President Frank Welch says he has had to expand his key staff to keep up with the growing demand for work.

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Although his business has doubled within the last year, Rockford Corp. President Frank Welch is not prone to brag about it. “The true story is, there’s nothing real special about us,” Welch says. “We just happen to be in a booming industry.”

Indeed, pipeline construction, maintenance and drilling company Rockford Corp. has tripled in size over the past three years and is looking at a few more years of increased growth. With so much available work, the company faces what is becoming an industry-wide need for skilled labor. Despite all the chaos, Welch maintains a clear perspective.

“We want to ride out this boom in a good fashion,” he says. “We want to keep doing good work and make a reasonable profit, and have friends when it’s over, because when times get hard again, you’re going to have a good reputation. I’m not looking to get rich – I’m just looking to do a good job.”

Blossoming Business
The strategy has worked so far; the company has been in business for more than 40 years.

It blossomed from “just a trailer” and a firm that was barely able to pay its employees to a business of which Welch says he is proud. Rockford Corp. has 18 permanent management, administrative and engineering personnel. It has another 300 or so foremen and craft employees that work for it on a regular basis. All of its craft personnel are furnished by the four pipeline craft labor unions.

“As the size of our work has increased, we have hired new superintendents and foremen with major pipeline experience on projects such as Florida Gas, Kern River, Northern Border, etc.,” it says.

The company provides insurance, 401K plans and yearly bonuses for its employees. “We’ve become a pretty good place to work for a few people,” Welch says. “Although it’s getting to be where it’s a little more than a few now. We used to be so small.”

Keeping a Balance
In order to handle its workload and maintain good relationships, “you have to be careful not to take on too much,” Welch says. “We’re struggling to find that right balance.”

The company is also working to stay up-to-date with the industry’s evolving technology. “A lot of work involves auto welding,” Welch says. “We’re just now getting into that; we’re in the learning process. We know that’s the future and we know we have to get good at it.

“We’re trying to keep up with the new technology on the larger pipelines,” Welch continues.

The company is beginning to train its employees on automatic welding technology, “and we’re trying to develop that along with all the new inspection technologies called UT, or ultrasonic testing.”

Welch says the company still has a lot to learn as far as technology goes, and “we’re trying to make this work like the big boys. We have a good group of people, and we do all kinds of pipeline work.”

Demand and Expand
Rockford Corp. considers Oregon its niche market, but has expanded to Arizona and Texas due to increased work demand. The company also has satellite offices in Yuba City, Calif., and Toledo, Wash., in addition to its headquarters in Hillsboro, Ore. “That’s part of our growing pain; we’re having to work farther from home,” Welch says.

The increasing need for gas in metropolitan areas, coupled with gas discoveries in the Rocky Mountain areas and in Texas will continue to provide companies like Rockford Corp. with work for the next two to three years, Welch says.

“New gas discoveries and a continuing need for an environmentally clean fuel – all that seems to be coming together,” he says. “It’s been an amazing time and I don’t know what will happen.”

Although Welch doesn’t know exactly how the company will be impacted by the dramatic shifts in demand, he understands that flexibility is key. “We don’t have any magic strategies,” he says.

“We just work hard and try to satisfy our customers. We will serve the industry over the next few years and that will probably demand that we’ll get bigger, but I want to be flexible enough to get back small if we need to, to survive.”