Headquarters: Willmar

Inception: 1926

Family name: Duininck

What the business does: Civil construction, golf course construction, concrete production, property management, water management

Type of ownership: S corp., LLC

Employees: 1,200

Family members in the business: 13

Family members on the board: 3

In 1926, when brothers Amos, Henry, and Wilbur Duininck started a road construction business near their home in the small town of Prinsburg, they probably never imagined that nearly 100 years later, their descendants would own two construction firms, a concrete production company, a property developer, a highly regarded Black Hills golf course, and Prinsco, a manufacturer of plastic pipe and other water management components.

“The second generation was very entrepreneurial, and they intentionally diversified away from road construction in Minnesota,” says CEO Trevor Duininck, part of the third generation of Willmar-based Duininck Cos., which manages the family’s portfolio of businesses.

“They felt the pressure of market changes that were happening at the time and that they could work only about half the year.” Not everything they pursued worked, he adds, but “what survived the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s” became the foundation of the family’s current portfolio of businesses, “and we’ve continued to refine.”

At the same time, “we’re by nature fairly conservative in our business approach,” adds Duininck. (The family name is pronounced DUN-ick.) “We don’t take on a lot of debt, we work hard, we adjust when we need to. There’s an element of not getting too far over our skis.” The diversification also helps Duininck Cos. maintain steady overall performance. “There are times when some parts of the business have struggled while others are doing well,” he says.

Family members also work well together. “There’s a shared purpose—we’re not ego-driven,” Duininck says. “We all come to the table with unique gifts and points of view.” At the same time, “we make room for each other.”

Indeed, Duininck Cos. gives family members running each business leeway to make decisions. “There’s a lot of flexibility, a lot of autonomy, a lot of freedom to grow,” Duininck says, adding that “the leadership teams in each of those operating businesses or sectors are pursuing new ideas consistently. Some make it through to approval; some don’t.” The upshot is that “innovations are driven from the bottom up.”

“We play to our strengths as much as possible, yet under a unifying umbrella of what our family’s trying to accomplish.”

—Trevor Duininck, CEO, Duininck Cos.

In other words, “we play to our strengths as much as possible, yet under a unifying umbrella of what our family’s trying to accomplish,” Duininck says. Since 2019, the company has taken what he describes as a more intentional approach to management and governance. All the businesses operate under Duininck Cos., which provides structure for all family members with ownership stakes to make big decisions about new opportunities and new directions.

In addition to that operating structure, “we’re working on more clarity about how to bring in the fourth generation,” Duininck says. “My generation and prior generations, it started quite often with summer jobs and then expectations to work after college.” Family members would “find their path” through on-the-job experience.

Trevor Duininck’s cousin Hans Duininck, took such a route. While in college and looking for a summer internship, Hans Duininck’s father—who did not work for any of the family companies—suggested he call his cousin, Prinsco CEO Jamie Duininck. After a couple of summers at Prinsco, Hans Duininck joined the company full time after graduation, working as an operations analyst and a production manager before becoming a plant manager.

Now, “there’s a lot more format and structure in G4 in terms of pathways into business,” Hans Duininck says. His extended family has created a two-year development program for the fourth generation that allows them to learn more about personal development skills and various aspects of their overall family business system. This enables the next generation to discern their interest in potential future involvement as shareholders, in family governance, or as employees within Duininck Cos. Participants are under no obligation to pursue any of those opportunities.

What’s next for the Duinincks and their businesses? Prinsco is opening a new production facility in Georgia, a move Trevor Duininck describes as a major regional expansion. Prinsco already has plants in Prinsburg and seven other locations in the Midwest and West. The family also recently hired a director of real estate development. The Duinincks own what Trevor Duininck terms “a substantial amount of real estate,” parcels of which they have sold over the years.

“But we’ve made a commitment to do development in ways we haven’t before,” he says. One plan on the drawing board is a 62-unit apartment building in Alexandria. Even with the structures for business development and intergenerational success that the Duinincks have established, there are likely to be more surprises in the road ahead.

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