Company Profile
Caltrol, Inc.
Company Overview
Established in 1934, Caltrol is recognized as a leading provider of automation including process control solutions, valves, instrumentation, and reliability. Caltrol is the exclusive Emerson Impact Partner for Emerson Automation Solutions in the Southwestern U.S. This partnership enables us to connect our customers with world-class technology, a wide array of products, superior technical expertise, and full lifecycle services that improve on performance.
As an ISO 9001 certified company, Caltrol takes great pride in the quality of our employees, products, and services we represent. For us to be a trusted and reliable partner to our customers, it is important we listen, understand our customer’s needs, and deliver on the highest quality technology and services. Headquartered in Las Vegas, Caltrol has several additional offices in California (Irvine, Ontario, Livermore, Bakersfield, Benicia, Taft, and Paramount), Arizona (Chandler) and Hawaii (Honolulu) to meet and exceed our customer’s needs and requirements.
As an Employee-Owned Company, our employees are the key to our success in building and maintaining our customer relationships. Our goal is to hire top qualified individuals, provide exceptional training, maintain a culture of support, and provide the best fitting career paths so that we can continue to deliver on a premier customer experience. We are committed to our corporate social responsibilities and our community's needs at all our locations. Our company and employee’s contributions help support non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and other community needs.
Company History
Caltrol has been in business representing Fisher products continuously since 1934. It was in that year when Harry Dahl moved from the Fisher Governor Company in Marshalltown, Iowa and established the California Specialties Company, the first Fisher Representative in Southern California. Harry and his small staff served the greater Los Angeles area until his retirement 17 years later in 1951. At that time, Fred Carter and Bob Jones purchased the company and renamed it the Carter-Jones Company.
Fred moved from Marshalltown and joined California Specialties in 1938 and Bob moved from Marshalltown in 1950 specifically to be Fred’s partner after Harry retired. The company was then located at 2334 E. 8th Street in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Fred Carter passed away suddenly in 1957 leaving the company to his partner, Bob Jones. The company was then renamed to B.R. Jones & Company.
In 1968 Bob Jones retired and Zan Myers, who had been with B.R. Jones & Co. since 1952 purchased the company along with another long-time employee, Ollie Henrickson, who joined the company in 1946. Zan became the principal owner and President while Ollie served as Vice President. Zan changed the company name to Control Specialists, Inc. to better reflect the type of business that we were in and relocated to 9639 Telstar Avenue, El Monte, CA. Control Specialists quickly became known as CSI in the local marketplace and established the reputation as the premier valve supplier in the region. The company’s principal lines were Fisher Governor and Crosby Valve and Gauge. One year later, in 1969, Monsanto purchased the Fisher Governor Company and renamed Fisher Controls.
At the time they acquired Fisher Governor, Monsanto had been developing a number of electronic control products for their internal use. These products, ac2 (analog control center) and dc2 (digital control center), now became part of the Fisher Controls Catalog, breaking an 89-year tradition of only manufacturing control valves and related mechanical products. Jim Spear, EPC (Electronic Process Controls) Sales Manager at Fisher, moved from Marshalltown and joined Control Specialists in 1976. He became the first Control Systems Sales Manager. Six months later in April of 1977, Jim hired Mike Rizzo as an Electronic Instrument Salesman.
In 1978, Control Specialists purchased the Basin Valve Company from Republic Supply and became a certified Relief Valve Assembler. Basin became our first subsidiary company and was located in Signal Hill, CA.
On January 1, 1979, upon Ollie Henrickson’s retirement, Zan appointed three officers of the company: Jim Spear, Secretary/Treasurer and Sales Manager, EPC Group; Ron Maire, Vice President and Sales Manager, Industrial Equipment Group and Jim King, Vice President and Sales Manager End User VRC/EPC Group. In those days EPC stood for Electronic Process Control and VRC stood for Valves, Regulators and Controllers.
The late 1970s were good business years for CSI. With an expanding market and the need for more people we had outgrown the space in our current building. So, in 1980 we purchased the adjoining lot at 9645 Telstar Avenue and built a second building.
Fisher also entered the new DCS (Distributed Control System) market in 1980. Code named DSP, a search was undertaken for a name for this new innovative product. PROVOX (process voice) was the name of the old dc2 software and seemed appropriate as the name for the entire product line. So, ac2 and dc2 were discontinued and PROVOX was born.
In 1983, Ben Rector, former Vice President of Sales for Fisher Controls, joined Control Specialists with the intent of purchasing the company when Zan Myers retired in 1985. However, due to personal reasons, Zan could not retire in 1985. So, instead of replacing Zan, a new company was formed with a number of people leaving Control Specialists and becoming the first employees of the new company. A contest was conducted among those employees to name this new company and the winning name was…Caltrol! Caltrol was chosen as a shortened version of “CALifornia ConTROLs”. Ben Rector became President and Jim Spear became Vice President/Secretary. Another key individual, Bud Haslam, moved from the Fisher finance group in Marshalltown and joined the company as the CEO.
From the onset, Caltrol was an ESOP company with each of the new employees becoming “employee owners”. When Caltrol was first incorporated, Fisher Controls was the only principal represented as Control Specialists remained in business handling all of the other non Fisher lines. Caltrol also opened its first branch office in 1985, moving Cy Baucke to Bakersfield, CA as the Branch Manager.
Two years later, in 1987, Zan Myers retired and Caltrol purchased Control Specialists and Basin Valve. In order to tie the two company names together, the company operated under the name CSI-Caltrol for a period of two years. Caltrol also became the Fisher Representative in the Arizona sales territory during 1987, acquiring the assets of Southwest Controls, the existing representative. With the addition of the Phoenix office, Caltrol now had two branch offices: Bakersfield and Phoenix.
Mack Hudson and Terry Moore also joined Caltrol in 1987. Mack moved from Alaska Controls, the Fisher Representative in Anchorage and became the MEC (Major Engineering Contractors) Sales Manager. Terry joined the company from Honeywell and became the Systems Sales Manager. One year later, in 1988, Mack was named Vice President of Sales.
1n 1989 we found ourselves again needing more space and began the search for a new location. Since most of our employees lived near Glendora, we narrowed the search to this area and moved to Glendora on March 31, 1990 – over a weekend! We also opened a branch office in San Diego in 1990. Ron Maire moved to San Diego and became the Branch Manager. We now had branches in Bakersfield, Phoenix and San Diego.
One year later, in 1991, Caltrol won the single largest purchase order in Fisher Controls history, the $28 million Control System for ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia. This project was done through RM Parsons of Pasadena. Because the project was so large, Fisher leased a building in Monrovia, CA to stage the system. Bruce Brandt, one of our current Technology Consultants, then worked for Fisher and moved to Southern California as the General Manager of this staging facility.
In 1992 Caltrol de Mexico was formed and we became the Fisher representative in Northern Mexico. Caltrol also purchased PEFCO, a Bakersfield service company and formed Caltrol Services. Caltrol Services operated under that name until 1997 at which time it was changed to Flow Measurement Systems. This company specialized in skid mounted flow measurement products (LACT units) for the oil and gas industry.
1993 saw another change in Caltrol Management. Ben Rector retired after nearly 40 years in the Fisher organization. Mack Hudson was named President and CEO, Terry Moore became Vice President of Sales and Duane Dudley joined Caltrol from McGladrey & Pullen (our accounting firm) as CFO.
One of the most significant events in Fisher’s and Caltrol’s history happened in 1992 when Emerson Electric purchased Fisher Controls from Monsanto. Emerson already owned Rosemount, the world leader in measurement products, and combined the two companies creating the Fisher-Rosemount company and brand. Emerson also combined the systems products from the two companies, RS3/RMV from Rosemount and Provox from Fisher, into one division called Fisher-Rosemount Systems (FRSI). Caltrol was given the contract to sell all Fisher-Rosemount Systems products, adding RS3 and RMV to our product list along with Provox. In order to help with this transition, Caltrol added 5 people from the former Rosemount organization to its staff in Glendora.
In 1994 the business climate was again favorable and Caltrol purchased two companies: Pendarvis Sales and Automated Valve Systems (AVS). Pendarvis was the ASCO distributor in North Hollywood and gave Caltrol access to the Movie and Entertainment business. Automated Valve Systems was the premier valve automation company in Southern California offering Caltrol the opportunity to enter the automation business. Along with AVS came the distribution contracts for Bettis and Limitorque.
1996 was another milestone year for the Fisher Systems business (now the Process Systems and Solutions Division). DeltaV was introduced as a product aimed directly at our major control systems competition. Caltrol was awarded Fisher-Rosemount’s first DeltaV order -- a blending system at Ashland Chemical in Carson, CA.
David “DJ” Jumonville joined Caltrol in 1999 after a number of years in the Fisher and Emerson organizations including, Puffer Sweiven in Houston, Scallon Controls in Beaumont, Fisher Controls (as Area Vice President) and Vinson Process Controls in Dallas. A number of large corporate mergers and acquisitions by some of our principals caused us to look at our business and our subsidiaries during this time. Crosby was acquired by Anderson Greenwood (the owned by Tyco) resulting in our selling Basin Valve to the Blair Martin Company. We also closed Flow Measurement Systems and returned the Northern Mexico territory to Fisher-Rosemount Mexico. Our major thrust was now focused on the expanding Emerson product lines and our valve automation business.
A lot of attention was given to “Y2K” as the end of the century approached – especially with our control systems customers. All of our systems engineers and systems technicians were on standby (some of them even at our customer’s plants!) when the clock struck 12:00 on January 1, 2000. Expecting the worst, all of our systems came through with no problems whatsoever.
2001 saw a number of name changes in the Emerson Electric organization. In an effort to capitalize on the strengths of the many Emerson companies and divisions, Emerson Electric went through a re-branding effort in 2001. They dropped the “electric” from their name and became known corporately as Emerson. All of their businesses were grouped into 6 major divisions. Fisher-Rosemount became part of the Emerson Process Management division. We were also no longer a representative but now referred to as a Local Business Partner or LBP for short.
2003 was another significant year for Caltrol. In May, Caltrol acquired the assets of Process Controls in Honolulu and became the Emerson Process Management Local Business Partner in Hawaii and Guam. Troy Johnson relocated from Caltrol Glendora to become Vice President and General Manager of Process Controls in Honolulu. With the acquisition of Process Controls, Caltrol had offices in Glendora, Phoenix, Bakersfield, San Diego, Las Vegas and Honolulu.
In December of 2003, Caltrol announced a major expansion into Nevada. The announcement stated that the company headquarters and operations staff would relocate to the Las Vegas area by the middle to end of 2004. A new sales office would be established in Southern California for outside sales people and sale management.
The first part of 2004 saw the relocation process begin. A building was located at 6685 Amelia Earhart Court, just South of the airport. Plans then began to help those moving to Las Vegas and finding replacements for those who chose not to move. We decided on two locations in Southern California – one at the Rosemount Analytical facility in Irvine where Sales and Engineering moved in along with Rosemount Measurement – the other at the I&VS facility in Paramount. As it turned out, the moves all took place in October. We were up and operating in our new facilities on November 1, 2004.
2004 was also significant in that we announced the pending acquisition and merger of Associated Process Controls, our brother Local Business Partner in Northern California. January 1, 2005 was the effective date. With the merger of APC, Caltrol now served the entire state of California, Hawaii, Arizona and all but a few counties in Nevada.
2005 was a significant year in that it was the first year of business with APC as part of the Caltrol family. At the end of 2005, we acquired the remaining interest in Flow Control Engineering from Joe Savoldi. With this acquisition, Caltrol now reentered the Valve Automation business with Joe and his staff running that division. During this time, we continued to operate our business under the old company names: Caltrol, Associated Process Controls, Process Controls and Flow Control Engineering. In January of 2007, we dropped all of the other names and consolidated our operation into one name: Caltrol, Inc.
Caltrol continued to grow over the next few years. In 2011 Caltrol bookings exceeds $100MM for the first time growing 26% from prior year as we emerge from the market crash of 2008. Patience and tenacity were rewarded as a multi-year project pursuit was awarded to Caltrol in 2011 for $12MM from our old friend SAMREF, an additional $5MM for this project would be added in 2012.
2012 Caltrol grew bookings another 25% with most of the growth coming in Life Sciences. Late 2012 Caltrol acquired Redline PdM, a service company that would help grow our reliability and machinery health management products and services.
In 2013, Caltrol acquired LDL, a flow services company in Bakersfield that would help grow our overall service business and give us a larger footprint in the Bakersfield Oil and Gas market. Caltrol also purchased ESS, a small engineering services company in Hawaii specializing in SCADA systems. VP of Sales Joe Taormina succeeded David Jumonvile as President of Caltrol.
In 2014, Caltrol acquired Flow Components in Northern California. This gave Caltrol a sales channel for profitable single use products in the Life Science industry as well as complimentary product lines like Saunders. In late 2014, Caltrol moved to a larger building still in Las Vegas, NV at 1385 Pama Lane.
In 2017, Emerson purchased Pentair Company which instantly grew our product offerings to include pressure and safety relief valves. Caltrol acquired Thorco in Santa Fe Springs, CA, and brought their expertise and customer base for the sales and repair of the Pentair Products line.
Late in 2018, Steve Babensee moved from Spartan Controls in Canada to become the next president of Caltrol. Caltrol was up to 9 offices: Las Vegas, Livermore, Bakersfield, Taft, Ontario, Irvine, Santa Fe Springs, Chandler, and Waipahu, HI.
2020 turned the world upside down as we tried to navigate all the challenges of running a business while keeping our employees and families safe from COVID. COVID also brought opportunity and Caltrol was poised to take advantage, securing very large projects to support our Life Sciences customers. Genentech alone spent $20MM more in 2020 than the prior year. Overall our Life Sciences business was up 90%. But 2020 took from us as well as our president Steve Babensee succumbed to cancer in October 2020.
In June 2021, Scott Bedell, former Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Vinson Controls, joined Caltrol as President to help shape the next decade. Immediately after joining Caltrol, Scott oversaw a major shift in our relationship with the repair side of Emerson. Emerson had been operating the repair side of Fisher Control Valves through their company Instrument and Valve Services. Beginning in 2020, Emerson started transitioning the operations of the repair facilities directly to the local Emerson Impact Partner, starting with the repair operations in Chandler, AZ. The following year, Caltrol next took over the repair operations in Benicia, CA and Paramount CA. The Benicia office was expanded to include repair services for both Fisher Control Valves and all Pressure Management Valves.
At the start of 2023, Caltrol opened an office in India to provide much needed engineering support for our growing automation business. As of 2023, Caltrol has grown to over 315 employee owners and 11 locations including Las Vegas, Livermore, Bakersfield, Taft, Ontario, Irvine, Sante Fe Springs, Benicia, Paramount, Chandler, Waipahu, HI and Pune, India. Plans are underway to expand the Paramount building to consolidate operations in Southern California under one roof creating operational efficiencies.
As you can see, we’ve had a long and varied history under a number of different names – from California Specialties to Caltrol. However, regardless of what our company was called, we have proudly represented Fisher and now, Emerson Process Management, remaining committed to providing the highest quality products and services. We’ve had a colorful and interesting past and look forward to an exciting future.
Benefits
We are all employee-owners!
Employee Stock (Free)
Quarterly Profit Sharing
401k with Employer Match
Work from home / Hybrid schedules
Diverse and Inclusive Culture
Unlimited time-off for all salary (exempt) employees
Paid Holidays
Wellness Benefits
Health Savings Account with Employer Match
Flexible Spending Account
Company Paid Life Insurance with Buy-up Options
Student Loan Repayment Match Program
Tuition Reimbursement
Professional Development Assistance
Legal Insurance
Pet Discount Plan
Employee Assistance Plans