Daily Comet: Local company celebrates new facility for Navy work
A local company held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday to mark the opening of its new Schriever facility to handle defense work for the U.S. Navy and other government entities.
Flow Line Valve and Controls' building at 110 Main Project Road known as Flow Line Defense will generate butterfly valves for Navy vessels under strict standards and specifications, said Drew Boquet, Flow Line president and owner.
“We're committed from the Navy to build a special building for them, special manufacturing, special personnel. Everything is built around them,” Boquet said. “When you are working with the U.S. Navy you have to have the highest standards.”
U.S. Sen Mary Landrieu was joined by Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne and other local officials at Friday's ceremony.
“He's so excited and passionate about growing his business in his home town,” Landrieu said of Boquet.
Flow Line employs 30 people and plans to hire 10 more employees locally by the end of 2015. The company has grown an average of five to six employees in recent years with sales increasing up to 40 percent annually, company officials said.
“I started a company here in Houma because I thought maybe a manufacturing company like this would do well here for manufacturing that isn't oilfield based,” Boquet said. “Everything in Houma, Louisiana, is oilfield. That's it, oilfield and marine. If you don't do oilfield or marine you are out of business. I'm here to tell you that you can do other business that isn't oilfield or marine.”
The company sells its valves throughout the U.S. and internationally, with about 5 percent of its business being in Louisiana.
“My company runs out of pocket and is competing against $10 billion corporations with all their manpower and horse power,” Boquet said.
“The biggest thing about Flow Line is we aren't dependent on local industry,” he added. “We are a true manufacturer on a worldwide scope. We may be a small manufacturer today, but we are growing and we have a market vision. We also have a work ethic that it can be done and we can go to other places.”
Dardenne noted the company's success.
“This is an impressive home-grown facility that literally is putting together a product that is distributed around the world,” he said. “These are the types of jobs you want to see develop in Louisiana. This company is able to hire people in the area with high-paying jobs, creating products that are recognized by the U.S. Navy and companies all over the world. It's a wonderful Louisiana success story that has been at it for a couple of decades and now is in a position to build a free-standing facility just for the work they are doing with the U.S. Navy. So you have to be very proud of a business like this.”
Flow Line, which started in 1999, makes valves for pharmaceutical, industrial, automotive, food and beverage, entertainment, water filtration, oil and gas, chemical plant and ship-building companies.
Its customers include Kellogg's and Post cereals, Bristol Myers, Bayer, Honda, Nissan and Tyson Foods.
Landrieu said she is proud of what Flow Line and Boquet have done locally.
“Drew Boquet needs to be commended and congratulated for his enthusiasm about starting local, staying local, and building big, and that's what he is doing at Flow Line,” Landrieu said. “This is a really extraordinary, young, but fast-growing manufacturing company that is exporting product to our country and the world. He's not interested in going to Dallas, Houston or Atlanta because he's interested in staying here at home. God Bless him and we need more people like him.”
