A family affair
Bisbee Plumbing and Heating to celebrate 50 years of business
Trending
MARSHALL -- Friday is a big celebration day for the Bisbee Plumbing and Heating family.
Scott Williams will be celebrating 50th birthdays for himself and his brother-in-law, CJ Mortier. It's also the anniversary for Bisbee Plumbing.
Bisbee Plumbing and Heating is hosting a 50th anniversary celebration on from 4-7 p.m. with door prizes, food and beverages. There will also be a bounce house for the kids.
"Kids are our future," Williams said. "That's why we're having a bounce house."
Williams and Mortier purchased Bisbee Plumbing and Heating from B.A. Bisbee who retired in 1967. Bisbee sold the business to Joe Mortier, CJ's father and Williams' father-in-law. That is when the business moved from Marshall's Main street to its present location at 604 North U.S. Highway 59, Marshall.
In 1999, Williams and CJ Mortier bought the business from Joe Mortier.
As the company grew, Williams bought out CJ Mortier. Recently, Dustin Westover bought into the company.
The business is all about family. Two of Williams' three children are named Dustin and Megan, whom Williams had hoped would someday follow in his footsteps. And Westover's wife's name is also Megan.
Incidentally, Williams' daughter is in banking and his son is in grain operations. Scott Williams and his wife, Terri, have an 8-year-old son named Casey who models for their business advertisements.
"It is really a family business," Williams said. "It's the Bisbee Team. I want to emphasize that. It's like the quarterback on a football team. The quarterback can't play the game by himself, and the linemen can't win the game without a quarterback."
Williams said that the team goal has always been to be the best construction team in southwest Minnesota.
When you think of a plumbing and heating company, you don't think of the metal fabrication this team does.
"We make all our own ductwork and that of nearly everybody else in town," Williams said.
And, Bisbee is the only contractor in the area with three licenses for construction: medical gas license, RPZ license (keeps water systems from cross contaminants) and high pressure piping.
"We have 10 licensed plumbers on staff." Williams said.
Each licensed plumber has to be an apprentice for five years, he said. Each year, they have to have more than 1,700 hours on the job experience. After seven years, they test to become a licensed journeyman.
"We pursue and hire the highest qualified people we can," Williams said. "My guys have continuing education because we teach them."
Williams said he has served on several boards of education and personally helped Minnesota West Community and Technical College with its plumbing and heating curriculum. Additionally, two of his former employees ended up teaching at Minnesota West.
"It's hard to cash flow in this industry," Williams said. "We pay for our employees to take continuing education classes and special classes required to do special jobs. I don't worry about just my own house payment, I have 35 others to worry about -- those of my team."
He also talked about the fact that plumbers are on call 24/7 and often have to work weekends and holidays on emergency jobs or contracts for institutions like schools and hospitals.
The upside is that Bisbees take on about 20 of those students every summer when they're out of classes to help with these projects.
One of the tough parts about his job, Williams said, is when various entities require a bidding process, not a handshake like in years gone by. Sometimes an out-of-town company gets in the lowest bid and takes its profits out of town.
But business has been good for Bisbee Plumbing and Heating. The year they built the arrival/departure building for the Marshall airport, Bisbee Plumbing and Heating won the Association Building Contractors Best Building award.
Another pet project for Williams was building the Schwans' Research and Development building.
"That was a lot of fun," he said. "There was a lot of creativity that went into that building."
Bisbee's have been able to expand to a second site. They have opened a shop in Granite Falls and can service a 60-mile radius from either Granite Falls or Marshall.
A 60-mile radius is about as far out as you want to go in order to give your customers same-day service, Williams said.
In order to keep up with his employees, Williams has installed GPS systems on all the service trucks. He can pinpoint where each employee has parked his truck just by turning on the computer program.
It's just one more way Bisbee Plumbing and Heating can give the best customer service to its customers.
They also keep a full inventory in order to provide faster service to their customers.
Williams and Bisbee Plumbing and Heating have always been community-minded. They have made several contributions to local advances, from building Southwest Minnesota State University to contributing to the new cancer center and beyond.
"We bought the first pickup for the Tough Enough to Wear Pink promotion," Williams said. "We're not just a plumbing shop, we're a part of the community."