Blackwell Enterprises

Source: Energy Digital

Date :5/8/2008 6:13:08 AM

Strong staff, good supplies and specialist equipment means Blackwell Enterprises, Inc. provides an outstanding service. President Bob Blackwell tells us more

Written by Roxanne Ridge and Produced by Rich Gentile

Established in 1983, Blackwell Enterprises, Inc. began as a company providing land preparation and planting services for farmers in the south-central Oklahoma area. Founder and President, Bob Blackwell, was working as a farmer and got involved in providing a specialist land preparation service for farmers working on the Conservation Reserve Program, which was in conjunction with the Soil Conservation Service.

Over the years, the company has expanded and in 1998, it began to provide a pipeline right of way restoration service to the pipeline construction industry.

Today Blackwell Enterprises does a huge range of work alongside this. This work includes discing, cultipacking, drill seeding, hydro-seeding, land levelling among many other bespoke land preparation jobs alongside the pipeline right of way restoration. The company has completed all types of restoration projects in many different weather conditions all over America – and last year, the company took $40 million in annual company revenues.

What is making the company such a success?

A motivated team

“We’re committed to providing the best service we possibly can,” explains Blackwell. “Blackwell Enterprises always does the job right the first time round. Although we can’t afford to drop rates to land a job, the service we provide for the price we charge is good value for money.

“When we land a job we help the client in every way we can and offer a lot of additional services – many of which we don’t charge for.”

To provide this kind of service the company has a strong focus on recruiting a dedicated team of staff. Currently the company has around 70 employees and they have an agreement whereby 50 per cent of their staff come from the PLCA union.

“In a industry like this, you need quality staff – and we are a company that recognises this,” explains Blackwell. “After starting with the company, most good employees can pick up the part within a week – if they can’t, we usually suggest that they part ways with the company.

“The industry can be challenging to work in and they have to form part of a motivated team that will provide a great service to all our customers.”

Supply management

Bob uses his years of experience in the farming industry to provide solid working relationships with suppliers and ensure that the business has ample goods for all the jobs they do.

“We buy in bulk,” explains Blackwell. “And we transport in our own trucks as and when we need it. This keeps costs down and means that we’re able to supply directly to the job we’re working on.

“The company also purchases the products as close to the area that we’re working in as we can. And we’re never without a back up plan to ensure we never run out of supplies for a job.”

Over the years the company has acquired a range of specialist equipment to ensure that they’re able to work on almost every challenge they meet.

“We own and operate a large range of dozers, tractors, tankers, seed drills, mulchers, hydro-seeders, tillage equipment, land levellers and rock pickers, which are acquired on lease purchases.

“Having accumulated this huge range of equipment means that there is very little that we’re not able to do in the industry.”

Doing a good job

“Since Blackwell Enterprises was founded, the company has grown and experienced steady growth,” says Blackwell. “However, as soon as the business started to provide pipeline right of way restoration services to the pipeline construction industry, the company experienced a substantial boom.

“Previously, the company had one crew working on two to three jobs every year. Now, we’ve got four crews operating all year round. We have a really strong attention to detail and in every job we do we want the landowner to be really satisfied with the work that Blackwell Enterprises has done.

“We regularly hear landowners saying that what we’ve done looks nice. And the company works hard to smooth out all the pipeline restoration work we do. The main challenge while we’re doing this, however, is that as the company has started to expand, we’re starting to work in new climates all over the USA.”

According to Blackwell, the company has worked everywhere, including Florida, New York, Nevada, Texas and North Dakota. “We didn’t used to have jobs scheduled in the northern winter, for example, and in many cases we have to fight the elements while we’re working. This can be really quite difficult at times,” he says.

The company has worked on a number of different projects since it started out in the pipeline restoration business. And currently, it’s working on a 110-mile project from Louisiana to east Mississipi.

“In terms of company performance, I think that the company is going to continue to be as busy as it is for another three years and then the demand will start to taper off. By this time we’ll be experienced in working with a lot of different conditions and the service we’ll be providing will be even more specialist than it already is.

“Pipeline right of way restoration is a particularly demanding business, but we attribute a lot of our success in our ability to recruit hardworking motivated staff and use specialist equipment that is suitable for every job. We do the job right the first time,” says Blackwell.

Click here to view the corporate brochure on Blackwell Enterprises