Seizing the Day

Three partners grab a unique opportunity to buy out a contractor’s equipment and form a diverse industrial services firm on the Gulf Coast

James Merry saw a one-time opportunity when a local company with a major contract in Louisiana was liquidating equipment that included liquid vacuum trucks, three air machines, two combination units, two 10,000-psi waterblasters and a 40,000-psi waterblaster.

There was also the opportunity to hire some of the company’s personnel. Merry, with partners Shelley and Clay Compton, made the deal to acquire the rolling stock and inventory and form Hawk Industrial Services LLC, a Certified Woman-Owned Business based in Slidell, La.

“Based on the company’s existing contract, we formed our new company and manned up with personnel as needed,” Shelley Compton says. “Our mission from the start was to be the supplier of choice on the Gulf Coast for hydro-blasting and vacuum services, and to grow the business regionally.”

Compton says the company is achieving its goal, even after an interruption from Hurricane Katrina. The storm hit Aug. 30, 2005, displacing all the firm’s employees. All equipment was in an oil refinery and on high ground, and so was not damaged. By Sept. 9, the company was back working at the refinery with a skeleton crew of eight people.

Blasting equipment

The majority of customers are refineries and petrochemical companies, although about 20 percent are shipbuilders. The firm also serves commercial customers, such as gas stations, where crews dewater tanks and clean sumps. Most commercial customers need waterblasting services that range from paint removal and surface preparation to cutting the walls of tanks.

A recent addition to the fleet is a Shellside cleaner from NLB Corp. for cleaning heat exchangers. This trailer-mounted unit has a hydraulic crane to position the waterjet head over the tube bundles. Hydraulically actuated rollers turn the bundle to assure thorough cleaning and simplify loading and unloading. Hawk chose model SSC-9200, producing up to 10,000 psi at 140 gpm and able to clean bundles 2 to 8 feet in diameter and up to 25 feet long.

“This equipment improves our productivity and limits the operator to exposure of debris or high-pressure water,” says Compton. “It speeds up the process and is more cost-effective for the customer and for us. There is also a safety factor as it is automated.”

Hawk Industrial sent several employees to NLB for 40 hours of training before they took possession of the unit. The firm also recently purchased from NLB a 325 Series convertible waterjet unit, which operates at six pressures up to 24,000 psi. The unit has a quintuplex pump with many features and parts in common with the NLB 225 Series.

Geared for demand

Hawk Industrial prefers to work with customers on maintenance contracts. “We look for companies and go on the bid list when they have new contracts coming up,” Compton says. “We now have a three-year maintenance contract with a major shipbuilding company for vacuum and hydroblasting services.” For this work, Hawk offers services that include surface preparation, ship cleaning and vacuuming of grit.

For an oil refinery, Hawk does oil transfer, tank dewatering, sump vacuuming and waterblast cleaning. “We also do turnaround work, which means the customer brings down part of a refinery for repair or maintenance,” Compton says. “These can be three- to four-week jobs requiring both vacuuming and hydroblasting.”

With maintenance contracts in place, the firm may have up to seven trucks in that one facility every day. In addition to technicians, supervisors and a safety representative are on-site.

Waterblasting is not the majority of the firm’s work, but it commands high margins and is in demand. Shipbuilders use the service mostly for surface preparation and waterjet cutting. After Katrina, Hawk hydro-blasted a 30,000-square-foot basement for a hotel on Canal Street in New Orleans, using a 40,000-psi unit to remove paint from walls damaged by the storm.

The company operates around the clock with equipment that includes:

• 18 liquid vacuum trucks, most of them Dominator units from Keith Huber Inc.

• Four Keith Huber King Vac wet/dry machines

• Four air machines, two from GapVax and two from Guzzler Manufacturing Inc.

• Two 10,000-psi/43-gpm hydro-blast units from NLB

• Two 40,000-psi/6-gpm hydro-blast units from NLB, one electric and one diesel.

Employee participation

Putting the equipment to work are 50 full-time employees, supplemented by part-timers for large projects. Safety is critical: All employees meet the requirements of OSHA and the Transportation Workers Identification Credential (TWIC), mandated by maritime transportation authorities. On staff full-time are two certified occupational safety and health personnel.

There is also a safety committee where drivers, operators and supervisors serve in groups of eight at a time for several months, reviewing training procedures and offering input to bring safety issues to the forefront. “It keeps employees participating and engaged,” Compton says. “It gives them ownership.”

From the beginning, the goal was to have employees feel empowered and a part of the company. “Just about everything we do is based on keeping employees from getting injured and avoiding environmental incidents,” says Compton. “With waterblasting, the concern is personal injury, and we take every precaution to train and protect our operators. The greater risk for our employees is in transporting material between locations. Discharging and vacuuming hazardous materials is a significant risk.”

Background check

Hawk Industrial’s owners bring backgrounds that equip them well for their roles. Shelley Compton is a mechanical engineer who has worked in the quality and safety field and is familiar with refinery work. Merry calls on his 20 years of experience in the refinery and petrochemical industry. Clay Compton is an industrial engineer with a background in sales and marketing.

Their vision for the company is to grow, but do so efficiently and safely. “We don’t want to stretch ourselves too thin,” Shelly Compton says. “We very carefully and strategically plan jobs, as we want to make sure we have the equipment, the personnel and the safety programs. We want to do every job 100 percent for our customers.”

Soon after starting in business, Hawk opened satellite offices and a leased yard in Pascagoula, Miss. All air machines and vacuum trucks are at that site. In Chalmette, La., Hawk has a field office and a maintenance facility. A goal is to move into the Texas Gulf Coast.

“We don’t like to turn down any work,” Merry says. “One thing we pride ourselves in is doing the jobs that others feel can’t be done, and doing them safely. We step back, look at the job, and ask what we need to do to get it done.”

To meet the firm’s high standards, all three owners remain involved in day-to-day field activities. This shows customers the firm’s interest in getting the project done properly. Their work includes checking to be sure that crews take all necessary safety measures.

Teamwork on projects is critical and includes both Hawk crews and the customer’s personnel. “We proactively assist and become part of their team,” Compton says. “We’re not just a contractor they call to do a job.”

Looking back, Compton is surprised at how much she enjoys the work. “I’m having fun as we run our own company,” she says. “We knew it would be a challenge, but we all have great rapport. We all get along well, and we look forward to growing the company and being good managers. That is our goal.”



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