allow us to be responsive to customers in our core markets for new and existing projects. All current work in progress under the Obayashi USA ownership will be completed in a professional manner with our traditional emphasis on safety, quality and schedule. Our current clients, subcontractors, vendors and suppliers should see no difference in our attention to their projects and our focus on client satisfaction.”

According to Steve Johnson, Clark Senior VP for Marketing/Business Development, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic. “This region is poised to grow and is already very attractive to manufacturers as evidenced by the Caterpillar project among others. Even the retail sector is showing signs of life as consumers are spending money at levels that are higher than when we enjoyed full employment.

Some of our traditional repeat clients in the retail sector are calling us back to remodel existing stores and even to build a few new ones. Even though financing continues to be a problem that is preventing even good projects from getting started, there are deals being done if the fundamentals are present. We have become adept at helping our clients find the funding they need to move their projects ahead.”

Mr. Hennings summarized, “The new Clark would be employee owned and managed and will be large enough to incorporate state of the art technologies that our future clients will require. It will also be nimble, efficient and incredibly sensitive to the needs of our customers”.

For more information, contact Steve Johnson – sjohnson@jsclark.com or 336‐345‐1185