Crypt-Builder Finds a Growing Market,
but Not Much Competition

By Robert Mullins
of the Business Journal Staff April 2, 1994 -

Fourteen years ago, Ron Mork had a comfortable, secure job in the local construction industry but decided to give it up to start his own contracting firm. His specialty, he decided, would be building mausoleums. "I just thought that (building) mausoleums was a neat thing, " said Mork, 56, president of Mork Mausoleum Construction Inc., Waukesha. "It's kind of unique and I thought that I could make some money at it."

By being the only contractor in the Milwaukee area -- and one of only a half-dozen in the country -- that builds mausoleums exclusively, Mork Mausoleum obviously has cornered the market in southeast Wisconsin. "Quite frankly, we see Mork Construction doing most of our work," said Gregg Apostoloff, director of marketing for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which operates eight cemeteries. "They have for over 10 years been the successful bidder."

According to Mork, Mork Mausoleum has stayed successful by staying small, mastering the unique standards of mausoleum construction and serving a market few other contractors serve. When the company started in 1980, it employed four people: Mork, his sons, Jim and Dave, and a daughter's boyfriend. Fourteen years later, Mork Mausoleum employs 11 people, but Ron Mork is cautious about adding more, even in an expanding market for mausoleum building. "If we have to, we'll hire to grow, but we don't want to get monstrously big," said Jim Mork, 36, now a foreman with the company. "We want to have control over our work...because we take a lot of pride in what we do."

A Surprising Lack of Competition

Taking pride in mausoleum work involves using high-quality materials and exacting building standards, Jim Mork said. The covers over the individual crypts with the names of the deceased inscribed on them -- called "shutters" in the business -- are made of granite if used for an outside crypt or marble if used for an inside crypt. The marble Mork Mausoleum uses is imported from Italy, Spain or Portugal, Mork said. The granite usually comes from domestic suppliers. The mausoleum walls are built using the "cast-in-place" method of pouring the concrete rather than by assembling pre-cast concrete slabs. According to Jim Mork, precast concrete panels can pose problems. In the settling process, the panels may shift and then the shutter won't fit as well.