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Kay-Bee Electric Celebrates 70th Year
City’s Largest Family Owned Business
By Nichole Richardson
Florissant’s very own Kay-Bee Electric turned an impressive 70 years old this spring, thus making it the largest and oldest family-run business still operating under its original blueprint.
The business was founded by partners John Kohnen and Jack Behlmann on March 1, 1948 and business hasn’t stopped since! After serving in World War II, graduating from Ranken Technical College, and then working for Mallinckrodt as an engineer, Kohnen realized Florissant had three plumbing contractors but no electrical contractors.
Armed with this information and an ambitious drive, a young 22-year-old Kohnen decided to open his own company and enlisted the help of Jack Behlmann. Together the pair did $14,000 worth of work within their first year and today the company does approximately $400,000 in one week, and employs an average of 100 workers. Talk about a ROI!
When asked about his success, Kohnen attributed it to being a mover and a shaker. “Back in 1949 I was a charter member of the Florissant Businessmen’s Association among other places. I was always very active in my community,” he explained. In 1987, John was even inducted into the National Academy of Electrical Contracting– an elite group fewer than 300 industry leaders.
His legacy, Kay-Bee, is part of the National Electric Contractors Association (NECA) and provides safe, quality, commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential electrical service installations. All their electricians and technicians are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local One as well.
With four generations working together to make this business continue to thrive, it’s no wonder the successes keep coming.
Currently, Kay-Bee is helping the Ladue School District with a renovation and addition at Ladue High School and they are also working on the nine-story Monogram Building at 1706 Washington Avenue in downtown St. Louis.
While most of their clients come from eastern Missouri and southern Illinois, they have also done work as far out as California and Georgia. Recently, Kay-Bee completed the RGA headquarters in Chesterfield and lit up one million square feet of space at the Schnucks Distribution Center.
Of course, both founding partners have been retired for quite some time now, and deservedly so! “Life has been good to me,” said Kohnen. “I’m getting old now but I’m good. I’m just glad it’s below the shoulders and not above!” he joked.
