Sharon Hicks, president of Hicks Construction Co., said the company is in the process of being dissolved and has been reorganized into Hicks Enterprise Inc., with her son, Joe Kindrich, as president. Hicks said she will be in charge of sales responsibilities for the new company, but have no management duties.
As part of the change, the new operation no longer uses unionized carpenters and has moved to a new headquarters in Kaneohe.
"To operate in today's climate, we couldn't do it the way the company was structured back in the 1950s," Hicks said.
She said that delays in building a housing project on Kauai, after Hurricane Iniki, cost the company nearly $1 million. That put Hicks Construction Co. behind in its monthly payments to the carpenters' union trust funds.
The company later couldn't meet the terms of a settlement agreement on these funds, owed in 1994, and the carpenters' union filed suit in July 1995. A judgment of $195,771 was granted last week by Circuit Judge Marjorie Higa Manuia, according to Ashley Ikeda, attorney for the carpenters' union.
Hicks Construction Co. had a relationship with the carpenters' union for more than 30 years, Hicks said. But the Kauai problems, combined with the rising costs of business from the company's Honolulu headquarters, led Hicks to move away from the carpenters' union, she said.
Hicks Construction was paying $27,000 a month in taxes and rent for its old location at 2331 S. Beretania St., after a July 1995 rent increase, she said. Those costs and the burden of workers compensation costs led Hicks to make the move on last month.
When Hicks dropped eight union carpenters last year, the company's annual workers compensation costs dropped from $110,000 to $6,700, she said. Carpenters Union #745 filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board but Hicks said she got a letter a few days ago saying all the charges were being withdrawn.
"We just couldn't afford the workers comp costs, along with everything else," Hicks said.
Walter Kupau, the carpenters' union financial secretary and treasurer, said Hicks "is a nice lady" but questioned some of the company's business decisions. He referred questions about the carpenters' trust funds to their attorneys, who declined comment.
Attorney Charles Gall, who represented Hicks on the Circuit Court case, said Hicks Construction's problems "were a combination of different factors, and the cost of doing business in Hawaii."
Rather than file for bankruptcy, Hicks Construction Co., made the decision to dissolve. The Hicks name, and home plans, are being purchased by the new company, Hicks Enterprise, Gall said.
The new company, based at 46-217 Kahuhipa St. in Kaneohe, is a return to the organization's beginnings as a family-run business. Hicks Enterprise uses four family members to operate the business: Kindrich, president; Guy Hicks, another son, supervisor; Julie Kinhult, a daughter, who answers the phones; and Sharon Hicks, for sales. Outside workers do the actual construction.
"The kids are so happy to have the company back," said Sharon Hicks. "They want to operate it for another 40 years."
Since 1954, there have been 16,000 Hicks Homes built in Hawaii, she said. At the height of construction in the late 1950s, the company was building 100 homes a month but when her father, Harold Hicks, died in 1967 at the age of 50, the company was placed in the hands of trustees.
"It seemed like everything just stopped," Hicks said. "The employees came to me for help."
After watching how Hicks Construction Co. was deteriorating, she filed a lawsuit against the company's trustees. It was settled in 1988, and Hicks was installed on the board of directors in 1989. The following year she became president as the key trustees resigned.
She cut overhead, closed the Nimitz Highway warehouse, started new pricing and accounting systems, and set new goals. By 1991, the company had turned a profit - its first in eight years.
The company, best known for its affordable single-wall construction in the old days, changed its image four years ago and began using double-wall homes with vaulted ceilings.
Hicks concentrates on older neighborhoods where people want to tear down an old home and build a new one. The company did only 22 homes last year, but the normally averages about 30 homes a year, Hicks said.
It's been 29 years since her father died, but Sharon Hicks sees the new company as a rebirth for the family. "It's a positive move, painful but still positive."