Mike Angelucci is not shy about what drives the success of his business, Angelucci Acoustical.
“I have the best crew,” he said. “It is not me — they make my company what it is.”
Having been in this line of work for more than 30 years, Angelucci knows that his crew is the solid structure that underpins his company, much like the metal framing they install below custom drywall.
“My employees are awesome. They’re superstars of the industry,” said Angelucci. “A lot of them have been with me 20-plus years.”
After traveling across the country working for other similar companies, Angelucci formed Angelucci Acoustical on his 21st birthday in 1981. The company specializes in drywall installation and does mainly commercial work as a subcontractor. Angelucci has partnered with his brother, Phil, for the past 10 years, making the company a family affair. Since its inception, the Lexington-based company has had as many as 50 employees and as few as four or five.
“We’re not a big company, but we’re a tighter unit,” said Mike Angelucci. The close working relationship and camaraderie of his crew is what he believes delivers a higher quality experience to customers. He also thinks that a key differentiator between himself and the competition is that he pays his employees by the hour, encouraging them to take the time to do the job right.
“I don’t want to be the fastest in town; I want to be the best,” he said. “The most rewarding part is building a reputation — having people call you back. Out of 150-200 jobs we do a year, 150 or so are people who call all the time, so there’s a sense of pride.”
Angelucci Acoustical was responsible for all the drywall throughout the new Coba Cocina restaurant, as well as the stucco appearance on the outside. That also meant creating all the metal stud framing for interior spaces and insulating the exterior jobs. When the call came down to help create some of the unique designs in and around Coba Cocina, Angelucci knew it was a make-or-break moment.
“It was scary, wondering if we could pull it off in the time allotted and with the difficulty level,” he said. “But the more difficult the job, the more we get into it.”
He was right to be nervous, as the degree of difficulty proved to be a true challenge to Angelucci and his crew.
“It’s the toughest drywall job I’ve ever seen,” said Angelucci. “In 31 years, this is the hardest job I’ve had — everything in there is round. Every piece in there is the most difficult thing I’ve done.”
The work also provided ample opportunities to work with new products and techniques, with some products — especially the translucent ceiling panels, a new material, used for its first time at Coba Cocina — requiring close contact with the manufacturers themselves. Angelucci Acoustical has been working with Coba Cocina for a year now.
Now that the work on Coba Cocina has been substantially completed, Angelucci said his crew feels a true sense of accomplishment.
“They get a kick out of showing off their skills,” he said. “It’s cool for them stand back and say, ‘Wow, look at what we did.’”