Amino Brothers Co.

Amino Brothers Co., Inc. is a heavy and highway construction contractor on Kaw Drive in western Kansas City, Kansas, founded by John Amino in the early 1930s as a coal, wood and building-materials dealer and turned to excavation in 1939 when his brother Frank began digging basements and grading driveways. Now in its third generation and owned by four family members, it does mass excavation, concrete flatwork, concrete and asphalt paving, and storm, water and sanitary sewer installation for DOTs, cities and developers across Kansas and Missouri.

Description

Amino Brothers Co., Inc. works out of a yard at 8110 Kaw Drive, the K-32 corridor that runs west along the Kansas River bottoms from Kansas City, Kansas toward Edwardsville — a stretch of quarries, contractors’ yards and heavy-equipment operations. The company describes itself as one of the older construction companies in the state of Kansas, with more than seventy years of heavy and highway work throughout Kansas and Missouri.¹

Its clients are institutional rather than residential: building contractors, development firms, engineering firms, the Kansas and Missouri Departments of Transportation, cities, counties and private groups.¹ The work is mass excavation, concrete flatwork, concrete and asphalt paving, and storm, water and sanitary sewer installation.¹

The company is unusual in the Registry’s Wyandotte County set in two respects: it is a nine-decade family business with a documented, first-person origin story on its own website, and it is a woman-owned business in a trade where that is rare — the Wyandotte EDC lists it under both its Women Owned Business and Locally Owned Business categories, and names Mary J. Sullivan first among its principals.²

Goods and services

• Heavy and highway construction — the core of the business¹
• Mass excavation — the line the company started in during 1939 and its historical specialty¹
• Concrete flatwork¹
• Concrete and asphalt paving¹
• Storm sewer, water line and sanitary sewer installation¹

History

John Amino founded the business in the early 1930s, dealing in coal, wood and building materials.¹ The firm survived the Depression, and in 1939 John’s brother Frank Amino began exploring excavation — starting with basements, foundations and driveway grading. One by one the other brothers joined him, and the company’s centre of gravity shifted from materials dealing to heavy contracting.¹

The four present owners — Mary J. Sullivan, Denise M. Janes, David V. Seeman and Albert K. Seeman — describe learning the business from childhood: summers spent on job sites, in field operations, shop maintenance and office work, and after-school hours in the office as they got older.¹ The company describes itself as third-generation family-owned.¹

Capability broadened over the decades from primarily mass excavation to the full heavy-civil range the company offers today.¹ Amino Brothers claims ACPA, APWA and KCA Excellence in Partnering awards along with safety awards dating back to the 1950s, displayed in the hallways of its office.¹

Note that the company’s own copy carries two different tenure framings — “70+ Years of Heavy & Highway Construction” and “a legacy that started more than 70 years ago” on the same site as an early-1930s founding date, which would be more than ninety years. The 70-year figure most likely counts from the 1939 turn to excavation, or is simply stale. “

Sources

Links

• Website: https://aminobros.com/
• About: https://aminobros.com/about
• Services: https://aminobros.com/services-1
• Contact: https://aminobros.com/contact-us
• WYEDC directory entry: https://www.wyedc.org/incentives-and-programs/local-minority-and-women-owned-businesses/local-owned-businesses/contractors/p/item/19069/amino-brothers-co

Footnotes

1. Amino Brothers Co., Inc. — official site, home and About pages and aminobros.com — asserts: “Founded by John Amino in the early 1930s, Amino Brothers Co., Inc., is one of the older construction companies in the state of Kansas”; the firm began by dealing in coal, wood and building materials; it weathered the Great Depression; in 1939 brother Frank Amino began exploring the excavation business, starting with digging basements, foundations and grading driveways, and his brothers joined one by one as the company shifted to heavy contracting; “Present owners Mary J. Sullivan, Denise M. Janes, David V. Seeman, and Albert K. Seeman all got their start at a very young age,” learning field operations, shop maintenance and office work; specialties in Heavy & Highway Construction, Mass Excavation, Concrete Flat Work, Concrete & Asphalt Paving, Storm, Water & Sanitary Sewer installation; clients including building contractors, development firms, engineering firms, the Kansas and Missouri Departments of Transportation, cities, counties and private groups; recipient of ACPA, APWA, KCA Excellence in Partnering and safety awards dating back to the 1950s; “this third-generation family-owned business”; headline “70+ Years of Heavy & Highway Construction”; footer address 8110 Kaw Drive Kansas City, KS 66111, phone 913-334-2330, bids@aminobros.com. (Retrieved by curl 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

2. Wyandotte Economic Development Council — locally-owned business directory, Contractors category, Amino Brothers Co. entry — asserts: address 8110 Kaw Dr., Kansas City, KS 66111; phone 913-334-2330; named contacts Mary J. Sullivan and Steve Gripka; categorised “Women Owned Business, Locally Owned Business, LOB Cont, WOB Cont”; company copy stating “Over the past 70+ years, Amino Brothers has performed heavy and highway construction work throughout Kansas and Missouri.” Category index: wyedc.org (Retrieved by curl 2026-08-14.) ↩