Spokane Electrical Services Co. (SESCO), the Spokane-based parent of Rods Electric, Power City Electric, and PowerCom, plans to hire more than 50 additional workers and acquire at least one more companyboth by the end of this yearand is considering opening more out-of-town branches next year.


Bruce Morelan, SESCOs president and owner, says the company expects to boost its work force to more than 300 by the end of this yearup from about 245 currently and just 100 13 months ago. SESCO expects sales of about $30 million this year.


SESCO already is in the process of acquiring an electrical contracting company in Lewistonits second such acquisition in the past three monthsand expects to close on that sale later this month. Morelan declines to disclose the name of the Lewiston company, but says that once the deal is completed, the company will become part of the Power City Electric division.


Meanwhile, SESCO is eyeing possible branch offices in Wenatchee, Moses Lake, and Yakima by the end of next year. The company currently operates a temporary office in Wenatchee, along with permanent branch offices in Pasco and Lewistonin addition to its Spokane headquarters, at 3327 E. Olive.


Morelan says that the companys new voice and data cabling division, its breadth of offerings, and its recent landing of three major contracts are fueling SESCOs wildfire-like growth.


We believe that our niche is full service, Morelan says. Weve heard from our customers that theyd rather deal with one vendor for both electrical and communications needs rather than several vendors for each service.


When asked how big SESCO is going to get, Morelan said the company is equipped to handle a crew of 400 workers, and he wouldnt be surprised if it hit that level by the end of next yearas long as theres work to keep it busy.


The first spark


Rods Electric, which opened here in 1948, changed hands several times over the years before being bought in 1995 by Morelan and his wife, Kika. Rods Electric employed 50 people at that time.


By 1997, the work force at Rods Electric had doubled to 100. Then, last September, the Morelans formed SESCO to buy 60-year-old Power City Electric Rods Electrics main competitor.


With that acquisition, SESCO gained a branch office in Pasco, a field office in Wenatchee, and about 100 employeesboosting total employment at SESCO to 200. Rods Electric moved from its main office at 809 N. Helena to Power Citys main office here on Olive. Morelan says that he has been holding onto the vacated facility on Helena for a possible future expansion.


In March of this year, SESCO bought the Spokane branch of Kirkland, Wash.-based Macro Com Corp., which employed eight people here. SESCO kept those employees and renamed the Spokane branch PowerCom, establishing a new division.


PowerCom, which installs copper and fiber-optic wiring for data transmission and voice communications, now employs about 45 people.


We saw the PowerCom division as a good opportunity to both market a new service to our electrical customers and to bring in a new base of customers, Morelan says. He adds that he had hoped for the kind of growth SESCO now is experiencing, but still is surprised by it.


Another fast-growing division at SESCO is its service department, which operates 24 hours a day. That department now employs 21 technicians here and another 10 in Pasco. Morelan says employment in that department has risen by about one-third during the last year, and the company is looking to hire at least three more technicians by the end of this year.


As for possible plans for branch offices in Wenatchee, Yakima, and Moses Lake, Morelan says the trigger would be if any of the SESCO divisions were to land a major job in one of those communities. Rather than establishing new offices, SESCO instead might look to acquire a company that already operates an office in one of those cities. SESCO has talked with companies in both Yakima and Wenatchee about possible acquisitions, but those discussions havent led to any serious negotiations yet, Morelan says.


Its not something you can force, he says.


PowerCom division


Morelan says that PowerCom, which has offices in Spokane, Pasco, and Lewiston, has been one of SESCOs fastest-growing divisions and he attributes the divisions growth partly to luck. Right out of the chute, the division landed a $500,000 contract to install voice-data cabling systems in all of the Mead School Districts buildings.


Besides luck, though, PowerCom has worked to distinguish itself from other installers of voice and data cabling. One way PowerCom has done that is by performing both inside and outside cabling work. Morelan says that similar to electrical work, which typically is broken down into regular and high-voltage services, communications work is broken down into inside service, which involves installing voice and data cabling inside buildings, and outside service, which includes burying copper and fiber-optic wiring underground and stringing cable on utility poles. He says that a number of companies specialize in one or the other and few offer both. PowerCom, which originally specialized in inside cabling work, added outside services with SESCOs purchase of the assets of Pasco-based AE Utilities in July.


Morelan claims that PowerCom also is one of only a few companies here that offers a specialized service known as fiber fusion splicing and testing. To do that, PowerCom workers use a $30,000 piece of equipment that connects pieces of fiber-optic cable together and then tests that connection. This process is vital for projects that involve laying fiber-optic cable networks, such as those that have been laid in downtown Spokane, he says.


Additionally, PowerCom has been named an authorized installer of Lucent Technologies communications products. Morelan claims that PowerCom is one of only four contractors in Eastern Washington with such a designation. This is the holy grail of communication vendors, he says.


PowerCom also is one of two contractors in Eastern Washington that has received qualification from the Washington state Department of Information Services, which means that government agencies and municipalities can hire PowerCom to perform voice-data cabling work valued at less than $100,000, without having to seek other bids. Morelan expects PowerCom now to land more government projects.


It already has done work for the state Department of Transportation, the community colleges here, Eastern Washington University, the state Department of Corrections, and the city of Spokane.


Landing the big three


So far this year, SESCO has landed three major contractstotaling about $7 million worth of electrical and communication cabling work. Morelan says those contracts are for what he considers to be three of the best jobs in the Spokane area of late.


In those jobs, SESCO received a more than $3 million contract to perform the electrical and voice and data cabling work for the big postal distribution center being erected at the Spokane International Airport Business Park, an about $3 million electrical contract for the River Park Square redevelopment project, and an about $1 million electrical contract for that developments Nordstrom store.


He says there also are several other multimillion-dollar projects that SESCO has bid on and hopes to win soon. He declines to disclose details about those projects.


Spokane and many parts of Eastern Washington are well-positioned for growth, Morelan says. If Spokane grows like I think it will, were well-positioned to handle that growth.