Slick Construction changes hands, but stays in town

After 58 years and three generations of management, Slick Construction is now under new ownership.
“Slick Construction is a solid, established company with an excellent 58 year reputation,” said Felix Soileau, new president and owner of Slick Construction. “The employees are honest, hardworking, and eager to achieve their customer’s high expectations. My plans for the future are to build on Slick’s reputation and grow the company by developing new customer relationships while better servicing our existing customer base, broadening our construction capabilities and service offerings, improving efficiencies, and continuing to promote Slick’s cornerstone values -- safety, quality, and integrity.”
Soileau, born and raised in Eunice, brings 12 years of pipeline experience to the helm of the company, which specializes in construction and maintenance in the oil and gas industry. Soileau purchased the company on March 17 from Buz and Sherald Smith and their daughter Ginger Rozas. The company will remain at its current location, and Rozas will work as vice president. Jerry Moneaux will work as general manager, and all other employees will stay onboard.  
The local company’s success story started in 1956 when oil industry workers Douglas D. Smith, Buz’s father, and Rozas’s grandfather, along with C.M. Click, Paul Montgomery and Drew Cornell decided to form their own service company. They merged the names Smith and Click to form the name Slick Construction Company. 
The new company started out constructing board roads and doing well hook-ups, and when oil hit a low price in the late 1950s, Click, Montgomery, and Cornell sold the company to Smith. At the close of the decade, Buz joined the company on a full time basis as a roustabout and board road worker and his wife, Sherald Reeves, joined the company in 1962 in an administration role. Slick soon purchased Hub City Construction’s Eunice property at 1101 East Ardoin St., and the company has been based there ever since. During the next several decades, the company expanded to servicing gas processing plants, pipeline construction and maintenance and general oilfield work.
In 1988, Rozas, joined the staff at Slick Construction doing bookkeeping, accounting and safety.
Slick Construction is licensed to work in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi. The company’s services have grown to include construction and maintenance of pipelines, gas processing facilities, compressor stations and metering stations, site prep and civil concrete work, right-of-way work and hydrostatic testing. Slick’s customer’s include major oil and gas transmission, mid-stream pipeline and plant facility companies located throughout the Gulf Coast.  
“Typically we retain under 50 employees” Rozas said, “with summer being our busier season because of favorable weather.”  
“The company is always bidding on small and large projects throughout the Gulf Coast, and we are looking to grow,” Soileau added.  
“All of these things (pipeline, gas processing plants, compressor and metering stations and concrete work) keep us pretty busy. It’s a good mix. Activity is strong in South Louisiana, between Lake Charles and Baton Rouge, for the pipeline industry. There are lots of projects. I see good opportunity.” 
Soileau and Rozas said they are very excited for the future of Slick Construction and hope to see its success story continue on for many years.  
“It’s a new chapter for Slick Construction,” Rozas said. “My parents retired, and with Felix as owner it allows me more time to spend with my family.” 
“This sale will help to grow the business. We are comfortable with Felix, and we share the same background.  We have the same goals and ideals about integrity, business ethics and morals and the way we do business. It’s a good fit.”