4 Amarillo-area companies make Inc. 5000 list

Altura Engineering &Design is ranked 434th on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the United States, boasting a 1,014.8 percent growth rate over the last three years.

Jacob Moreno, Chris Lopez and David Salas’ brainchild boasted the third-highest growth rate of any engineering firm in the country and 32nd-highest of any Texas company.

The trio first met when Salas and Lopez interviewed Moreno for a job at the Phillips 66 refinery in Borger. The co-workers turned into friends, and the trio kept in contact after Salas and Moreno eventually left Phillips for jobs at British Petroleum and Valero.

As Salas, Lopez and Moreno advanced in their fields, they noticed their companies kept hiring engineering design firms from the Houston area. Seeing an opening in the local market, they pitched Altura in the West Texas Enterprize Challenge in 2013 and walked away with $100,000 to start their company.

“The potential (to succeed) was always there, or we never would have started it,” Lopez said. “But we had to be on the conservative side.”

Altura is still housed in the WT Enterprise Center, though it has since expanded to 25 employees and takes up 12 offices. They have regional contracts with Energy Transfer Partners, Savage Oil Co. and AECOM, as well as Phillips 66 and Valero, but haven’t yet landed their white whale — Koch Industries — despite an annual Christmas meeting.

The owners are looking for a new home that can accommodate them as they plan to add another 25 employees in the next three years, as well as satellite offices in Kansas and El Paso.

WT Enterprise Center associate director Kyla Frye is in no hurry to see them out.

“From our standpoint, it’s almost kind of like watching your baby grow up and succeed,” Frye said. “You kind of had an inkling they were going to make the list, but we’re just so excited to see them come in at No. 434.”

Three other companies with Amarillo ties placed among the top 5,000: Smart Chemical Services (2,075th), The Reagor Dykes Auto Group (3,524th) and Runbiz (3,668th).

Reagor Dykes, which made its fourth appearance among the Inc. 5000, is based in Lubbock with a Mitsubishi dealership in Amarillo.

Smart Chemical Services is based in Amarillo, though most employees live near Denver, Dallas or Midland, where they can easily access the oil and gas companies they serve. President Lloyd Brown said his $45.3 million hydraulic fracturing company survived the industry downturn by exclusively doing business with safe, financially steady partners, and hiring experienced workers let go by struggling businesses.

“The companies we’re working with did a real good job hedging their oil and gas sales,” Brown said. “They needed to be predictable in what they could drill and complete.”

Brown and co-founder Jeffrey Snider also began focusing more on providing recycling services for the vast amount of water used in fracking. Smart Chemical Services manages recycling for 60,000 barrels of water per day and plans to reach 90,000 per day by year’s end.