John Feistner and Brenda Fulkrod started their consulting company,
In the beginning, the company’s focus was oil and gas to generate revenue, but diversification was always their goal, he said.
Tegre provides engineering and design, environmental compliance and permitting, field inspection and survey services for oil and gas, communications, transportation and construction industries, among others.
The company has satellite offices in Denver, North Dakota, Texas and Pennsylvania, and 70 percent of its revenue comes from oil and a gas clients in those areas, Feistner said.
Feistner started in the oil and gas industry in 2003 in Durango, and he met many of the people now running the satellite offices while they were working in the San Juan Basin.
“Some of the best talent in the nation grew up here,” he said.
A few people work at each satellite office, but most of the technical work is done by employees in Durango, and he wants the corporate office to grow in its current space at the Bank of Colorado building on Main Avenue.
Feistner expects oil and gas to be part of Tegre’s business for the foreseeable future, and he thinks the future of the San Juan Basin is bright, with decades of extraction work to come.
To help offset the downturns in the oil and gas industry, Tegre expanded into commercial and residential contracts, municipal projects and fiber optic line work, where the skills of their engineers and surveyors would translate well.
Tegre sees similar profit margins in every industry because it offers highly skilled services by the hour, he said.
To work on larger projects, Tegre has partnered with other companies, including Pipeline Controls and Services, for electrical expertise, and LDIS, for structural and civil engineering experience.
Feistner would like to see a network of consulting companies organized, so larger bids aren’t awarded to competitors outside the area.
“We don’t want to see that money leaving La Plata County,” he said.
Feistner fell in love with Durango while attending Fort Lewis College. He later transferred to Colorado State University, but he was determined to return to town. While he was attending CSU, he cold-called engineering companies until he found an internship with Forerunner, a small oil and gas consulting company.
He worked for Forerunner in a variety of positions before becoming the branch manager. Forerunner was later purchased by a much larger company, URS, in 2009.
He stayed with the company until he started Tegre with Fulkrod with loans from the Bank of Colorado and Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado.
“Our vision was a full-service consulting company with the capabilities of a large firm but the small nimble culture of a small company,” he said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
