"Vermeer has 13 branches to draw parts and service from.
Working with a single company, regardless of the location of the job, would be a plus. The machines were right for TCH at the time, but so was Vermeer of Texas-Louisiana's footprint, which encompassed all of Texas. Both drills were built for congested urban job sites like those confronted by TCH in Houston, and were appropriate for small-diameter pipe work, but also for the cable jobs that still made up a large part of its business. In 2010, at about the time Ellis assumed more control of the business from his father, the decision was made to buy a Vermeer D24x40 drill, followed closely by the purchase of a D20x22, also from Vermeer. There was no consistency on parts and service availability, and it was difficult to build relationships as we dealt with a different dealer in each part of the state."īy 2010, the company had several drills, but did not feel it had the "partner" it needed in an equipment supplier. "We were getting jobs around the state," Ellis said, "but working with a different dealer for service and parts, depending on where we were, was problematic for us. While Ellis learned and worked to build TCH's directional drilling business, he was confronted with a challenge on the equipment side of the enterprise. It was widely accepted that in those areas open trenching was too risky and time consuming. Houston, after all, was the epicenter of the pipeline industry in Texas, and horizontal directional drilling was becoming the preferred method of laying pipe in congested metro areas.
"I saw so much potential for growth if we were able to diversify away from just cable work." "I always had the desire to be in the pipeline business," Ellis said, which led him to the decision to purchase the company's first mid-size directional drill in 2008. The young man learned the ropes – as was expected – working cable jobs and whatever else was asked of him.īut his vision for the company extended beyond telecom projects. When Ellis joined his father Scott's company straight out of high school in 2004, TCH was primarily involved in telecommunications cable and innerduct installation for AT&T and at NASA facilities around Houston.
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