In the mid- to latter 90s, a family-owned operation in North America steadily grew as a top industrial contractor.
Known at the time as Teton Industrial Group, the company pulled in more than $65 million in revenue and employed more than 900 staff members. When well-established Canadian company PCL Construction first announced that they were acquiring Teton, employees were initially skeptical. In 1993, PCL Industrial Construction Co. opened its doors in Atlanta.
"When the employees of the original Teton were told PCL was acquiring us, we were all quite nervous," said Tim Tenpenny, manager of field operations with PCL. "Jim Watson, who was majority owner of Teton at the time, told us he did not want to sell Teton to just any company, but a company where we could become shareholders."
PCL Construction began as a humble small-town contractor in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1906. Over the next century, it grew into a multi-national enterprise tackling some of the largest construction projects in Canada and across the world. Today, PCL has offices at more than 30 major centers, more than 4,500 salaried employees — many of whom own shares in the company — and more than 10,000 hourly craft professionals.
PCL acquired Teton in part to establish a presence in U.S. markets. In 2012, PCL Industrial Construction Co. moved its headquarters to Houston, where it would go on to be a major player in the industrial heartland along the Gulf Coast. Today, with 97 completed projects, 200 salaried staff and peaks of several thousand craft professionals, PCL is a self-performing heavy industrial contractor servicing the O&G, petrochemical, power, minerals and mining, manufacturing and renewable energy markets. PCL Houston offers a flexible, sophisticated approach to direct-hire industrial construction. PCL can offer EPC services by teaming with top tier partners and project teams capable of executing large industrial construction projects.
PCL has also supported numerous projects focused on reducing emissions, including the Cane Run Unit 7 project in Kentucky — a power project producing enough energy to power 660,000 homes. The project replaced coal-fired units with gas-turbine technology to produce cleaner energy for Kentuckians.
Multiple PCL Houston projects have won the Associated Builders and Contractors Excellence in Construction Award, including an Ethylene Export Terminal Project in Texas and the Oklahoma Gas & Electric Mustang modernization project in Oklahoma.
PCL Houston continues to innovate and diversify its market capabilities in the advanced manufacturing and renewable energy markets. At a project site in Taylor, Texas, PCL Houston has begun work on a semiconductor manufacturing facility, adding to an impressive industrial manufacturing resume with direct-hire expertise. In Blytheville, Arkansas, the PCL project team is working to complete a solar facility that will produce enough energy to power 35,000 households. At the recently completed Supermodule Furnace Project in Baytown, Texas, rather than a traditional stick build, PCL took a novel approach by modularizing a colossal furnace the size of a midrise apartment building before transporting it one mile into the live facility.
It’s a testament to the energy and commitment of the team at PCL Houston that it continues to find new and impressive ways to complete some of the largest and most complicated industrial projects unfolding across the U.S. For the second year in a row, PCL Construction received the Great Place to Work certification and is ranked number 13 on the Engineering News-Record List of Top 400 Contractors.
"Reflecting over the last 20 years, it has been amazing to see both the human and organizational growth of our U.S. industrial operations," said Jody Savage, VP and district manager at PCL Houston. "I know our employees are both proud of our past and excited about the opportunities that lay ahead."
For more information, visit pcl.com or call (281) 249-8001.
