From its beginning as a 19th Century carpentry shop to the construction of complex, multi-hundred-million-dollar projects in the 21st Century, the Boldt Company’s record of success has been built on collaboration, innovation, and performance so that customers can meet or exceed their building goals.
BoldThinking was born when Martin Boldt, the son of German immigrants, opened his carpentry business in the modest northern Wisconsin town of Appleton in 1889 – despite nearly two dozen local competitors an ongoing, 24-year-long depression that had bankrupted 20,000 American companies and led to excessive unemployment.
But Martin saw an opportunity among the small businesses and distant rural farmers facing the same trying economic conditions. Not only would he build his high-quality cabinets and cisterns, but he would also be the first to deliver them with his horse-drawn wagon, relieving his customers of the substantial downtime created by slow travel during that era.
This attitude of using innovation to help customers overcome challenges and limitations led to the steady growth of The Boldt Company through two world wars, the Great Depression, and the steady proliferation of regulations and environmental restrictions in the 20th Century. More than four generations later, the family-owned business is not only a major American builder; it continues to create new approaches in construction to deliver value, assure quality and eliminate the costly surprises that so often plague the industry.
As current CEO Thomas Boldt puts it: “Family-owned can mean a lot of things. But for us, every job we have, big or small, means we better do a good job, or word gets around. When you have your name on the company, and it doesn’t go right, the calls are coming right to you. So the way I see it, our family name is always on the line.â€
