Velocity’s team of concrete professionals has more than 70 years of combined experience.

Velocity prepares to pour its new mix, KwikSand, in Parker, Colorado.

If you look up the word “velocity” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the first definitions you’ll see are “quickness of motion” or “speed.” Velocity, it seems, is a fitting name for the Denver-area concrete company that is rapidly making a mark on its industry. The small, family-owned operation, which provides concrete sales and delivery, is now poised to introduce its own innovative ready-mix product.

Velocity, short for Velocity Ready Mix, is a 100 percent women-owned business with Suzanne Marchiol serving as President and Tanya Marchiol at the helm as CEO. The company, based in Denver, is designated as a Women Owned Small Business (WOSB), a Women Business Enterprise (WBE) and a Small Business Enterprise (SBE).

Ken Marchiol also joins the other Marchiol family members as entrepreneurs who bought the business together in 2014 with no prior hands-on experience with concrete. But Tanya knew the first thing she needed to do was hire the best people in the industry, and that’s precisely what she did.

And now, in approximately five years’ time, the small company is doing big things, thanks to the dedication and hard work of its team of concrete professionals who have more than 70 years of combined industry experience.

A New Kind of Concrete

When Kevin Sobczak, chief development officer, joined the Velocity team, he had an idea for a different kind of ready-mix concrete. In contrast to some larger companies where people presenting new ideas often must contend with red tape, Tanya gave Kevin the go-ahead and support to create this new mix.

The result was a product called KwikSand.

As its name would imply, KwikSand is about speed. According to product information provided by Velocity, the early-stiffening, flowable fill lets paving and concrete contractors backfill or pave within hours, instead of days, speeding up the time it takes to complete a job.

Additional defining characteristics of KwikSand are: it can be easily removed when necessary; it allows for proper consolidation around pipes, rebar and surrounding soils; and the technology used to produce it protects the concrete against damage from freezing and frost. According to Velocity, KwikSand is the first in the nation to deliver this type of technology in a rotational drum.

The mix, which Velocity has patented, has been approved for municipality use by the city of Denver and the Colorado Department of Transportation—a big achievement for the company. But Velocity isn’t planning to keep KwikSand to itself. Instead, it intends to license the mix so that others can produce it, too.

With the success of KwikSand, the Velocity team hopes to develop and introduce additional mixes over the next couple of years.

Consistent Quality

Velocity is one of the only small, family-owned ready-mix companies in Denver, and as Tanya says, “Being a smaller company, we’re not out to take over the world. We’re out to create good relationships with our customers.”

Velocity’s high standards and commitment to achieving consistent quality play a big part in building that relationship. With Kevin overseeing quality assurance, Tanya says the company hasn’t experienced “a low break” (a phrase playing off the concept of low-strength concrete) in the past two years. Velocity’s concrete undergoes rigorous testing to be certified for municipality use across the state of Colorado, and it always passes. As a result, municipal customers can be certain their concrete will meet all required specifications.

The Velocity team also includes Chris Miller, director of sales, who does more than salespeople typically do to meet customers’ needs. His responsibilities include testing the concrete himself before it’s delivered and ensuring any issues are fixed before the concrete is ever laid.

“We’ll reject our own mud if we don’t feel like the quality is high enough,” Tanya says.

Chris or other members of the sales staff personally attend every pour Velocity does to make sure the results achieve the customer’s expectation. The company provides more than 90 mix designs and can create specialty mixes for each customer with its innovative technology.

For a company with a name associated with “speed,” it makes sense that Velocity is also highly focused on delivering products on time. To ensure customers get what they need, and when they need it, Velocity will even open its batch plant on a Sunday when necessary—and without charging the customer extra to do so.

“We go above and beyond to make things happen for our customers that other companies may not do,” Tanya says. “Our goal, from the first time a customer calls until the moment the concrete goes on the ground, is to make the customer feel like part of our family.”

The Family Factor

Creating that family atmosphere, not only for the customers but for the entire Velocity team, is something Tanya strives for. With just 30 employees, the team is a close, tight-knit group of individuals who can rely on one another for support.

“One of the biggest things is that our admin staff has an open-door policy,” Tanya explains. “Everyone on staff knows that if they ever need something and we have the ability to help, we will.”

The entire team meets every day, promptly at 4 p.m., to touch base and review how the day went—from the successes to the challenges. This gives employees the chance to regroup and determine what needs to be done to make the following day even better and more successful.

As the Velocity team continues to strive for success, many times it requires staff members to wear multiple hats. That might mean Tanya troubleshoots information technology, or Kevin climbs to the roof of the plant to make repairs while Chris drives across town to deliver fiber. No matter what needs to be done, someone will pitch in to help. They are a true definition of team.

With two new plants opening this year and future plans to continue developing innovative new mixes, Velocity is continuing to expand at a rapid pace—and the staff is certainly prepared to handle any associated growing pains.

“I love the challenge,” Tanya says. “What I love most is that everybody comes to work, and they all work so hard. I don’t think other industries understand how much hard work goes into getting that foundation on the ground or getting the sidewalk put in. It’s been a lot of fun for me in this industry. It’s a grind, but it’s totally rewarding to see how hard people work.”