How Mullins Mechanical is strengthening its capabilities as one of America’s fastest-growing companies
With years of proven expertise in the mechanical industry, Mullins Mechanical (Mullins) offers specialized teams capable of executing large-scale projects ranging from complex industrial and utility installations to multi-million-dollar data center builds. Its portfolio spans the industrial, utility, chemical, automotive, food and beverage, mission critical, manufacturing, and aerospace sectors. As a leading contractor working across the US, Mullins offers HVAC, plumbing, piping, equipment installation and rigging, millwright, and fire protection capabilities, as well as design build services. Now recognized as one of America’s fastest growing companies, this approach allows Mullins to oversee a project through its full cycle, meaning clients only deal with one contact throughout.
“Mullins was founded in 2008 by Jacob Mullins, who remains our CEO today,” opens Tim Harrell, COO. “Jacob took a chance with a $60,000 loan to start a company focused on owners and facilities in Georgia and Alabama. What began as a local chemical-processing plant assignment has grown into a full-service mechanical contractor handling projects ranging from small-scale retrofits to large, $100 million-plus industrial and manufacturing builds. Today, we’ve worked in 21 states with hundreds of owners and general contractors through a partnership approach, and we maintain our ethos as a team-oriented and relationship-driven company.”
As Tim explains, Mullins has grown substantially since its foundation, and earlier this year, the business was named as one of America’s fastest growing companies. “There are three fundamental things crucial to our growth and success: our people, structured operations, and client trust,” Tim states. “We’ve built a phenomenal team that has shaped the company from a small business to where it is today, with strong leaders and field teams conducting day-to-day operations. Secondly, as we’ve grown into a nationwide contractor, we’ve strengthened our processes, planning, and accountability to ensure we can scale without losing who we are.
“Client trust is a result of communicating clearly, executing consistently, and delivering quality work, and a strong portion of our work comes from repeat clients who trust us to deliver full mechanical packages across multiple projects and markets,” he states. “Once people experience our approach and the quality of the end projects, it opens doors for repeat business, especially when clients learn about the vast range of services we offer.”
Commitment to safety and quality
Mullins’ relationship-driven approach has clearly been instrumental in creating and maintaining long-term client partnerships. “We communicate clearly, operate with transparency, and take ownership of our responsibilities,” Tim states. “Whether it’s a client, trade partner, or our employees, strong relationships make the work better and lead to safer jobsites, faster decision-making, and more predictable results. Building and maintaining strong, long-term relationships with clients, partners, and employees is a critical part of who we are. In practice, this means we operate with a partnership mindset and create a team culture based around respect.”
Leveraging the support of its parent company, Kelso Industries, Mullins is continuously strengthening its existing capabilities, as well as adding new services. Building on a longstanding partnership, Mullins drove Kelso’s acquisition of a niche design-build contractor, NDBS, to help with design-build projects. Similarly, Mullins started a pre-fabrication division that has since grown into FabLogix, now a sister company within the Kelso portfolio. “Internally, we’ve established a dedicated fire protection department and an in-house BIM division,” Tim confirms. “BIM isn’t just about producing coordinated drawings but about transforming the entire delivery process. By bringing our BIM capabilities in-house, we’re able to coordinate systems earlier, identify clashes before they hit the field, and eliminate rework that traditionally slows a project down.”
Elaborating on the company’s capabilities, he continues: “We self-perform the core mechanical scopes, including plumbing systems and sanitary installations, HVAC installation, process and utility piping, and rigging and millwright services. We also provide a comprehensive suite of plant relocation, metal fabrication, and fire protection services. Plus, our offsite pre-fabrication services enable us to reduce on-site labor time, avoid delays, and improve quality control, ultimately allowing us to keep up with the schedule demands of our clients.
“In terms of safety, we operate a dedicated safety division to ensure we consistently prioritize safe practices. Safety is our top priority, and our entire team looks out for one another in the field, the office, and everywhere in between. We believe that safety and quality go together; a safe job is usually a quality job, and a quality job is usually a safe job. This approach aligns with our core values of safety, quality, relationships, innovation, and accountability.”
Prioritizing people
From speaking with Tim, it’s clear to see how Mullins is strengthening and diversifying its service offerings to align with its vision and relationship-driven approach to clients. As our conversation closes, discussion turns to what the future holds for Mullins. “2026 looks like it will be another year of continued growth, and although we’re passionate about growing both our services and geographical footprint, we’re mindful not to lose our focus on safety and quality,” Tim explains.
“We’re currently prioritizing team development with a vision to build leaders and high performing teams capable of managing our growth moving forward, as well as continuing to build relationships with key nationwide clients, especially in manufacturing and data center markets,” he concludes. “As we continue to improve scalability through consistent systems and processes, we’re aiming to reach $750,000-to-$1-billion in revenue over the next five years. We’ll strengthen our relationships and capabilities along the way, but supporting our teams and culture will always be our top priority.”