Interstates’ Tulsa, OK office opened in February 2021 and has been expanding its capabilities and workforce ever since. With an office in Oklahoma, Interstates is better positioned to serve new, local clients as well as longtime clients in Northwest Arkansas and Southeast Kansas.
All-star Client Base Leads to Expansion
There were many reasons to open a regional office in Oklahoma. According to Landon Ragon, Regional Manager at the Tulsa office, “Interstates opened this office to support one of our key clients and a few other large projects in the area. There was enough upcoming, promising work for the next several years within two hours of this location to make it a smart move. We also had a few Interstates team members local to the area who wanted to resettle and work from the regional office.”
Eric Moerman, Vice President of Regional Offices at Interstates, says the opportunity to expand south into Oklahoma and its markets was strategic. “This location provides a good home base for our team to work from, with much of our work being in a 100-plus-mile radius around Tulsa. This gives us a centralized location from which to serve clients in our traditional industrial markets,” he says.
Team Members Quadruple
The office started with three electricians, one regional manager, and one service manager. In two short years, the staff has exploded to 19 craft professionals and five managers and coordinators. “There’s a lot to enjoy about living in this part of the country,” says Ragon. “It’s warm most of the year. It’s a smaller city with nearby mountains and lots of lakes, so you have all the restaurants and city life to enjoy, along with great outdoor terrain. It’s the best of both worlds,” he says.
The initial regional office location was in the north part of Tulsa near the airport, but the surge in growth has led Interstates to find a larger facility with a bigger shop in the suburb of Broken Arrow. The move will be completed in late summer 2023.
Moerman says, “This location has grown not only in employee count but in client count and overall revenues as well. We continue to be in growth mode, adding more team members and customers to our existing portfolio.”
Several Industries Served
That portfolio includes projects in the industrial meat processing, pet food, and value-added grains markets, as well as other work like electric vehicle charger buildouts. Recent projects include the new construction of a case-ready beef processing facility, a kill floor remodel for a beef processing facility, and conveyance and palletizer upgrades at a pet food facility.
“We may add new markets as we continue to expand this regional office, but our bread and butter will likely be serving our existing client markets, such as poultry and beef processing, animal nutrition, salt processing, and consumer goods processing and distribution facilities. We’re happy to be growing and looking forward to continuing to build strong relationships for Interstates,” says Ragon.
This blog was originally published in the Current Connections Summer 2023 issue.
