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Customized focus has jobs flowing to pump maker

By Aaron Corvin, Columbian Port & Economy Reporter
Published: April 21, 2011, 12:00am
2 Photos
Bill Scholtes, president of Premier Pump &amp; Power, stands next to an oil and gas exploration pump manufactured at his company's Vancouver headquarters.
Bill Scholtes, president of Premier Pump & Power, stands next to an oil and gas exploration pump manufactured at his company's Vancouver headquarters. Photo Gallery

Premier Pump & Power

President: Bill Scholtes.

Number of employees: 15.

Revenue: $8 million in 2010;

$15 million so far this year.

What it does: Custom-made portable industrial pumps.

Address: 2300 E. First St., Unit A, Vancouver.

Coming next: The company is seeking a bigger location.

Economic hardship is nowhere to be found at Vancouver-based Premier Pump & Power.

The company, a custom maker of portable industrial pumps used for everything from siphoning floodwater to delivering freshwater, is pumping up its growth.

After netting about $2 million in sales annually for several years, Premier grew revenue by 300 percent last year to $8 million. So far this year, the company has already raked in $15 million in revenue — an 87 percent increase over last year’s sales in just three-and-a-half months.

Meanwhile, the company is adding workers: About 14 months ago, it had five people on staff, including President Bill Scholtes. Now, it boasts a total of 15. “We’re planning on hiring at least three to five more people,” Scholtes said during an interview at his office, which is near the Grand Boulevard intersection with Highway 14.

Premier’s expansion seems counterintuitive: Here’s a Clark County manufacturer doing well in a county that lost 6 to 7 percent of its entire job base in the economic crash, with manufacturing shedding about 20 percent of its jobs.

Premier Pump & Power

President: Bill Scholtes.

Number of employees: 15.

Revenue: $8 million in 2010;

$15 million so far this year.

What it does: Custom-made portable industrial pumps.

Address: 2300 E. First St., Unit A, Vancouver.

Coming next: The company is seeking a bigger location.

Yet, a confluence of economic forces and strategic decisions is propelling Premier forward. International market demand for industrial pumps is on the rise. And Premier’s niche in a market otherwise dominated by major players is starting to pay off.

Scholtes said the company is “finally gaining enough credibility in the marketplace to attract a handful of very large customers as well as increasing success internationally.”

Company finds its niche

Scholtes and a business partner each chipped in $12,500 to start the company in 1999. A Fort Vancouver High School graduate who has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Portland, Scholtes intended to run Premier Pump & Power out of a home office.

The company evolved over the years, and in 2007 Scholtes bought out his partner and relaunched the business.

Today, Premier buys industrial pumps and then builds features onto them to suit customers’ needs. The pumps, fueled by diesel, look like massive engine blocks. For a job to draw floodwater from an area in Mexico, Premier mounted its pumps on trucks. Mainly, though, they are designed to be towed behind a vehicle.

The pumps, which can weigh as much as 20,000 pounds, are capable of handling millions of gallons of water quickly. Premier is capable of shipping about 30 per month.

The company sells or rents pumps to customers involved in a variety of projects, including oil and gas drilling, construction and disaster relief.

Depending on the job, Premier might add a special chamber or provide a pump that has special coating inside to resist bacteria. The idea is to tailor the product to fit a customer’s need. That’s how Premier differentiates itself from larger competitors, Scholtes said. “It needs to not fail,” he said, summing up the company’s standard for each pump it sends abroad.

International sales

Premier is doing business all over the world, sending its pumps to Canada, Mexico, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Qatar, among other countries. In Trinidad, for example, the company’s pumps are used to remove water from hundreds of acres of flood-prone farmland, putting the land back into production.

The company’s work in international markets is no accident. That’s where the industry is headed, according to Bob McIlvaine, president of Northfield, Ill.-based consulting firm The McIlvaine Company. About 43 percent of industrial pumps sold this year will be installed in Asia, according to research by McIlvaine. Industrial pumps are a $30 billion worldwide industry, he said, and infrastructure needs in developing countries are driving demand.

Because it’s a large market with different needs, a company such as Premier should be able to do solid business in the years ahead, McIlvaine said. “There are a lot of specialized pump needs.”

In the U.S., Premier shipped pumps to New Orleans to deal with floodwater in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This week, the company was busy building five more, bringing to six the number that will be shipped to the San Francisco Bay Area. If a city or neighborhood there loses its water supply in an earthquake or other natural disaster, crews will fire up Premier’s pumps and funnel water to stricken areas.

Scholtes said he takes pride in building pumps that work for customers and that solve problems. The company is profitable, he said, and it’s still growing in other ways. Scholtes said he plans to move Premier from the roughly 10,000-square-foot building it inhabits now to a space of up to 25,000 square feet. He’s looking for a new location.

He said he wants to stay in Vancouver. “This is where home is,” he added.

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Columbian Port & Economy Reporter