B&B Company History
1980’s - The early years………
Company founders, Bob Parsons and Brian Miller were unhappy with the way some companies dealt with their employees and customers. Beginning in 1987, Bob and Brian knew they could do better to meet customer and employee needs by going into business themselves, opening their company in Orbisonia, PA.
B&B started as an electrical contractor working mostly for general contractors. The first projects were in commercial and institutional buildings like hotels, stores and schools. Typical job sizes ranged from $50,000 to $100,000. The company slowly began working in more institutional facilities including hospitals and nursing homes in the early 1990’s. By the mid 1990’s the number and size of the jobs increased and the company thrived in the food and beverage industry, which has become a niche market to this day.
1990’s - Transition to focus on automation and controls………
The company successfully and naturally progressed, working in more complex industries including data centers, clean rooms, and numerous industrial facilities. In 1995, the company began focusing on process controls integration, working extensively in industrial and warehouse automation, and has continued to grow in this market.
From the beginning, our goal has been to make our customers’ lives easier and B&B developed resources to provide turnkey electrical services so that we could become a one stop shop for all our clients’ electrical needs. This led to the development of a UL rated control panel fabrication shop installing panels designed and built in house as well as delivering panels to customers for installation by others.
2000’s - Deepening a strong electrical design/build legacy…..
B&B’s understanding of electrical code requirements, electrical design processes, and electrical constructability challenges has differentiated our company from most electrical contractors since the beginning. For over 35 years, leaders from our company have worked with clients from initial design concept to lead the electrical design and construction efforts on new and renovated facilities.
Building upon our electrical design/build experience catapulted B&B into the 21st century with a niche as a premier electrical design/build contractor. Simultaneously, B&B’s resume for industrial electrical construction became second to none in the central Pennsylvania region. This led to industrial installation projects in other regions as well.
Since that time our company has experienced steady growth in expanding both our portfolio with installing medium and high voltage electrical power systems as well as low voltage process controls. We have completed some of the most challenging building electrical, process electrical, and packaging electrical projects for countless manufacturing clients. We have worked in nearly half of the lower continental United States with master electrician licenses and business licenses in numerous states.
2010’s - Expanding our territory further……..
In 2012, to propagate our forte as a premier industrial electrical design/build contractor, we enhanced our ability to grow by opening an office in Harrisonburg, VA. This led to opening an additional office in Hagerstown, MD a few years later. We have since expanded our industrial experience even further, growing extensively in the oil and gas industry during this period. We have successfully completed countless design/build projects in the natural gas industry over the last decade. On February 1, 2018 we streamlined our operations by consolidating our offices in VA and MD to a single location in Clear Brook, VA. Gary McDonald was Regional Vice President and led the effort in the streamlining and consolidation. Later in 2018 Joe Bowman was hired to help Gary lead the office in Virginia.
2020’s - Transitioning into the 2020’s and beyond………
New partners were welcomed into the business beginning in January 2021. As the company founders planned for their eventual retirement, they felt that two of our leaders from our Virginia office would do a great job in continuing the electrical design/build legacy started in 1987. Therefore, Gary McDonald and Joe Bowman joined Bob Parsons and Brian Miller as partners
We have continued to grow in our industrial markets, completing more and more electrical design/build projects for our customers. In July 2023 Brian Miller departed B&B. Bob Parsons continues to work closely with Gary and Joe through the ownership transition with a goal to build upon our customer service and expand our electrical design/build services for industrial clients and beyond. The whole team at B&B is excited about the next steps in the journey of maintaining and growing our legacy as a premier electrical design/build contractor. The entire team is pulling together with enthusiasm to accomplish our daily goal of making our customers’ lives easier!