Company Report: Moncla Companies
Moncla Companies: Diversification and beyond Having started as a 'mom and pop' business, Moncla Companies has since enjoyed significant growth. Mike Moncla, Chief Operating Officer tells us how that has been achieved

Moncla Companies may remain a family business, but it is also now a growing, inter-State operation. As Mike Moncla Chief Operating Officer explains, the history of Moncla is "a true success story." Indeed, Moncla Companies is now one of the largest privately-owned well service companies in the United States.

After a successful career at Pelican Well Service serving as Vice President and manager of sales, Charles 'Charlie' Moncla founded Moncla Well Service in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1984. Starting with one rig, the company has grown rapidly to 53 rigs, surpassing its targets, to become one of the largest independent work over companies in the United States. "We planned on being at 50 rigs by 2006 and we hit that mark and now we are at 53," explains Moncla.

Following his graduation from the University of Louisiana in 1990, Mike Moncla worked as a field salesman for a Reed Tool Company before coming to work for his father in 1994. Since then, Moncla progressed from working in sales and marketing before becoming Vice-President of Marketing. He was promoted to his present position of COO following the company's restructuring. At present the company contains eight Monclas and fortunately, unlike some family businesses, Moncla explains, "we really, really get along well."

Diversity
Moncla Companies does "an array of things", as Mike Moncla puts it. As well as its original well service business, Moncla has since diversified and expanded, adding more companies through the years. One of the new divisions is Moncla's Marine Division.

Moncla Marine LLC was established in 2002. According to Moncla, "we saw that we were constantly taking our land rigs on and off barges so we decided to go ahead and start our own marine division."

Having started off with one rig, the Marine division has since grown to eight, with the ninth currently in construction, to become the largest workover barge rig company in the United States. Working in a similar fashion as the company's 24 hour land rigs, these rigs are on barges, working in the inland waters of the Gulf Coast.

With the success of its marine diversification, Moncla Companies further expanded a few years later, establishing 'BOSS' (Brothers Oilfield Service and Supply), a diversification into other areas of the oilfield service industry. "Our services include swab trucks, hot oil trucks, tubing testing units, anchor trucks, power swivel rental, and mud system rental,' explains Moncla. "We have a wide array of services in BOSS that diversify us into other areas of the market."

Moncla's land fleet now includes 37 daylight rigs for well servicing and workovers, and eight twenty-four hour rigs for shallow drilling, sidetracking and deep workovers. Moncla currently operates in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Revenue for all Moncla Companies during 2007 is expected to total approximately $140 million.


Training rig
Safety is an area which is "everything to us" as Moncla explains. "If someone gets hurt in our company, everybody hurts."

In order to achieve the best possible safety standards, three years ago the company built a permanent training rig at its site in Lafayette, Louisiana. "It was a dream that we had for a long time and it finally came to be real," Moncla explains. "We decided to dedicate the money to drill a 4000 foot well and add a permanent rig to the site for schooling. The commitment from us is a little over one million dollars to get the well drilled and now we have a permanent structure."

Originally the training rig was built for the company's operations and personnel "to continue adding employees and to keep growing our business". However as Moncla explains, "our focus shifted from the operations side to the safety side after it became alarmingly clear that fifty percent of accidents came from people who had been with the company for less than three months."

The well which is now managed by Moncla's safety department, is now used as an education purpose, training new employees about safety in the field.

The training class which is now in its 24th session combines two-week classes where employees train on the well, then enter a two week mentorship on an actual rig before becoming a floor hand. As Moncla explains "we've added close to 350 new people to the industry." Not only that, but the company is adding to the overall safety of its employees. "What they are learning in this school is more than some guys with ten years experience know about safety."

Supply, growth and acquisition
Even though Moncla Companies has enjoyed its successes, Mike Moncla explains that it's not been the easiest of businesses to be in at times. "Over the last few years supplies have gone down, so there have been times when we've had to hotshot items across the country as well as get things from overseas just to keep rigs running."
Buying power can also be an impediment, as Moncla explains. "It can be difficult because some of the bigger stock held companies who have a thousand rigs each have considerable buying power within the industry. Of course, with our growth we have established some buying power - nowhere near as much as theirs - but it certainly has helped that we have 53 rigs."

"We are really proud of our growth" explains Moncla, and growth is definitely an area where the company excels.

Moncla doesn't see the oil industry or the Moncla business slowing down any time soon. "I don't see our business slowing down unless oil was to completely drop way down, and I just don't see that happening." In fact the plan is to keep expanding the business, including a proposed acquisition by Key Energy Services.

The business is in the middle of a purchase agreement with Key - one of the largest rig-based well service companies in the world. "We're honored that they feel we can help them. The pleasant thing about dealing with Key is their attitude to this; a 'what we can do for them' attitude. Of course, they will also do a lot for us."

Although the acquisition is going to be a slow transition, Moncla is very excited about the move. "Key has really big plans, their goal is to reach $5 billion in revenues and we're very excited about being on board to help them with that."

Charlie Moncla, President of Moncla, commented on the acquisition: "I am excited that our employees will have the opportunity to work for the market leader in our industry, and I am confident that Key will benefit from our strong experience in the Southeast U.S. market."

As well as the obvious growth and financial possibilities, Mike Moncla also sees the acquisition providing the business with structure and scale. "Being from a family business we've always been kind of non-structured and going into Key it's going to be a lot more structured. I like that idea."

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