Lay/Duckworth Construction is now LAY Construction.
Since purchasing Duckworth Construction in 2019, owner Coleman Lay, 29, has been working on the rebranding.
“At year five it was time to move on. To have my name on the door provides a little bit different sense of ownership,” Lay said.
The name change has also given him an opportunity to address his company’s culture.
“I think we want to be an organization that’s involved deeply in the community. We haven’t done much of that in the past. We definitely want to play a bigger part in what’s going on in Jacksonville,” he said.
The offices are at 13891 Atlantic Blvd. near Atlantic Beach. He would like to expand the community involvement to the Beaches communities and Ponte Vedra Beach.
Hank Duckworth began Duckworth Construction in 1988. After the sale, Lay kept that name until changing it to Lay/Duckworth in July 2021.
The sale contained no stipulation that Lay had to keep the Duckworth name for any period of time, he said.
Lay, a Jacksonville native, graduated from The Bolles School. He attended the Auburn University College of Architecture, Design and Construction and in 2017 earned a bachelor of science in building construction.
After buying the 30-year-old company, Lay thought it best to retain the Duckworth brand until clients were comfortable with the new ownership and the quality of its work.
He hasn’t come up with a final cost but estimates the rebranding at $15,000 to $20,000.
Besides business cards and stationery, he had to change signage on its trucks and building. There is also the matter of changing the logo on company T-shirts as well as swag like coffee cups and pens.
“I think we wanted to make sure that we delivered a clear message to our clients, subcontractors and employees when we made this change,” Lay said.
“We sent out a bunch of handwritten letters to folks and addressed each separately. We made it very intentional to be clear about the name change.”
There also was the matter of the company’s internet presence. While its previous website and email addresses work, the company’s new domain name is lay-construction.com. He also worked to make sure Internet searches for Lay/Duckworth would come up as LAY Construction.
The company specializes in office and retail construction. Its territory will remain Northeast Florida.
Lay expects to expand the project scope to include repurposing offices as well as restoring classic buildings.
“You see folks who are coming from outside of Jacksonville and investing in old buildings and wanting to bring them back to life. And it’s fun to be a part of those projects, especially on the front end and kind of going through the development stage and meeting with the Downtown Development Review Board,” he said.
“It’s rewarding seeing something that is somewhat condemned being brought back to life and put potentially in a completely different use than it was before.”
The company has 14 employees. Lay has added four positions since the purchase. He estimated that the company subcontracts 70% of its work.
Last year the company had revenues of $16 million and is projecting it will grow to $18 million in 2024.