Seppala and Aho

New Ipswich Historical Society

New Hampshire Times - Feb 6, 1980

Seppala and Aho - written by Steve Taylor for the New Hampshire Times.

photo by Bob LaPree

Seppala and Aho Construction

Seppala and Aho executives like to say there's hardly a soul in New England who hasn't been in one of their buildings. Seppala and Aho Construction Co., is the largest building contractor in New Hampshire, the largest in northern New England, the seventh largest in New England, and one of the 300 largest in the United States.

From obscure beginnings back in 1950-its founders put up a speculation house on land their father-in-law gave them-Seppala and Aho has become a firm whose name is synonymous with new shopping centers, industrial plants and office buildings.

Now the firm is branching into condominium construction in Florida and shopping centers in Ohio, Georgia and even as far off as North Dakota.

Seppala and Aho is the biggest employer in New Ipswich, and its construction activities plus its various subsidiaries are the dominant economic force in that section of Hillsborough and Cheshire counties that hugs the Massachusetts border north of Fitchburg.

It is also the most visible achievement of the sizable Finnish population that inhabits the region, a source of considerable pride for the Finnish community, and a monument to its pride in hard work and good craftsmanship.

About 40 percent of Seppala and Aho's work force is composed of people who claim Finnish ancestry, and almost all of its management personnel are of Finnish descent.

Seppala and Aho are Martin Seppala and Hjalmar Aho. They married sisters whose father gave the two men some land in Ashby, Mass., in 1950 to put up a spec house. That house led to more houses, then a church and eventually to the development of a growing construction enterprise that built houses, factories, schools and just about every imaginable type of building.

Seppala and Aho, the founders, moved their growing business a few miles up Route 123A to New Ipswich and worked it up to what is today a $50 million-a-year operation. Hjalmar Aho left the firm in 1970 to form a new business in Michigan, later to return to Rindge, where he started what is known today as H.W. Aho Construction.

Both men raised large families, in keeping with their religious beliefs, Seppala having 17 and Aho having 14 children. Many of these offspring are working in the Seppala and Aho organization today.

If there is a distinctive feature of the Seppala and Aho empire, it is the firm's capability for what is known in the industry as "design-build" construction.

Instead of taking the blueprints a customer has had prepared by an architect and proceeding to build from there, Seppala and Aho likes to take a custom- er's list of requirements for a new building, plan and design the structure with its own in-house engineers and draftsmen, and then proceed into actual construction.

Seppala and Aho still will build a building for a customer using architect's plans, but the design-build approach appeals to many corporate and industrial clients who are concerned primarily with per-square-foot costs and speedy erection.

Seppala and Aho handles all the major trades except electrical work on its jobs, and this further saves the customer money and gives better control of the construction schedule, the firm feels. From site development through concrete work, framing and steel erection to roofing, plumbing, finish carpentry and landscaping, most of the work will be performed by Seppala and Aho's own work force rather than being "subbed" out to other contractors, as is commonly done in commercial and industrial construction.

The entire work force at Seppala and Aho is non-union-only the term preferred today is "merit shop," rather than non-union shop.

Walter Ketola, an executive at Seppala and Aho, says the firm pays according to what each individual is worth, and while scales don't match those paid to union workers, Seppala and Aho tradesmen net out more in a year than do union construction workers because they are sure of year 'round work.

"We haven't had any general layoff since 1974. when the whole construction industry went flat. Well over 200 of our 500 employees have been with Seppala and Aho for more than five years.

"We feel our benefits exceed those available elsewhere in the industry with such things as Blue Cross and our dental plan. This year we gave over $90,000 worth of Christmas gifts to our employees, also," Ketola says.

The Finnish influence in the Seppala and Aho work force is much less today than it used to natives of Finland now, where at one time a considerable number of hands, particularly carpenters, were immigrants.

But the Finnish influence is still there. It is common to hear the Finnish language being spoken around the headquarters, copies of Raivaaja, the Finnish language newspaper printed in Fitchburg, float around the offices, and the interoffice intercoms crackle with names of executives carrying the typical double-vowel and en-ending construction of Finnish surnames.

Seppala and Aho Construction reflects both puritanical values and paternalistic attitudes toward its employees. Signs on the bulletin boards warn male employees that long hair is not tolerated, and add Biblical injunctions against lengthy tresses on men for good measure,

It is a shirtsleeves atmosphere in the offices, brisk production and concentration in the workshops out back. There aren't many Cadillacs in the parking lots, but the latest in computer technology, word processing gear and graphics production are found in the headquarters buildings. If it pays, Seppala and Aho will own it.

Workers can get lunch at the company cafeteria for a dollar, and around New Ipswich a lot of people talk about Marty Seppala's generosity with employees who have come upon hard financial times. Years ago Seppala and Aho employees used to build their houses with materials they got from the company, then settle up when they took out mortgages on their completed homes.

If there's a single distinguishing characteristic to this firm, it's the youth of its management people. Marty Seppala's son, Sam, is 26 and is number- two man in the firm.

Ketola is 36; corporate manager of construction Bill Kivela is also 36. The 30 construction superintendents average 35 years. It occasionally has happened that a young fellow of 19 or 20 has been put in charge of a job worth several hundred thousand dollars, and supers in their 20s have collected substantial performance bonuses for getting jobs done ahead of deadline.

Seppala and Aho is more than shopping center, condominium and industrial park construction, how- ever. It has several subsidiaries in construction-related fields which figure significantly in the corporation's employment and revenue picture.

Monadnock Fabricators in New Ipswich and Rindge produces beams, columns, rafters, railings and numerous other products for building construction. Seppala and Aho sends its own tractor-trailer rigs to Pennsylvania steel mills to bring home raw materials that are converted into finished members for both parent-company projects and outside firms jobs.

Vanguard Manufacturing in New Ipswich is a major fabricator of steel construction scaffolding for the national market. Other subsidiaries are involved in wholesale and retail building materials distribution, transit-mixed concrete, plumbing, sprinkler a heating installation, retrofitting of existing building and landscaping.

At any given time, Seppala and Aho will have to 25 projects in progress. One of the biggest und way currently is construction of the Elmendorf particle board plant in Claremont. A big one finished recently was the new Digital plant in Merrimack, completed in less than 150 days.

Several of New Hampshire's shopping ma were built by Seppala and Aho, including Newington, Nashua, Hudson, Royal Ridge, Rockingham, Peterborough, and Willow Malls. In all, firm has done more than 60 shopping malls, ranging up to the $8 million Mystic Mall in Chelsea, Mas and as far off as Georgia and Ohio.

Seppala and Aho has built more than 100 buildings for Nashua developers Sam Tamposi and Gera Nash, all reportedly on just a handshake agreement

Today Marty Seppala is no longer a hammer and-nail-apron contractor. He's spending a lot time in Florida getting a second division going ne West Palm Beach to do commercial and industrial jobs, while son Sam minds the shop back in New Ipswich.

A New Hampshire architect who has watched Seppala and Aho grow over the years says the firm success is attributable to a combination of hard work and brains and willingness to put aggressive young people in positions of responsibility.

"It's really brains they reward down there They're kind of unconventional in many respects but they talk the buyer's language, which is lowest cost per square foot of space," the architect says.

Written by Steve Taylor for The New Hampshire Times, 1960

James Roger diary entries

25th September 1912

Fair with some sunshine; wind east. David at Miss F. Barr’s piecing apples. I weeded some and went to Mail; picked 2 chickens and took them to Miss Lena Barr’s and weeded some. Mr. Willard of Townsend called and paid for care of lot. Masonic meeting tonight; 4 present:  Lewis, Maynard, Beard, & Roger.