Business Qualifications

On January 3^rd 2005, 2H Mechanical LLC opened its doors for business.  2H Mechanical is a well funded and well planned full service Mechanical Contractor focusing on offering a more professional business partnership to the General Contractors servicing the Western Slope of Colorado.

Organization Strategy

The company is formed with two department heads: Sheet Metal and Plumbing.  The expertise of the company is: large project management of Plan & Specification, Design Assist and Design Build commercial and custom home projects; small commercial project support, professional service, and maintenance.

The Owner/President

Ricky Houtris, an Englishman, grew up around a family business of plumbing and heating.  Despite this, at the age of 16 Ricky took a 4-year apprenticeship in automotive repair, during which time he attained City & Guilds, TEC and BTEC diplomas.  After 6 years in the trade he returned to the family business for a couple of years before deciding to further his education.  Ricky took a Mechanical Engineering honors degree at the South Bank University in London, England where he achieved an upper second.
 

Once graduated, Ricky took a job as a Mechanical Engineering troubleshooter working in the Construction, Food and Nuclear power industries - to name a few.  After a couple of years Ricky took a job as a Finite Element Analyst in an engineering services company that was later acquired and renamed to MSX International.  He worked at MSX for eight years, across five countries.  Posts included a business start-up in Spain and a department start-up in the US. 

In Detroit Ricky built the largest independent CAE team outside of the OEMs, (Original Equipment Manufacturers), with sales in excess of $12M.  At peak, the team was over 60 strong. 

Ricky was then hired as Engineering VP at Wagon Engineering running a 200-plus engineering division with $25M annual sales.  The changing customer requirements in the automotive sector reduced the value-add of managed engineering services and thus his position.  Looking where best to apply his skills Ricky decided that moving to the Grand Valley and setting up a construction services business would be the right answer for him and his family.

VP Mechanical

Phil Herrera, a Grand Junction Native, has worked in the local Mechanical market for 34 years.  He had been working as the Operations Vice President at Lunsford Brothers managing a $6M sales budget for the past 20 years.  Previous large educational facilities estimated and projects managed by Phil include: Vail Mountain School, East Valley Middle School, Mesa State Collage as well as CMC Edwards & Leadville.

VP Plumbing

Tom Vagell, a New Jersey native, has worked in the Valley for 16 years and Colorado for 32 years.  Tom was the proprietor of Peak Mechanical, a plumbing and heating business with $800k annual sales, from 1980 to 1986.  He has since worked as a project manager, first in Boston managing $6-8M a year; then for the past 16 years he worked as an Estimator and Project Manager in a couple of local companies.  Tom holds a Master Plumbers license in four states.  Previous large educational facilities estimated and projects managed by Tom include: Vail Mountain School, East Valley Middle School, Mesa State Collage as well as CMC Edwards & Leadville.

Organization Overview

The company is organized into six cost centers: Corporate, Mechanical, Plumbing, Small Projects, Service and Shop.  Mechanical and plumbing are dedicated to large projects.  This way Ricky can focus on business strategy, management and the financial aspects of the company; Tom and Phil are dedicated to sales and large project management; Ricky will manage Service and warranty departments.           

This type of organization will free both Tom and Phil to better focus on the smooth delivery of the large projects. 

The management team is currently developing processes and procedures within a paperless office environment to assist and empower the job foremen to fulfill the day-to-day running of the large projects.  One company goal is to achieve ISO quality certification.

Capabilities

2H Mechanical offers: sheet metal and plumbing, Design Assist as well as Plan & Specification for the commercial, institutional, new construction and restoration markets.  In-house services include:
Sheet Metal Fabrication
HVAC/Sheet Metal Installation
Plumbing Installation
Mechanical Piping Installation
24-Hour Service. 

Out-Sourced Services include:
Engineering Design
Controls
Insulation
Test & Balance.

During the first 36 months in operation 2H Mechanical has successfully completed over $19M of work including:

Relevant Experience

Phil Herrera & Tom Vagell have been working together for 10 years.  During that period they have delivered many projects of similar scope to the Saunders Field House Project as well as many Mesa State Related Projects including: The Swimming Pool at Orchard Mesa Middle School, The Telluride Ice Rink, The Fine Arts Building, The Library, WW Campbell Reservations, Moss Performing Arts Center, 11^th & Elm Dormitories and Numerous other small projects for the facilities management team. 

Staffing Strategy    

The lack of adequate training projects within the Grand Valley makes the delivery of large projects a challenge, especially in the plumbing field.  With this in mind, 2H Mechanical has built a good relationship with local 145 Plumbers and Local 9 Sheet Metal Unions to deliver our large project plumbing needs.  

Phil Herrera’s local reputation and skills have made it viable to organize our own training on the Mechanical side.  This along with a strong remuneration package and good working environment ensures that we are confident about providing the required skilled staff to deliver our anticipated projects.  

With a staff of 50 and over $11M billing in the first twenty four months of business, the strategy is certainly on-track. 

Bonding

2H Mechanical has already secured mid-to-high-seven figures per job capacity without an aggregate with a preferential rate.  Hub International can write larger requests on a job-by-job basis.  The current rate without mark-up is 1.045% <$½M>  0.87% <$2M. 

Bank

2H is banking with The First National Bank of the Rockies; with advisement from Carey Horton, VP Commercial Lending.  The company has an extremely healthy balance and a $1.5M line of credit.