Global Industrial Services Leader Establishes Home Base in Baton Rouge
On Monday, July 6, KBR, a Houston-based global technology, engineering and construction company, announced that it has agreed to enter into a partnership with Baton Rouge-based private equity firm Bernhard Capital Partners, and establish a new company. It will be called Brown & Root Industrial Services and will be headquartered in Baton Rouge.
By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor
KBR announced that it has agreed to enter into a partnership with Baton Rouge-based private equity firm Bernhard Capital Partners to establish a new company, Brown & Root Industrial Services.
Brown & Root will be headquartered in Baton Rouge, La., and will include the Houston-based KBR’s Industrial Services Americas, part of the Engineering & Construction Business Group, and Wink Engineering. WINK was recently acquired by an investment group led by BCP from Willbros Group Inc. KBR is a global technology, engineering and construction company.
With more than 6,000 employees worldwide and operations throughout the U.S., Mexico and Canada, Brown & Root will be one of the world’s biggest players in the industrial services segment.
Gov. Bobby Jindal and Brown & Root CEO Andy Dupuy also announced on July 6 that the new company’s corporate headquarters will be located at Citiplace, on Corporate Boulevard. Very few details have so far been released and it’s not yet known how much space Brown & Root will take in Baton Rouge. However, the governor did say that 25 executives will work in the new location by the end of 2015.
They will be joined by an additional 25 by the end of 2016. The 50 jobs will have average salaries of $192,000 per year, plus benefits. The Louisiana Economic Development also estimates that 72 indirect jobs will also result from the corporate operations. Over the next 10 years, Brown & Root will create another 550 industrial jobs in the Bayou State, for a total of 925. This number includes Wink Engineering’s 325 employees in Baton Rouge, Mandeville and St. Rose, near New Orleans.
In order to secure the project, Louisiana offered Brown & Root a $1.8 million performance-based grant to reimburse relocation costs and to provide lease support for the new headquarters. The company will also receive the comprehensive solutions of the LED FastStart workforce development program and is expected to use the state’s Quality Jobs Program.
