Savy & Sons – A Legacy Reinvented
Savy & Sons owners Ralph and Travis Savy represent the next generation of trenchless rehabilitation contractors. They are bold, confident and fully rooted in their blue-collar upbringing and environment.
With an eye on the future, the brothers are charging ahead. They’re energized by the possibilities in the evolving world of trenchless technology.
Their story starts on construction sites as kids, working summers and school breaks alongside their father and grandfather. Whether it was building sewer manhole inverts or laying down brick and mortar, they were hands-on from the beginning.
Joining the Family Business
Ralph left high school early to join the family business, then called Ralph Savy Sr. Masonry. He learned the trade side-by-side with his father. Travis took a different route, becoming a union journeyman lineman.
Everything changed in 2007 when their father passed away unexpectedly. Rather than walking away, the brothers — Ralph at 21 and Travis at 18 — leaned in. They honored their family legacy with the same hard-working, no-nonsense work ethic they’d grown up with.
Through grit and perseverance, they not only kept the business alive — they learned how to run it. And they learned the hard way what surviving a recession really takes.
Adding Trenchless Technologies
Determined to evolve, Ralph and Travis branched out into trenchless technology in 2018. They didn’t just dip a toe in — they dove headfirst, expanding their offerings with multiple trenchless rehab solutions. This includes cured-in-place pipe (CIPP), spray-in-place pipe (SIPP), CCTV and sliplining, to name a few. This is in addition to its waterproofing and masonry work. Starting from scratch, they built up a whole new skill set and pushed their company’s reach further than ever before.
Today, Ralph, 39, serves as CEO and technical director of Savy & Sons’ infrastructure division. Travis, 36, holds the role of COO and technical director of the pipelining division. With clearly defined responsibilities, the brothers effectively avoid sibling squabbles and internal conflicts, contributing to the company’s success.
As the business evolved, so did its name. Savy and Sons Inc. was born — a nod to their early mentors and family. Now, as they continue to thrive in their journey as a successful trenchless rehabilitation contractor, they’re eager to share their hard-earned lessons with the next generation: how their struggles shaped their strength, and how their bond as brothers grew even stronger along the way.
Today, the company employs 35 workers. It’s a far cry from the days of running the business from their kitchen table and a 1969 Chevy C50 truck. There are plans to increase that number. Ninety-five percent of their work involves trenchless technology in diameters from 2 to 72 in.
Company History
Their long-term plans center on expanding their reach beyond the Northeast part of the country. The Savys are passionate about the trenchless market and its community, championing its benefits at each turn.
“Trenchless is an awesome market. It’s down, it’s dirty, it’s a cool, roughneck, blue collar industry,” Travis says. “We truly love the industry and the people. It’s what we know… As the industry grows and we grow, it just gets more exciting.”
During the 1960s, Ralph Savy Sr. created his construction company in Marlborough, Connecticut. With a focus on brick-and-mortar masonry and building brick sewer manhole inverts. By the 1980s, he added his son, Ralph Jr., to the mix. Along with that a name change to Ralph Savy Jr & Sons. When the third generation arrived, they were mainstays on the jobsites.
“Before my brother and I could walk, we were on jobsites, even if we were just sitting in the truck,” says Travis. “We were born and raised into the blue-collar working industry and that’s all we did at the time.”
Travis says after their dad passed away, he started pulling double duty. He’d work nights as a lineman and days with his brother, handling the work their dad had already lined up. After a year, Travis joined the company as a full partner. Green to business but headstrong to persevere, they pushed forward. Their unwritten motto: We’ll figure it out.
“Our first year in business, we had the Great Recession. The economy crashed and all of our work stopped,” Travis recalls. Except they had no idea what a recession was and just shouldered the blame for losing customers.
Determination Helps Savy & Sons Thrive
“We thought we were the two idiot sons who ran the family business into the ground,” he says. “We didn’t know any better. I was 18 and my brother was 21. We had no idea what a recession was. But we knew how to show up every day and how to work hard and do our job and treat people right.”
And they wanted then — and still today — to live up to the standards set by their dad and grandfather. Both men played pivotal roles in their lives. Travis notes that their dad, grandfather and Ralph share the same name. It’s a name that people still recognize and remember with great respect.
The brothers kept the company running that first year, taking jobs outside of their full-time ones to make ends meet. “We scratched and clawed to do what we needed to do to stay afloat,” says Ralph. “Along the way, we had an epiphany of instead of making new stuff going into the ground, we would fix the old stuff.”
That “old stuff” included manholes and other underground pipes. And Savy & Sons Inc. began learning about and incorporating trenchless applications. This includes CIPP, SIPP, sliplining, using grouts, epoxy linings and coatings.
Finding a Mentor
The Savys also found a business mentor to show them how to run and operate a business, a necessary step the Savys say to keep their company afloat during those challenging first years. The mentorship program offers training in sales, as well as leadership, which helped in establishing the bar for hiring its workforce going forward, building a positive culture.
They also added waterproofing, which uses a polyurethane grout to stop leaks coming from cracks in the pipe. The Savys readily admit that they didn’t know how to do any of those applications, but they jumped into the deep end of the pool, trained as they went and slowly became proficient.
“We’ve been in the manhole space all of our lives so it was familiar,” Travis explains. “But when your back is up against the wall and you need to decide whether to sink or swim. So, we swam like hell and figured it out. We borrowed and rented equipment, we got trained and we just started doing it.”
“You have to go out and find the good people and recruit them and not just take whomever you can get,” Travis says. “It’s enjoyable [to run a business] when you do it with great people because no matter how hard the day is or the work is, you are doing it with great people and that is what is most important.”
Building the Savy & Sons Team
Working with family every day comes with its own unique challenges and daily hurdles. For Ralph and Travis, though, it’s the only way they’ve ever known. Initially brought together by circumstance to keep the family business alive, they’ve since grown into strong, equal business partners. Through all the highs and lows, they’ve leaned on the wisdom passed down from their parents and grandparents. Early on, they made a simple but powerful decision: when the workday begins, family status is checked at the door.
“When we were growing up, there was a lot of blood and tears and sweat and fistfights,” says Travis. “But that kind of stuff doesn’t belong in business. Our rule that we follow is that there is no emotion allowed in business, except for the emotion of celebration. And that is important when you are working with family because you know each other, you know how to get under each other’s skin and push their buttons. That can’t happen in running a business. You really have to work hard on your personal development and professional development and have clearly defined roles and processes in place.”
Ralph echoes his brother’s perspective. “We figured out early on that we can’t work together as brothers but have to have specific positions and processes in place around those positions to make it work,” he says. “I could not have asked for a better partner. [Travis] is trustworthy and rock solid.”
Travis goes even further with his praise. “Focusing on the wins and the highlights, it’s just great to be building a business with my brother. Not everything is always sunshine and rainbows, but I know we can get through thick and thin. We’ve done this at every level, starting at the bottom.”
Working with Family
They also reflect on losing their father so early in their lives and how the loss impacted them. “Our dad passed when I was 17 and [Ralph] was 20. We still had a lot of father-figure learning left to do that we didn’t have. We were at an age where there is still a lot to learn that a mom and dad teach you. You take that person out of the equation, and, for me, Ralph filled that role and did a lot of those things. He took on a lot of added responsibility at a very young age.”
Ralph and Travis are open about their initial lack of business experience. They acknowledge how this shaped the way they do business today. And how it sets them apart from other trenchless rehab contractors.
“I barely made it out of high school and my brother dropped out,” Travis says, matter-of-factly. “There is no secret sauce and we’re very transparent. Our goal is share our story and help to inspire other people with what we have done.
“I can’t think of a better person to be building a business with and I tell him that all the time. It’s great to be building a business with my brother. I trust him with my life and my family’s life.”
The Trenchless Market
To say that Ralph and Travis love the trenchless market is an understatement. For them, there’s something deeply rewarding in breathing new life into aging water and sewer lines. And at the same time minimizing the impact on the environment. They’re excited about the future of trenchless technology and the positive direction it’s steering Savy & Sons. More than anything, they hope to pass that same energy and enthusiasm on to the next generation.
“The biggest thing is telling people and spreading the word about trenchless,” Travis says. “The industry is underground so it’s out of sight and out of mind [for the general public] when in reality there’s more stuff underground vs aboveground.”
Ralph takes it a few steps further. “When you tell people we can solve their problems without digging [up their property], and their eyes light up,” he says. “[Trenchless] is a cool way to help people solve their problems with technology they didn’t know existed. It’s my favorite part of the job.”
Attracting People to Trenchless
Critical to the industry’s future is attracting and retaining the next generation of trenchless technologists. These workers are needed to fill the gaps popping up as the industry’s pioneers and leaders retire. This includes crewmembers to superintendents to design engineers.
The brothers say this loss of industry knowledge and expertise needs to be replenished. It’s pivotal to continue the momentum trenchless has enjoyed. This perspective is one of the reasons why the Savys are actively involved in industry organizations, such as NASSCO.
“There’s no one training anyone to replace [those who are retiring or passing on] and that decades of experience is going to go right out the door, and the industry will suffer,” Travis says. “We know [trenchless] is not a sexy field but no matter how much [artificial intelligence] and technology you have, you still need human beings to be interactive and service people as humans, the stuff robots and Al equipment can never do.”
The Savys say that is why they are committed to bring onboard only the best, most creative and invested people. Whether they’re working on the project sites or in the office. They want the energy and attitude workers with that mindset bring to work each day. “We live and die by our core values. They drive the direction of our company,” Travis notes.
Future growth is in the Savys long-term vision for Savy & Sons Inc. in terms of size, revenue and efficiency. “I love [the trenchless] industry as a whole and am excited about the future and the technology continuing to grow,” Ralph says.
Sharon M. Bueno is editor of Trenchless Technology.
