Growing with the Flowe

At ten years old, you could have found Micah Flowe helping his father pour a sidewalk for their church over the weekend. At twenty-two, you could have found him starting his own company. Now, at thirty, you might find him atop one of his three Power Curbers 5700 series curb machines. Micah began on his own with nothing more than a truck, trailer, skid-steer, and the knowledge that comes from deep family roots in the construction industry. His grandfather, D.W. Flowe, performed grading work and participated in the site preparation for the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Micah’s father, William Flowe branched off into sand, gravel and material hauling. William later transitioned into running a concrete plant which is where Micah’s interest in concrete was developed.

Flowe’s Charlotte, NC based company started as Concrete Stone & Concepts and his primary focus was concrete driveways. After a few years, Flowe changed the name of his company to M.O. Flowe Construction to respect and honor his roots. Flowe’s self-driven nature led to quick growth and broad expansion of their work, including hand-forming curb and gutter. He once hand-formed 756 linear feet of 24” curb and gutter in one day with a 5-man crew. One particular job where they hand-formed over 4,500 linear feet of curb and gutter for a Wal-Mart parking lot changed the course of the business. Immediately after they finished, the crew leader asked Flowe to please get a slipform machine if they were going to continue doing that kind of work. Flowe listened, did his homework, then bought a factory-rebuilt Power Curber 5700-Super-B. He purchased that first Power Curber in 2014 and, after that, things took off. Flowe revealed that “as soon as the Power Curber came, the business expanded.” Today, M.O. Flowe maintains about 25 full-time employees and is growing into a new location.

Two years after his first slipform machine, Flowe bought a new 5700-C, and then another new 5700-C the following year. He keeps a Power Curber running every day and two machines most days. Some of M.O. Flowe’s best weeks can total more than 40,000 linear feet. Flowe noted one instance where he had to buy a rush order of stringline because the 50,000 feet he had was not enough to cover all their jobs. Even though the slipforming work has surged, the company also does a variety of other civil concrete work using laser screeds and trowel machines. He offers turn-key concrete solutions ranging from parking lots to airports.

Flowe is wrapping up on the future site of an $85 million Amazon distribution center. When finished, it will add about 600 full-time jobs in Kannapolis, NC. For the project, they poured 18,000 linear feet of 18” curb and gutter. Additionally, some extra-reinforced curb and gutter was needed on the loading dock side of the 1 million square foot building. There, Micah’s crew installed 2,500 linear feet of 48” curb and gutter. The extra size will help the concrete hold up when trucks run over it in the high-traffic location. Following Amazon, M.O. Flowe is ready to jump to another big job at a paper plant. Micah Flowe is determined to succeed. Due to his impressive work ethic and ferocious dedication, his company is thriving. His advice for anyone starting out on their own is to “be prepared for ups and downs and a lot of hours.”