The Hill Company

Resilience. Vision. Strength. Innovation.

The Hill Company of Fort Worth, Texas, has all of these qualities and more.

Founded in 1945, The Hill Company is a full service operation, offering system design and engineering, total system installation, equipment service and repair, and environmental construction and remediation. The company's reputation for quality, cost-effective solutions has attracted a wide range of commercial, industrial and professional clients, many of whom are repeat customers.

The Hill Company's management team (from right): President Suzi Hill, Estimator Tommy Dillard, Vice President Karen Lensmire, and Technology Manager Robert Lensmire.

When Gene Hill Sr. founded the company, his goal was to sell petroleum equipment, and he built a thriving, successful company with a solid reputation in the area. In 1972, Hill's son, Gene Jr., purchased the company from his father, and set off to make his own mark in the business. One of the first things the younger Hill did was make good on a pact made with a high school friend years before. Hill told his friend, who was acing all her classes in bookkeeping and administration, that he would hire her if he ever had his own company. Now that he did, he hired her away from a job working as a bookkeeper for a local contractor.

One of the first things Suzi Hill noticed at her friend's company was that he was spending a lot of time instructing customers in the installation and operation of equipment. “He said he didn't know how to bid a job,” Hill says, who did know from her previous job. She worked with a bid sheet, in the process developing the company's construction business. It was the 1970s, the same time Southland began putting in c-stores with gas pumps throughout Texas. “There was a lot of business to be had, and it cemented The Hill Company's reputation for quality installation work.”

COMPANY SNAPSHOT President: Suzi Hill Year Founded: 1945 Year Joined PEI: 1975 Headquarters: Fort Worth, Texas Employees: 11 Average Annual Sales: $2.5-3.5 million Web Site: www.thehillcompany.com

Suzi and Gene were married for a short time. Upon their divorce, Gene left the company and returned to a previous job as a commercial pilot. Suzi stayed on, eventually buying out her former husband's shares. She recalls the day the company's largest supplier of equipment heard about the divorce. “We sold a large amount of equipment to major oil companies, but the minute the supplier heard about our separation, they walked in the door and took the distributorship away from me. Gene was the one who grew up in the business, and they assumed that with his absence, it would fail.” The year was 1976 and with no retail line, Hill immediately turned her attention to customers on the commercial side. “It proved to be far more lucrative,” she says now, laughing.

That immediate response to having no retail equipment to sell proved to be the silver bullet for The Hill Company. Today, its long list of commercial clients includes the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Texas Utilities, University of Texas, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, SBC/AT&T and various communications centers. (see sidebar)

Fuel Systems for Emergency Generators
While installation work for commercial clients helped the company grow, diversification into a unique niche market created new opportunities. In the 1980s, The Hill Company was doing a considerable amount of work for Southwestern Bell Telephone (now AT&T), setting up fueling systems for the company's vehicles. Seeing The Hill Company's quality, integrity and reliability up close, Southwestern asked Hill to bid on the fuel systems for its generator supply contract. The Hill Company won the bid and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today, the installation of fuel systems for emergency backup generator and boiler systems comprises 80 percent of The Hill Company's business. The systems are installed at hospitals, utilities, universities, communication centers, businesses and data centers. The Hill Company designs the system, installs the large fuel tanks, does the electrical work to hook up the fuel system to the generator and lays all of the piping. Explains Hill, “We don't install the generator, but we tie everything into it.”

Selling emergency generator fuel systems requires an in-depth knowledge of how the equipment all works together. Hill acknowledges that the systems are very low maintenance. “Think about it, they only kick on in an emergency. There is very little service involved, unlike retail where fuel is being pumped all the time.” The Hill Company's service technicians are specialists in fuel and lubrication dispensing systems.

Employee Growth
Suzi Hill is a strong believer in the value of education and training. She says that when she first entered the industry, “I attended every seminar and class that PEI offered, and I learned a lot that helped me to grow the business.” Her commitment to training extends to her employees, who hold a long list of certifications and continue to update their skills. An in-house training center holds classes not only for employees, but for customers.

The Hill Company employs 11 people. Several of those employees have been with the company for many years. Service Technician Bob Dillard was one of the first employees hired by Hill. His son, Tommy Dillard, joined the company in 1985 as an apprentice installer of underground storage tank systems. He is now certified as a cathodic protection tester and serves as Hill's estimator and project coordinator.

One of the first employees hired by Suzi Hill, Bobby Dillard now oversees service for The Hill Company.

Hill's daughter, Karen Lensmire is vice president & chief financial officer. With the company since 1985, she oversees accounting, financial and support staff operations.

Like others, Hill points out that it is very difficult to find young people who want to make this industry their career. While on job sites, though, she was meeting a lot of young workers who were placed there by temporary employment agencies. “I realized that a lot of young people today want to work at a specific job for just a short time and then do something else.”

Hill recognized an opportunity and went searching for the right agency. She first talked to employment marketers connected to two trade groups, the Associated Builders and Contractors and the American Subcontractors Association. Through them, she developed a relationship with an agency that finds skilled and qualified employees for construction jobs. The agency does the recruiting and qualifying before sending them on to The Hill Company. “The use of temporary workers,” says Hill, “has filled a void and enables our company to maintain a larger presence in the region.”

Hill Technology
Suzi Hill was forward thinking in the early 1980s when she purchased her first computer. By 1988, The Hill Company was fully computerized, and by 1995, was into its third upgrade. “Staying on top of technology was getting expensive, as each of the upgrades was costing 30 to 40 thousand dollars!” So Hill offered to pay full tuition for any employee willing to go to school to study technology. Her son-in-law Robert Lensmire, who starting working for the company in 1991, took on the challenge.

With Lensmire's graduation from DeVry University with a degree in Telecommunications Management, Hill set up a technology division, whose sole purpose was to take care of the company's computer systems and educate employees on how to productively use them in their daily work. “We wanted to be more efficient, and we also knew that the industry was advancing quickly into the use of more technical equipment.” Lensmire set about building and managing the company's computer systems, and teaching employees how to use them. A Certified System Engineer and a Cisco CCNA, Lensmire also had knowledge about the changing computer-based equipment in the petroleum markets.

As local businesses became aware of The Hill Company's technology skills, they started to call and ask if Lensmire could help them sort out issues with their own systems. Says Hill, “He started to become income-producing, rather than a support to our equipment.” The technology division of the company soon became a separate business. Hill Technology now assists small businesses and non-profit organizations with computer procurement, installation, repairs, networking and equipment, as well as designs and hosts Web sites.

Commitment
Experience, integrity, and a work ethic committed to quality and customers are the driving force behind the success of The Hill Company. Add in the ability to respond quickly to any challenge and opportunity, and Suzi Hill and the employees of this 62-year-old, family-owned business are ready for anything.

HILL PROJECTS At the University of Texas-Arlington, Hill removed two existing USTs and installed a new UST to provide backup emergency fuel supply to the Central Energy Plant boilers and generators. The system includes a 40,000-gallon double wall UST and all new equipment meeting TCEQ code guidelines, including spill containment, anti-overfill protection, double wall piping, and tank and line leak detection/interstitial monitoring. The UST was installed on campus in a shored excavation and met all OSHA guidelines. Hill installed the Rental Car and Bus Maintenance Facilities' commercial fueling and lubrication center at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport for Hertz, National, Alamo, Advantage, Thrifty and the bus maintenance facility, totaling four 20,000-gallon double wall USTs, two 12,000-gallon double wall USTs, and five 10,000-gallon double wall vaulted UL 2085 ASTs. In addition to the 55 fueling positions, Hill also installed the lubrication equipment at the various facilities. The Hill Company has performed numerous projects for Communications Centers across Texas, removing and installing underground and aboveground storage tanks and related equipment to meet current TCEQ guidelines. USTs ranged from three 20,000-gallon double wall USTs to UL 2085 double wall vaulted ASTs. At the Southwest Data Center, Hill installed four 30,000-gallon double wall USTs, related underground double wall piping, related internal inside welded piping, and day tanks for the redundant backup fuel supply to ten 400-gallon double wall tanks. The system feeds ten generators and provides backup for the entire building. Hill has completed projects at Dallas Area Rapid Transit's Bus Operating Facilities on their UST and AST systems, including installation of fuel (three 20,000-gallon double wall USTs) and lube oil systems (6,000-gallon, 1,000-gallon and two 4,000-gallon double wall USTs).

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The PEI Journal • Fourth Quarter 2007 • Volume 1, No. 4 • Contents are Copyright © Data Key Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved. • Nothing may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission of the publisher.