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THE CRUDE TRUTH Exclusive with Brian Stubbs President of Air Compressor Solutions, Inc.
Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Rey Treviño [00:00:00] The top equipment solutions retailer and the compressed air industry is expanding again. We talked to CEO Brian Stubbs from Air Compressor Solutions in Carlsbad, New Mexico. On this exclusive episode of The Crude Truth.
Narrator [00:00:17] In 1901 at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont. The future of Texas changed dramatically. As, like a fountain of fortune, thousands of barrels of oil burst from the earth towards the sky. Soon, Detroit would be cranking out Model TS by the millions, and America was on the move thanks to the black gold being produced in Texas. Now, more than a century later, the vehicles are different, but nothing else has truly changed. Sure, there may be many other alternative energy sources like wind and solar and electric. But let’s be honest. America depends on oil and entrepreneurs. And if the USA is truly going to be independent, it has to know the crude truth.
Narrator [00:01:00] This episode is brought to you by LFS chemistry. We are committed to being good stewards of the environment. We are providing the tools so you can be too. Nape Expo where deals happen. Air compressor solutions. When everything is on the line, air Compressor Solutions is the dependable choice to keep commercial business powered up. Sandstone Group exec crew. Elevate your network. Elevate your knowledge. Texas Star Alliance Pecos country operating. Fueling our future.
Rey Treviño [00:01:36] Well. Hello again and thank you to All Out There for tuning in for another episode of The Truth. This is definitely an exciting, you know, definitely one that definitely uses the word exclusive. So thank you all so much. I’m just so excited. My good friend, a mentor, also a sponsor of the ground Truth. Brian Stubbs and his team at Air Compressor Solutions are just out today as we record, celebrating the grand opening of. Now. They’re. What number stories is.
Brian Stubbs [00:02:07] This is this is number five.
Rey Treviño [00:02:09] So this story, this is in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Brian Stubbs [00:02:13] Yes.
Rey Treviño [00:02:14] Oh my gosh. Well, congratulations.
Brian Stubbs [00:02:16] Great. Thank you very much for having me again. Thanks for always doing this for us. We always appreciate it.
Rey Treviño [00:02:20] Oh, it’s always fun. I mean, you know, from the big oil Permian Basin International Oil Show that we did back in October with you, to right now, how’s the day been over there?
Brian Stubbs [00:02:31] And it’s actually been a lot of fun, actually. So we’ve been working on this for about a year now, like the people of Carlsbad, and just welcome us with open arms. They’re always there to help. Had a great turnout today from the chamber. From the economic development Group. We had a lot of our vendors in. We had, guys from Ingersoll Rand, from North Carolina and California, bobcat. We had two guys from Phenix, one from Fargo, North Dakota come in for us. And it’s it’s been a great day with our vendors and meeting some customers and getting our name out there. So it’s been a lot of fun.
Rey Treviño [00:03:04] Man, I bet the vendor from North Dakota was, pretty happy to be in West Texas today,
Brian Stubbs [00:03:10] Yeah. He actually, he said, yesterday he was packing and he put a jacket in and his wife said, have you checked the weather? He said it was 37 degrees when he left this morning.
Rey Treviño [00:03:20] Holy cow. That is that is cold. Well. Hey there, that’s always cold. Once you get below 40, Brian, it’s cold. Like what time it is, you know.
Brian Stubbs [00:03:29] Yeah. First Texans 40 is about the limit.
Rey Treviño [00:03:32] Well, so let’s talk about that because you’ve got Ingersoll Rand. That is your, that’s your baby. That new sign. Correct. I say that.
Brian Stubbs [00:03:40] Okay. Well, like I said, and as of January 1st. So Doosan owns bobcat. And as of January 1st, they’ve combined all of their marketing and branding. So everything is bobcat now. So yeah, it makes our life a little bit easier too. So pretty excited about that.
Rey Treviño [00:03:55] Okay, so then Bobcat and Ingersoll are now your babies.
Brian Stubbs [00:03:58] Yes that’s right.
Rey Treviño [00:04:00] And for everybody out there, you know, you are obviously the name of the is Air Compressor Solutions. You are doing things, from literally small air compressor systems to giant things where you’re now transforming the oil and gas fields where, pumping units are now using compressed air that never freezes and shuts down. Might I add?
Brian Stubbs [00:04:21] It’s not anything. I mean, really friendly. That’s the really important one. It’s actually cleaner and friendlier, so that’s all good.
Rey Treviño [00:04:28] But you guys are doing it over there. And so what is it about the Ingersoll and the bobcat that you just are so proud to stand on those shoulders, in a way, so to speak?
Brian Stubbs [00:04:37] Actually, it’s really a kind of a neat deal that we have great relationships with them, which is isn’t always part of our business. They’re standing behind us and everything we do, they’re excited when we grow. They help us when we have issues. If we have a customer issue, they’re right there with us. So it’s a great partnership. And one of the things that I heard a lot today that, you know, as you know, we kind of get in our grind and we forget, both of those brands are, are heavily manufactured in America. Sorry. Ingersoll reindeer compressors, especially our recipes are assembled in South, North Carolina. All the bobcat stuff is either in North Carolina, Dakota, or Georgia. So they’re American brands working in the oil field. And, you know, we just couldn’t be happier being in that situation. We’re in with with all of that going on around us.
Rey Treviño [00:05:25] Well, you know, Brian, the one question I’ve got, and it makes total sense, but Carlsbad, you know, you’re in New Mexico now, and you said this took a year. What was it a year ago that said we need to be in Carlsbad. And how’s it been?
Brian Stubbs [00:05:40] So you know me well enough. I’m not a business guy. I’m an engineer, I solve problems. We were really what it was. We were sending two, on average, two techs a day from Odessa to Carlsbad and the time and the expense. And we didn’t want to charge our customers for that time because it’s just drive time where, you know, we’re not turning wrenches. And so it we just kind of had to do it. And we’ve been selling a lot of units, around Carlsbad, pretty much, you know, Carlsbad to Hobbs to Park is that triangle, and, you know, to in order for us to stand behind our products, we had to have people closer by, in Carlsbad. It was a great fit for us. So. Okay.
Rey Treviño [00:06:18] And, you know, Carlsbad has been, I know from back in the days being in the oil field. I mean, that was a place you definitely went to and, you know, took care of business, whether that was, you know, coming in to do laundry or go to the Walmart when that was just it used to be the, the before the supercenter, I remember that. Yeah.
Brian Stubbs [00:06:35] Yeah. I did two, actually. And now there’s a traffic jam every day by that wal mart. You can’t hardly get in there.
Rey Treviño [00:06:42] So am I there. Well where are you located at in Carlsbad now.
Brian Stubbs [00:06:46] So our address is 711 Del Rio. It’s actually a really neat, location for us. They’re going to build a new bypass here in a couple of years, and it’ll go just east of us. We’re about two miles south of downtown and two miles north of the industrial park at the airport. So we’re close to everything. We’re easy to get to. We’re easy to find. We got a big sign out by the street. Come by and stop by and see us.
Rey Treviño [00:07:10] Man, you know, Brian, with everything that’s going on out there right now, you know, what are you seeing as far as out in the West Texas oil field, out in the oil patch that you’re seeing that that’s kind of raising an eyebrow.
Brian Stubbs [00:07:25] It’s it’s. Oh, it’s kind of weird, this quick question. It’s kind of weird because there’s, like, a strange stability in our market right now. Everybody’s happy what they’re doing, what they’re doing. We don’t see, like, a ton of growth in the second half, but we also don’t see retraction. So I think a lot of, especially the larger customers we have are kind of just this is what we’re going to do this year. Slow and steady, predictable and well planned, which is new for the oil field. And I think everybody likes it better. So there’s a really strange stability to our market that we just haven’t seen before. And it’s really our customers are really driving it. And we think, hey, we want, you know, X amount of units a month from you at work. What can we do? How can we do that? And so we’re getting to, we’re we’re in a neat rhythm, as a company, and, you know, open up Carlsbad. So now that we don’t have guys driving four hours a day, not doing work, and so our technicians are getting in rhythms. Hey, you know, we go to this unit every, every month for a p m, and, you know, we do it every on the 14th of every month, and we just go there. So it’s kind of a weird place to be in the whole business. That stability, and repeatability is starting to be part of our business. And it’s it’s kind of a welcome, a welcome change.
Rey Treviño [00:08:38] You know, back when we were together at Nape, there in February, we were definitely talking about how the year was going to be and that your production is up and how. So you’re, you’re because you you work with a lot of the service companies. And so you were already kind of gearing up, in fact. I mean, I remember during the show, you you did have to step away, you know, several times because you all were blowing and going in Midland while you were there in Houston with us. And so it’s very nice to, to at least hear that, hey, the service companies, or at least at a kind of a plateau of just being in that rhythm right now.
Brian Stubbs [00:09:15] Yeah. And like, I don’t I don’t know if we’ve done that since I’ve been here, which has been, what, eight years? And it’s been a long time since we’ve kind of said, hey, this is what everybody’s doing for the rest of the year, which which is kind of fun. So.
Rey Treviño [00:09:28] Okay, you know, when you talk about fun, you know, what, how many people do you have at this Carlsbad location? And, you know, who’s your who’s the store manager there? Let’s talk about let’s talk about this store. Let’s let’s talk about it.
Brian Stubbs [00:09:41] Okay. So, you know, one of the things we do every time we open a branch is we really want to be part of our community, and we want our branches to be, you know, kind of experts in their area. So, you know, that’s something we talk about all the time. Every one of our branches needs to be an expert of their area. We don’t want, you know, everybody calling Odessa for help or calling somebody else for help. You know, they need to be experts. So right now at this branch, we’ve got eight employees, starting off, which is, I think the most of any of our branches are real close to it. But again, it’s because we’ve had great support. So we’ve got five technicians, that are out in the field every day. We’ve got a store manager, Austin Wade. He’s been with us since November. He’s really been the workhorse that’s got us up and running. We’ve got, Umberto, who’s the service scheduler, and, Gary, who’s a inside sales. So we’ve got a full team at this point. Again, at this first time, we’ve opened a branch with a full team, which is, testament to the group that’s been doing this. But we’ve hit the ground running. We’ve had techs out here for about a year. And so we’re building that their capacity, their training and getting them out there. And we love that they’re all local. There, I think we have one guy who lives in Hobbs and one guy that lives in Carlsbad, but that’s shorter than most people’s commute that live in the same city. So so we’ve got guys situated around southeastern New Mexico that are here from here and focused on, helping our customers that are in this area.
Rey Treviño [00:11:03] Well, and now now with this Carlsbad location, how far is y’all’s reach going now? As far as service work could go.
Brian Stubbs [00:11:12] So this one didn’t really change our reach better. It just made it better for our customers. So okay, Odessa is kind of covering, Odessa east to about that, west to the New Mexico border. Carlsbad is actually kind of Carlsbad, southeastern New Mexico, Pecos area. And then our El Paso, group actually goes how Paso north into New Mexico and east over to this way to about where the Guadalupe Mountains are. So we’re able to just better service our customers. We’re not driving 2 or 3 hours just to get to a location anymore, which is.
Rey Treviño [00:11:45] That’s different. Yeah. Now that that windshield time is, somebody has to eat that cost. So the fact that you don’t have to do that anymore, that’s important.
Brian Stubbs [00:11:53] Yes.
Rey Treviño [00:11:54] Yeah. You know, you this is now, like you said, your fifth store and you’ve done them all since Covid is, except for.
Brian Stubbs [00:12:03] One, except for when I, Amarillo opened in 2018. El Paso in 2020, Albuquerque in 2021. And then in Carlsbad this year.
Rey Treviño [00:12:12] So, what was it about all of those that made this one just kind of be the smoothest, you know?
Brian Stubbs [00:12:19] Yeah. Well hopefully, hopefully like everything we’re getting better as we do it. So that’s that’s always a good thing. But it really is. Number one, Carlsbad has been amazing, to try to get a business here. They they’re so hungry for help and so hungry to grow their community in a good way that they become very, very, open arms, to anybody that comes in here. One of the stories I’ll just tell real quick, we we bought a building from somebody that had a building here. The owner, like, helped us. She offered to help interview candidates or do references for us. Just because she’s in the community, she’s very involved. We had a great relationship. As she turned over the building to us, she helped us out. You know, we could ship packages into the building before we took ownership of it, and they stored it for us. And then, like the economic development group and the Chamber of Commerce, I mean, you just have to call those people up and they’ll bend over backwards to get information or resources or help you connect with somebody. And I mean, it really makes a gigantic difference when you’re new to a community. Just have the community say, hey, just here’s a list of phone numbers here. Here you call if you have a question or a problem. And they really stand behind us from day one, which is a what makes it really fun, truthfully.
Rey Treviño [00:13:33] Well, you know, and you mentioned the economic group and all of them. And then you mentioned Pecos, Hobbs as well. And I know that again, you know, starting out in the oil field a long time ago, they were very, very small. And they’re now all continuing to grow. Here you and I are saying that we see that the service side has been steady. We know that we’re at record, oil production numbers right now. Surprised? Very surprised, especially with this, president that we have. Right. But, you know, what kind of growth are they expecting? Because who we could, we consider Carlsbad. Hobbs, West Texas.
Brian Stubbs [00:14:09] You know.
Rey Treviño [00:14:10] What are they seeing? And what are you seeing for the growth out there in West Texas? And by that I mean past Odessa.
Brian Stubbs [00:14:18] Well, and it’s kind of interesting so that that Delaware Basin actually is where a lot of the growth and growth, the Permian Basin is really happening right now. I think kind of what they’re saying is there’s still good, leases available. Good. Still good property available, to drill and explore. And then again, as the cities grow around them, and again, kind of in that triangle from Hobbs, Carlsbad, the peak is, resources are starting to come in, and it’s starting to be a lot better place to live. We we stayed in a, Airbnb on the north side of Carlsbad, which I wasn’t there the last time I was on North Side Carlsbad. But it’s a nice community. You know, there’s nice houses, trees. There’s a river that runs through it. They’ve got parks. And so all of that is really building these communities. So it can be sustainable. And so when oil companies come in and they see things like that, they want to be here now, too, which makes the service companies want to be here. And so we’re seeing, again, a lot more investment in the communities I think we’ve seen before, which is making everybody happier, everybody better, which just makes that growth, more long term and more sustainable.
Rey Treviño [00:15:24] Well, so I would say that the, good, bad or indifferent to trickle down effect is working in some form or fashion.
Brian Stubbs [00:15:32] Yes. You knew if somebody literally write a book about it or something, that’d be awesome.
Rey Treviño [00:15:38] You know, maybe. What? Right. You know, we’ve talked about the environmental, positives that you and your equipment bring on the show in the past. Can you talk about that again and just just talk about how y’all’s air compressor systems are changing the game again out in in in the oil field?
Brian Stubbs [00:15:58] Yeah. So, it’s actually pretty interesting. So, you know, if you go south of Carlsbad, I think it was about two years ago, they discovered there’s a pretty much a cloud of natural gas over Carlsbad, or southern Carlsbad. And they couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. And it’s oil and gas production. And so a lot of the oil companies said, hey, we need to fix this. And one of the fastest, kind of cheapest. And it actually improves kind of uptime and reliability, is switching your tank batteries from all the operation of your valves and sensors from natural gas to air. And so what we’re doing, mostly out here in Carlsbad and Odessa, is we’re making this kit package. It’s got an air compressor on it, a dryer to remove all the of liquids and condensate, and a tank as a kind of a battery or storage device. And they can plug that into their batteries, and run clean air. You don’t have to worry about it. Freezing, which we joked about before. You don’t have to worry about contaminants getting in those valves. It’s a cleaner system. Once you learn how to do your maintenance and your upkeep on your air compressor, your reliability and uptime actually do increase. We’ve seen. And the other thing that’s really neat is, one of our customers and some of the projects we’re doing now are adding instrumentation to these air compressor. So instead of just hoping you have natural gas and pressure, now we can actually see it on a screen or on your cell phone and say, hey, you know that our compressor is running great, or hey, this one’s running too much or it’s hot. Let’s get something out there before we have a failure. And so we’re it’s really been kind of a perfect storm of solving a really hard problem in a really good way. So we’ve increased uptime. We’re helping the environment. We’re cheaper in a lot of ways. And you get more visibility and more, reliability with the product. So it’s it’s been a neat journey to get there. And now the product’s really proven and speaking for itself, which is great.
Rey Treviño [00:17:41] Golly. I just, I just I think it’s so awesome what all y’all are up to over there. Brian. Brian. For everybody out there that this is their first episode they’ve ever watched the crude truth. How can they get Ahold of you guys?
Brian Stubbs [00:17:55] So first, watch more episodes. They’re great. So the easiest way is our website. It’s, ACS Viacom. And then we’ve got, LinkedIn, and, Facebook and Instagram pages. Look up air compressor solutions. We actually would love it if you just stop by one of our offices. You can find us in Odessa, Amarillo, Albuquerque, El Paso now. Carlsbad. We most of those are open 730 to 530, Monday through Friday. We love it when people come in, face to face. We’re able to solve problems and figure out what you really need to get up and going. That’s the best way. We love doing business like that. And like I said, we’ve got everything you can think of from air compressors and generators. We got bobcat equipment. It’s for sale. For lease. We have parts and service. And everything like that. So, let us know what what needs to be fixed, and we’ll find a solution for it.
Rey Treviño [00:18:44] Well, and I’m glad you said that. You know, saying, hey, come on in, because it’s like, you know, you need a valve. You know, just one valve. You guys got it. You know, it’s like it’s a retail store. You know, our, you know, store. And, your, your, your employees are just so friendly. And so it’s like, you know, you’ve got the part. You really do. So I want to just reiterate that, that it’s a retail store. When you go into air compressor solutions, it’s not just about the big giant things. They got all the little stuff too ready to rock and roll.
Brian Stubbs [00:19:11] Yes. Yeah. I tell everybody our parts department is really a niche AutoZone or parts store. So if you need anything for an air compressor or generator, we probably have it and come in and have a seat and we’ll figure out how to get you up and out of the door.
Rey Treviño [00:19:24] Well, Brian, you know, since I last saw you in February, which is just, you know, three months ago. So we’re already in the second quarter now, which is hard again. Have you seen any has anything that you thought was going to go one way, but it’s now going another way out in the Midland area or, you know, anything. You know, because we got so many conflicts now going on in the world.
Brian Stubbs [00:19:45] Yeah. Again, our, our little company is just fun to watch. When we talked last time, we kind of said, you know, January was a little bit slow. We’re trying to figure it out. February was a little bit slow. March was a record month for us all time. I was I had revenue by about 10%. Wow. So, you know, we’re just doing what we’re doing. We think there’s going to be again, we kind of talked about a leveling out, in the last half of the year. We think that’s how it’s going to be. It hasn’t really changed that much. I, I’m waiting for the elections to change something. But I had a banker tell me the other day that this is the first election where everybody knows the outcome, because both candidates have already been president, and we know what they’re going to do. So they don’t think there’s going to be a disruption because of the election. But some people think there are. And I think everybody’s kind of just waiting to see what happens. Like I said, you said Ukraine and the Middle East and U.S. elections. So I think people are just kind of sitting and watching. I mean, the oil business is just doing what we do and getting products out and providing energy for the world. So I think we’re just going to keep doing that.
Rey Treviño [00:20:51] Yeah. We will. Brian, again, I cannot thank you enough for being on. One more time. How can people find air compressor solutions?
Brian Stubbs [00:20:59] Okay. The easiest way is our website. It’s Ax wired.com. Or you can find us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram or like that. We always love it when people come and stop by one of our locations.
Rey Treviño [00:21:09] Well, Brian, thank you again so much. Congratulations on the new store. And thank you for taking the time because it is y’all’s grand opening again, like we were talking about earlier. So thank you so much for your time. And to all our listeners out there, thank you all as always, and we’ll see you again on another episode of The Truth.
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