This reinforced concrete chimney, constructed by Pullman Power Products Corp., is part of RESCO's waste management facility in Baltimore.

The chimney repair business sounds like small potatoes, but for Structural Group, a $90 million specialty contractor in Hanover, it's a potential source of substantial revenue growth.

The company completed its acquisition last week of Pullman Power Products Corp., a $23 million contractor based in Kansas City, Mo., that specializes in building, repairing, strengthening and demolishing concrete silos and chimneys for the power plant industry, among others. The sales price was not disclosed.

This week, privately-held Structural, which employs 300 people in Maryland, also signed a lease for 11,000 square feet of office space adjacent to its headquarters building, bringing the company's total administrative offices to 27,000 square feet. The company also plans to find expanded warehouse space for 200 of its employees now based in Arbutus.

Dan Fangio, Structural's chief financial officer, said Pullman - the company's third acquisition in five years - represents a new market opportunity.

"Due to deregulation and confusion in the [energy] industry, utilities have not been spending" to upgrade or replace power plants, he said. Pullman has built one-third of the chimneys that grace coal-fired power plants in the U.S., Fangio said, and many others need repairs.

"The market is potentially playing into our hands," he said.

To date, most of Structural's contracts have involved the repair and strengthening of municipal buildings, bridges, parking garages and apartment complexes. In Maryland, the company's business units have performed work on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the shark holding tanks at the National Aquarium of Baltimore, the Candler Building and the seat decks at PSINet Stadium, among other facilities.

Structural reports it has posted 30 percent revenue growth in each of the last five years. And according to Engineering News-Record magazine, Structural's flagship concrete repair company, Structural Preservation Systems, is the highest revenue producer in its field in the U.S.

"Strengthening is one of the fastest-growing areas of the [concrete] repair market," said Milt Collins, executive director with the International Concrete Repair Institute in Sterling, Va., "Many buildings need strengthening because they weren't designed well enough in the first place."

But not all of Structural's markets perform equally well. The Pullman acquisition reflects an ongoing effort to diversify as other markets ebb and flow. Until this year, for instance, low oil prices had depressed the company's oil and gas plant repair market for several years. Many industrial plants "kept putting off repairs and delaying their maintenance," Fangio said.

Meanwhile, competitors credit Structural for using its acquisitions, including Pullman, as an aggressive business tool.

"A lot of the jobs that they do don't hit the street for us to see," said Jim Wheeler, director of business development with Hayward Baker Inc., a $105 million Odenton-based competitor.

"They're in there talking with the client and just extend the scope of work - removing columns from buildings, moving loads, creating building foundation work. They create work for themselves," Wheeler said.