HOUSTON, T.X. – National Trench Safety, LLC (NTS), a Houston-based company specializing in the rental and sales of trench and traffic safety equipment, as well as OSHA-compliant training classes, announced today the acquisition of certain operating assets of US Shoring’s Tampa and Miami Florida operations.
“We are very excited to be entering the Florida market,” remarked Ron Chilton, president of NTS. “While Florida has suffered from the economic downturn, we believe there is a significant amount of potential in the market. Both Miami and Tampa are large metropolitan areas with a diverse mix of highway and utility construction. We also anticipate increased market share through the introduction of new product lines to capitalize on and expand existing opportunities and customer relationships in the Florida market.”
“Expansion into Florida has been a priority for NTS for the last few years and this further expands our nationwide footprint,” explained Chilton. “As part of the transaction we are acquiring a significant amount of rental fleet that will be used to support our new Florida operations. We will be optimizing that fleet in the coming months and anticipate making a significant investment in additional rental fleet assets and will also be introducing several new products to the market.”
The transaction also allows NTS to gain some highly experienced personnel who have many years operating in the Florida markets. Ernie Perez and Richard Hearn will continue to manage the Miami and Tampa locations respectively. “Ernie and Richard are both trench safety veterans with significant experience in the industry,” commented Chilton. “Ernie, Richard and the Tampa salesman, Sam Manna, have all worked with the principals of NTS at our prior company. We are very excited to have all of them back on the NTS team,” said Chilton.
The Florida locations are the 17th and 18th branch locations for National Trench Safety in the United States. NTS now has operations in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.
In maintaining the objective of building a nationwide network of trench and traffic safety branches, NTS plans to open several new branch operations in 2013 with additional branches planned to follow in 2014. For strategic reasons, Chilton declined to comment on the location of the additional new branches. For more information about NTS, visit the National Trench Safety website at ntsafety.wpengine.com.
About National Trench Safety:
National Trench Safety is dedicated to providing the construction industry with the most complete line of trench and traffic safety equipment, as well as OSHA-compliant training classes. With a proven track record of success, National Trench Safety expertly provides unique solutions to the most difficult and complex project needs. National Trench Safety is committed to providing customers with the highest quality products, most diverse and broad product/fleet offerings and the most comprehensive customer training in the industry. National Trench Safety- “The Trench and Traffic Safety Specialists.”