Celebrating seven decades of building relationships
Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Mackenzie Free
It’s hard to miss a Goodgame Company truck crisscrossing Pell City and St. Clair County these days. Multiple projects across the community have those bright red trucks, emblazoned with the familiar, oval-shaped Goodgame logo, moving at as rapid a pace as the buildings they engineer going up.
It’s not an overnight success story by any means. It has been seven decades in the making. But in each of those seven decades, one principle has been the guide. Beyond the brick and mortar, it’s the relationships Goodgame Company has built that has more than 90 percent of its clients returning for more.
As the 70th birthday approached this year, President Jason Goodgame, his mother, Connie, and his sister, Janna Masters, wanted something special to commemorate the history of the company its patriarch, Adrick Goodgame, built.
Jason was looking online for some hunting clothes, and he came across the artwork of Dirk Walker, whose hunting and fishing series was featured. He was naturally drawn to the work, so he contacted him about commissioning a painting, not knowing Walker’s studio was only two blocks away.
They met. They talked. Walker created a hand sketch. And what evolved as the portrait was a compelling mosaic of scenes that tell the Goodgame story, reflections of 70 years.
It now hangs as a focal point in the company’s lobby, a reminder of Adrick’s legacy. “It turned out to be perfect,” Goodgame said. “It’s something we will cherish and keep forever. Dad would be proud of it.”
Parallel to the portrait, the company created a video series that “symbolizes us,” he said. It was an opportunity to celebrate 70 years of what relationship building means to the clients and employees alike. “Pell City has been good to us. There are not many contractors who don’t have to travel out of town to work. There are not too many opportunities like this in our business.”
It all goes back to the relationships. Right now, you’ll find those red trucks at sites virtually around every corner – First Baptist Church of Pell City, Pell City Police Department’s new headquarters and Pell City Fire Department Station 2, to name a few.
Just completed was TC Customs at Town & Country Ford. Douglas Manufacturing Rulmeca Group, Ford Meter Box, Allied Mineral Products and Eissmann Automotive are among others completed in recent months.
On the drawing board for the future is Helms Healthcare and others. Those relationships just keep on building, and so does the Goodgame family legacy.
Before Adrick Goodgame died in 2023, his son said, “we talked about the transition and what it would look like. We talked about it, but we were not prepared” for the loss of the architect of their family business. His shadow still looms large over the company he built from a metal fabrication shop to a major player on the state stage in the construction industry.
“You have to understand, for 20 years, we spent six days a week together. We talked about goals and where we were headed,” but they daily discover the details Adrick simply “took care of.”
An adjustment? Yes. But with a page from his playbook, they have adapted, changed to meet the needs, and they’ve grown even more because of it.
It was Adrick’s signature ability – adapting and changing to meet the market’s needs. Whenever there was a major shift in the market, Adrick Goodgame was there to meet it with a new business plan, whether it was the Great Recession in 2008 or the post COVID years in 2019.
“We’ve changed how we do business and who we do business for. The company does design- build-negotiated work, which has brought their repeat business to well over 90 percent. One client called it “a one stop shop.”
“It’s that relationships piece,” Goodgame explained. “If we grow, we still maintain our relationships. Through the years, we have maintained our base” in addition to the new business.
He credits the business retention to a continuing philosophy of community focus. They grow their own workforce, providing educational opportunities that earn employees certifications and management and supervision roles.
They invest in their employees and continue to treat them as family, honoring their years of service and providing perks like the recent “Boot Day,” where every employee was given a new pair of boots, a steak lunch and the afternoon off.
The mindset Adrick handed down to the next generation has not changed. He taught them well.
It’s family. It’s adapting to change. It’s relationships. “The loss,” Goodgame said, “is the hardest part.”
