Established Contractor Continues to Innovate

Superl: The company's name says it all

Diversification also continues to be the name of the game at Superl, Inc. While it started insulating commercial buildings, Superl has also added on other services, such as firestopping. And it is broadening its reach to include, for example, multi-unit residential buildings.

Based in Minneapolis, Superl works on projects in a number of major metropolitan areas as well as the Twin Cities, including Chicago, Cleveland, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Oklahoma and San Francisco. It has national account relationships with leading developers, builders and architects.

Superl previously earned a Certificate of Merit in RSI's 1991 Insulation contest, and has continued its winning ways in the intervening years to reach number one this year on the commercial side.

This union company is family owned and is a small business.

Long a leader in the commercial insulation marketplace, Mark Dietz has devoted a considerable amount of time to developing industry training guides and workshops.

Dietz is also an ICAA/CBIC Certified Commercial Building Insulation Contractor, and a charter member of the Firestop Contractors International Assn.

Through association activities like these, Dietz says he enjoys the opportunity to exchange ideas and get to know his industry peers, terming it "enriching."

Superl also holds internal seminars for its own employees to update them on industry developments. By holding external seminars, too, for other groups, Superl confirms its reputation for technical excellence.

"We are frequently called in." Dietz says, "during the design/specification stage and asked for our advice/opinion on thermal, vapor, fire and smoke control systems. Typically, we spend one to four hours with architects at the start of a project."

He welcomes those calls since "these are items that cannot be easily fixed if not designed and installed correctly the first time. Owners see us as kind of another type of insurance policy — better to do it right the first time than spend a fortune to correct a problem later. It's an advance over the days when our systems were considered an afterthought, with not enough room even allotted to fit in insulation."

Superl was founded in 1984. Our goal, Dietz explains, "is to 'Superl-ize' our customers to the point where they believe there is no viable option other than to use Superl — even at a premium. The best value is not always the cheapest price."

As a progressive company, Superl has hired several female insulation installers. All of them have been with the company for at least two years with some working there as long as four to five years now. In total, the company has about 80 employees.

Superl says it is continually focused on "striving to seek out that which sets us above the standard. We like to think we're the one raising the bar. If it was easy, anybody could do it."

© Reprinted from ROOFING, SIDING, INSULATION, October 1999. An ADVANSTAR PUBLICATION.