Our History

 

Ivey’s Plumbing and Electrical Company was founded in 1947 by Mr. Kermit Ivey in Kosciusko, Mississippi. The small repair shop focused on residential and small commercial construction. The company continued on a steady growth pattern with annual sales that approached a half-million dollars by 1958.

It was in this year that the founder’s son, Marlin, joined the partnership with his father. The partnership was based upon
an agreement to shift the marketing focus from residential to commercial projects.

The first major commercial job the company acquired was the electrical contract for the new East and West Side Elementary Schools in Kosciusko. During the sixties, the company was a major player in mechanical construction throughout the state of Mississippi. Ivey’s participated in numerous major projects, including the Twin Towers construction on the campus of the University of Mississippi at Oxford in 1968. Ivey’s was building a quality reputation, which later served as the key value that led to progress and expansion.

The name Ivey’s Plumbing and Electrical Company was changed in 1969 to Ivey’s, Inc. shortly after Kermit Ivey’s death. By this time, the growth mode had been well established. In the early 70’s, Ivey’s took a new direction when the local markets dried up. They secured a major project with the federal government for barracks work at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.

This proved to be a significant turning point for the company and a beginning of geographical expansion. Marlin Ivey began
to shape the company’s philosophy of going where the work was, which eventually led to opening offices throughout the Southeast in order to be able to better service customers through a more local approach.

In the seventies, contract work with the military began to decline. Ivey’s responded by obtaining a number of government contracts in several states performing mechanical work on a variety of government buildings.

In 1973, Ivey’s took on their first V. A. hospital project. Through the mid-seventies, Ivey’s work was approximately 90%
government work. Through this work, Ivey’s became associated with a number of prime contractors for medical facilities.
By the late seventies as government work slowed. Ivey’s was positioned to move toward private hospital contracting.
 

In 1990, J. Marlin Ivey stepped down as Board Chairman and his son, Joe Ivey, took over controls of what had become one of the largest mechanical contractors in the country. The daily operations were managed by President Larry Terrell. The name of the company was changed to Ivey Mechanical Company, Inc. to facilitate the change in management and ownership. During the nineties, the company grew in revenue from $50 million to over $140 million. With the late nineties came a wave of consolidations within the industry. Ivey Mechanical Company briefly became part of this movement in 1998 before acquiring itself back in early 2003.

Today the company operates under the leadership of Larry Terrell and still does so under the name of Ivey Mechanical Company, LLC. Ivey currently has revenues around $200 million, bonding capacity at $250 million and continues to maintain a strong and healthy balance sheet.