EPISODE 68 | Texas-Sized Industry Growth
As the saying goes, everything’s bigger in Texas — including job growth!
Based on findings from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Associated General Contractors of America, the construction industry added 11,000 jobs nationwide in January 2024. Texas has been a leader in that growth, adding more construction jobs than any other state in 2023 with close to 33,000 new positions.
City Electric Supply opens 56th branch in Texas
City Electric Supply (CES) has expanded rapidly in Texas since they entered the state in 2005, including the recent opening of CES Waller in Southeast Texas.
“CES customers have been asking for a branch in Waller for a while now, and this will give us the opportunity to gain new business while maintaining relationships with existing customers,” said CES Waller Branch Manager Tyler Lukes.
“The market needs that CES will meet in the Waller area are residential and commercial, and the branch will continue to help this area grow in general,” said CES Houston North District Manager Darron Rocka.
Major market impact
With 56 branches and counting across Texas, CES is making an impact in metropolitan markets like Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.
“The Dallas-Fort Worth market is definitely growing,” said CES Mansfield Branch Manager Taylor Robertson. “Many electricians local to Mansfield commute to nearby cities like Dallas and Fort Worth for work. With our location, they’ll be able to stop in, grab what they need for the day, and head out.”
And with more branches in accessible locations, the types of projects that CES can assist with expands as well — even spanning multiple markets.
“Houston is a very diverse and rapidly growing city, which means the Houston Westchase location has lots of opportunities for multifamily building, strip mall, commercial, and residential projects,” said CES Houston South District Manager Daren Thode. “Expanding our footprint to meet these needs is really important and that involves us opening new branches.”
“CES San Antonio North is strategically located to service both Austin and San Antonio,” said CES San Antonio District Manager Tyler Cannon. “It has given us many more opportunities to assist our customers with their projects.”
Solar and EV
Among the projects CES has assisted, a growing number are in the renewable energy sector, including solar and electric vehicle (EV).
“We’ve been upgrading equipment to be more reliant on electricity,” said Tony Formby, owner of Acre Distilling Co. “As we move along and expand, more of the equipment will run on electricity generated by the solar panels.”
Acre Distilling Co. in Fort Worth is the first solar-powered distillery in Texas and recently received an installation of hundreds of solar panels, plus 10 EV charging stations in the facility’s parking lot, thanks to a collaboration between CES, Circle L Solar, and Siemens.
“We began working with Tony and Acre Distilling around two and a half years ago,” said David Lee, Chief Operating Officer of Circle L Solar. “We installed just shy of 400 solar panels that supply all the electricity usage for this entire facility.”
When Tony Formby wanted to go further in his initiative to go green, Circle L Solar reached out to CES Fort Worth to help supply material for the EV installations.
“We provided pretty much everything — the actual charger, every conduit and cable, and the battery bank,” said CES Regional Manager Phil McKinney.
And CES Fort Worth turned to long-time vendor partner Siemens to manufacture the EV chargers, which led to a major co-branding partnership.
“This is actually the first time co-branding has been done through a channel with Circle L Solar,” explained Tracy Gentry, channel sales engineer for Siemens. “CES approached us about white-labeling the chargers with Circle L Solar on them. Our chargers have Siemens on the front panel, and Circle L Solar requested that their logo be on it as well.”
Fulfillment center
That’s not all. In 2022, CES also built a 100,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Fort Worth, Texas.
“A single CES branch can hold about 4- to 5,000 SKUs inside of their footprint, whereas we can hold approximately 35- to 40,000 SKUs,” said Director of CES Online North America Rich Antonaros. “The fulfillment center has multiple functions, but first and foremost, it is there to help our customers when they need to order material in a quick and timely manner.”
One line service
And with a growing demand for material, CES created the One Line Service to help customers in the industry get the job done.
“Our One Line Service allows us to basically put all the pieces and parts needed for a project on one pallet,” added Antonaros.
“We wanted to expand our One Line Service and we needed a location that was centrally located as well as big enough for us to build material,” said Cannon.
“This is something unique that’s going to really fill a gap in the industry,” added CES Regional Manager Nate Jefferson.
The future ahead in the Lone Star State
As our branch network continues to expand and grow, City Electric Supply is excited to continue to serve customers in the state of Texas and beyond.
Stop by and visit any one of our Texas locations! https://www.cityelectricsupply.com/branchLocator