A Butler County-based full-service civil engineering and surveying company will celebrate its 20th anniversary early next month.

Kleingers & Associates, which opened in February 1993 in West Chester Twp., started out with five employees and total revenue of almost $500,000. This past year, it was up to 62 team members, 52 of them local, and $7 million in revenue, according to Jim Kleingers, president and chief executive officer.

The company, which provides design and construction services related to site development, specializes in sustainable civil engineering, roadway and transportation engineering, land surveying and 3D laser scanning, municipal engineering, landscape architecture, and community planning. Markets in which it competes include K-12 school facilities, universities and other higher education, medical, industrial and retail properties, municipal, county and state infrastructure and other private and public development.

“Our largest revenue-producing service segment is site design and engineering,” Kleingers said. “It’s a core service that we provide to most of our clients.”

Site design consists of working with owners and other building design professionals to arrange buildings, driveways, parking lots and all of the other exterior design elements so they are functional and aesthetically pleasing.

“In essence, we design nearly everything on a site that is outside of the buildings,” Kleingers said.

Kleingers & Associates works with a variety of large land owners, real estate developers, architects, public agencies and other government entities within about 100 miles of its office locations in West Chester Twp., Columbus and Dayton. It provides 3D scanning services nationally.

Q: What’s been the biggest challenge of weathering the recession and how did you manage to do so?

“The biggest challenge that Kleingers & Associates faced during this recession was adjusting our operation to match a sudden and significant decrease in construction-related opportunities. We provide professional services to the construction industry and construction declined precipitously in late 2008 and really hasn’t recovered yet. Our revenue decreased nearly 40 percent in 2009 — from 2008 levels — and we were forced to cut staff, temporarily reduce salaries and temporarily reduce or discontinue some of our benefits.

“In addition, we reorganized the company and changed our approach to business development and marketing in order to be more proactive and intentional in pursuing new clients and opportunities. We stabilized our situation in 2010 and have experienced modest growth and profitability in the last few years. We are poised for continued improvement and are optimistic about the future.”

Q: What’s the biggest change the business has experienced recently and how has it dealt with that change?

A: “Last year, Ohio passed a construction reform bill that changed the way that many of our public clients are approaching construction projects. The new methods for procuring design and construction services require providers like us to do a considerable amount of pre-design work in order to compete for projects. Our traditional business development and marketing approach isn’t appropriate in this environment, so we are developing new ways to market our firm to owners, architects and construction managers.”

Q: “What are the major goals the business is now working on and how are you working to achieve those goals?

“We have several priorities that we are focusing on in 2013. One of the most important is staff development and retention. Our people are our most important resource. In order to continue to grow as a technically advanced firm, we must offer training, challenging work and opportunities for advancement to our team members. Our goal is to become a destination company that attracts and keeps the best talent in the industry. ”

Q: Where do you see the company five years from now, in terms of growth?

“The construction industry has not approached the levels of activity that we experienced prior to the recession and frankly, I don’t expect it to do so anytime soon. The industry is still quite volatile due to macroeconomic issues and uncertainty. We currently intend to continue to pursue modest annual revenue growth in the range of 4 percent to 8 percent and leverage technology and better work processes in order to improve margins. That will eventually enable us to look at growth in additional geographic markets.”