CSUN University News Clippings

Barry Gump, president and CEO Andy Gump Inc., chairman of the advisory board of CSUN’s Family Business Center

(June 4, 2009)

BEST BUSINESS LEADER - LARGE COMPANY

Barry Gump
President and CEO
Andy Gump Inc.

The management style used by President and CEO Barry Gump at the portable sanitation and construction services business he’s led for some three decades can be credited to working alongside his late father whose name the company bears.

Gump described his father as a people person and much of that rubbed off on him to develop a style of wanting to attract good people and helping them out.

“We have a lot of people who have been with us for many years and I think that points to the record we have of being successful,” Barry Gump said.

Gump has been the recipient of the Business Journal’s Family Business Leader Award and was chairman of the advisory board of the Family Business Center at California State University, Northridge until the center went on hiatus for budget reasons in early 2008.

As the second generation to guide the company, Gump has gone in directions that his father never envisioned. Building on the core business of portable sanitation and septic pumping Andy Gump Inc. expanded into temporary power and fencing at construction sites, as well as portable storage.

Competition was one of the drivers of expansion, with contractors looking for other temporary site services. It was easier for clients to get all the services from one company rather than dealing with multiple ones.

Going into temporary power allowed Gump to be more creative. During times of heavy building, the revenues from the power business allowed the company to provide fancier restroom trailers and more working capital than what the sanitation business alone brought in.

Gump has designed equipment and worked with city officials and event organizers and planned and executed sanitation operations for the 1984 and 2002 Olympic Games.

Just as Gump succeeded his father in operating the business, daughter Nancy is now being groomed to eventually take the reins.

Growth areas identified by Gump are in hand sanitizer stations used at large public events such as college graduations, and in temporary pedestrian barricades. Until home building resumes, the company will be dependent on special events, commercial buildings and remodeling to bring in business.

“It seems there are always opportunities out there if you are looking for them to take advantage of,” Gump said.
– Mark R. Madler

Publication: San Fernando Valley Business Journal