Laborde To Host Open House In Louisiana

Laborde Products’ new facility expansion is designed to meet the needs of customers, positioning the company well into the future while also improving employee safety and efficiency.

The new operations center, warehousing and engine-testing facilities are available to tour as part of an open house the company is having December 1 in Covington, La.

Brian Laborde, president of Laborde Products, said the open house is a way to thank the manufacturers who have supported the company along with customers who have put their confidence in it “and allowed us to grow with them and their fleets.”

“We’re investing in our business to be prepared for and ultimately to support our customers,” he said.

The $15 million expansion added two new buildings and involved the renovation of one of the existing three on the Covington, La., campus.

“We’ve almost doubled the capacity of our company in the Covington location as far as personnel and expect that growth to continue with additions to our technical services and our technician teams,” Laborde said.

Approximately 25 new full-time positions have been added in Covington.

The first of the new, purpose-built facilities is a 35,000-square-foot operations center.

“That handles all of our production, all of our maintenance, our engine rebuilds, our fabrication facility,” Laborde said, along with offices for those supporting that side of the business.

The production facility also has 1-ton jib cranes at every service bay to prevent overhead lifting and to optimize the space for those working on engines and building equipment.

The second building is a 20,000-square-foot addition that includes warehousing and an area dedicated to preparing engines for shipment. An engine-testing area includes 4,000-horsepower as well as 500-horsepower dynamometers used to load test engines.

Both buildings are served by 20-ton gantry cranes.

Laborde’s original shop is connected to the new facilities and has been renovated to become the company’s new parts department, with 40 percent more capacity to meet high demand for Mitsubishi and other manufacturers’ parts. That means Laborde will be able to respond faster to customers’ needs with parts already in stock, he said.

The space also includes a larger state-of-the-art training area where Laborde can partner with customers to complete servicing and repairs they want to handle in-house.

“Because of the mechanical nature of our products, we can teach people how to work on our engines, and ultimately every one of our customers can become part of the support network of our products that are out in the field,” Laborde said, adding that the company’s business philosophy involves empowering its customers.

With the expansion, Laborde now has roughly 135,000 square feet under roof in Covington.

The work follows on the heels of other additions in the past 24 months, including moving its facility in Deer Park, Texas, which doubled its capacity from 18,000 to 36,000 square feet in the Houston area, and opening a new facility last year in Paducah, Ky., with about 20,000 square feet.

All of that reinvestment in Laborde’s business means, as a whole, that it is preparing for the future, making sure it has the space and the infrastructure to support customers’ own growth.

“Our whole business is built on service,” Laborde said. “Our value is to support the product throughout the life of the engine, not just selling them on day one. The sale of an engine is just the very beginning of our relationship with our customer. Trust and confidence is built over time.”

Featured photo caption: Laborde Products has added a 35,000-square-foot operations center and a 20,000-square-foot building for warehousing and engine shipment preparation to its campus in Covington, La. The company is holding an open house on December 1. (Photos courtesy of Laborde Products)