Trader Construction Receives Business Leadership Award, Demonstrating More Than 60 Years of Community Involvement | characteristics
Trader Construction Company received the 2023 Community Fabric Award for Business Leadership presented by the Craven Community College Foundation.
The Foundation created this annual awards ceremony in 2011 to recognize and reward outstanding leadership demonstrated through outstanding initiative, impact of service and inspiration to others.
Trader Construction’s CFO and President, Carl Huddle, will accept the award as a representative of the company.
Trader Construction is a company that has been in the area since 1957 when his father started the business with another Havelock local. They offer a range of general construction services with a focus on safety, value, engineering and innovative services.
Huddle notes that the former leaders of Trader Construction are a driving force behind their team’s work ethic and culture. The contributions of Jack Huddle, the original founder, and Jack Leavel, former corporate controller, have been invaluable to the success of Trader Construction.
“I grew up in the shop and used to do odds and ends there over the summer; Painting, scaffolding, things like that,” says Huddle. “Then I worked on construction projects during the summer when I was in high school.”
Trader Construction Company has a team of over 200 employees and 120 heavy machinery. Since its founding in 1957, the company has completed over 1,000 projects in 64 years.
Huddle believes being active in the community is beneficial to the company.
“We employ people in and around the area, so they live here, they work here, they play here, and all of our employees are active in the community,” explains Huddle.
Trader Construction is known for helping people achieve their goals and become good leaders within the company and their communities.
Huddle says, “I personally believe that leadership is not just about achieving personal success, but also about empowering and inspiring others to achieve their own goals.”
The company is proud of its outstanding employees and believes it is important to reward them for excellent work. They have their own safety and performance awards to recognize their own outstanding employees.
Trader Construction has also been recognized by other organizations within the trade industry such as the Associated General Contractors of America.
In fact, the company won the Carolinas Associated General Contractors of America Pinnacle Award, recognizing the team that completed the Town Creek Culver project in Greenville, NC for completing the best heavy civil engineering project of 2021.
Some of their recent construction projects include the Town Creek Culvert Storm Drain, Water Street and Riverfront Park, Bradley Creek Drainage Repair and the NCDOT Chocowinity Retaining Wall.
Huddle explains that the biggest challenge he faces in his leadership role is keeping everyone happy.
“Of course every day is a challenge when you run a business, but I’ve surrounded myself with capable people who work hard and are very productive and active in the community,” says Huddle. “Well, I really don’t have a lot of big challenges.”
As a leader in the business world, Huddle recognizes that every trade requires a skilled workforce, mechanics, heavy equipment operators, and more. He believes skills development programs at Craven Community College are key to addressing this issue in local communities.
“They work with the local industry to see what the local industry needs,” explains Huddle. “They recently opened the vault center, which gives students who don’t want to do a four-year college degree an opportunity to learn specific skills that will help them find jobs in the area.”
For example, Bausch set up an assembly line in the vault center so that potential employees can learn how to work at Bausch on a simulated assembly line. Heavy equipment manufacturers such as Gregory Poole Equipment Company have set up similar programs at the vault center to teach students how to work on diesel engines.
“By the time they (students) leave the vault, they are already one step ahead of other potential employees,” explains Huddle.
Huddle says that the success of the Trader Construction Company is inseparable from the success of the community.
He says, “It only benefits us to give back to our community because that’s where our people live, work and play.”
Join the Craven Community College Foundation at 12:00 p.m. on April 25 at Craven County’s Riverfront Convention Center for the 13th Annual Community Fabric Awards, where Huddle won the Award for Business Leadership, Jerry Simmons the Award for Leadership in Education and Susan Moffat -Thomas receives the Award for Individual Leadership.
