Manufacturing, Services Grow in The High Ground
Published Aug 07, 2009
Manufacturing and commercial services are big business in The High Ground.
“In a stagnant economy, we’re growing phenomenally,” says John Miller, owner of Lubbock-based WesTex Documents. “In 2008, we grew 26 percent.”
The company has about 200 commercial clients and offers document shredding, storage, digital imaging and data center management. WesTex also holds the coveted NQA-1 certification for nuclear contracting.
Miller attributes much of his company’s success to excellent service – and West Texans’ willingness to reward it.
“People here look for partnerships, quality and reliability,” he says. “If you design your business model around that, you’ll succeed.”
And The High Ground is full of employees who make that easy, according to Mick Truitt, vice president of sales at Sweetwater-based Ludlum Measurements.
“You find truly friendly people here – clients genuinely like dealing with them,” he says.
Founded in 1962, Ludlum Measurements manufactures radiation-detection equipment for clients in 67 countries. A burgeoning national interest in alternative energy is fueling the company’s growth.
“Every new nuclear power plant that goes in needs our kind of equipment, and we’ve opened a machine shop for the wind energy companies coming into Sweetwater,” Truitt says.
Best Made Designs, headquartered in Monahans, is another of the region’s growing manufacturers. Founded in 2000, the company has grown from 25 to 140 employees. Its Spec.-Ops. line of military gear, manufactured entirely
in the U.S., is sold directly to the U.S. Department of Defense and at base exchanges worldwide.
The company is successful, Bryan Heflin says, because everyone at Best Made is dedicated to what they do. Even CEO Jeff Wemmer personally tests prototypes in the Monahans Sandhills.
“We like the quality of the people we’re able to get and the work ethic here,” Heflin says. “They’re people who get the job done.”
That kind of work ethic defines Odessa’s Tony Porras, whose T&R Enterprises provides janitorial and upholstery services to commercial clients. Porras employs eight people and does work for restaurant chains and hospitals such as IHOP, Rosa’s Café, Olive Garden and Red Lobster, as well as hospitals and doctors’ offices.
And there’s always room for more.
“You can’t wait for the business to come to you, you have to go and look for it,” Porras says. “I go to the client and give them ideas for what would look good.”
Thanks to his proactive approach, his upholstery business has grown 30 percent in 2009 - and he can’t imagine working anywhere but The High Ground.
“My town is not that big, not that little. Everybody knows who you are and what you’re doing for the community,” he says. “I don’t want to be any place but here.”
Story by Kathryn Royster
Photo by Brian McCord
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