Celebrating $40M expansion

Cut Off general store aims to satisfy customers
February 26, 2014
Houma cycle store cruises along for 47 years
February 26, 2014
Cut Off general store aims to satisfy customers
February 26, 2014
Houma cycle store cruises along for 47 years
February 26, 2014

Coinciding with its garnering of “silver” status, K&B Industries is building new corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility and has revamped its corporate brand.

The privately owned, Houma-based company expects to make the move to a 200,000-square-foot complex on La. Highway 311 by the summer. Other alterations implemented ahead of its 40th anniversary are the expansion of the company’s Houston operations, the modernization of its brand logo and the name change from K&B Machine Works.

“As we approach our fourth decade of operation, the timing is right for a new company image,” said Kenny Wood Jr., the company’s second-generation president. “Given our overall growth as a company, including new facilities opening next summer, the time couldn’t be better to unveil the new K&B brand.”


Kenny Wood Sr. founded K&B on Sept. 11, 1974. He initially offered threading, casing and tubing services from a small Grand Caillou Road building.

Wood Sr. graduated from Delgado Community College’s machinist program, then transformed his business idea into reality, said Whitney Bouterie, executive assistant to Kenny Wood Jr.

Now the company, which services the oil-and-gas industry, offers in manufacturing, threading, fabrication, tubular accessories and inventory control from Houma.


Growth at first was gradual. Wood began threading in the 1980s, and the company introduced its manufacturing facility at the turn of the century.

But over the past seven years, expansion plans have intensified. K&B began operations from a second location in Houston in 2008 and purchased a site to offer inventory services to BP and BHP at the La. 311 site in 2009. Development extended to Montoursville, Penn., in 2011 to position threading services for Marcellus shale activities.

Business is booming in Houston, Bouterie said. An OD line – the capability of handling pipes with diameters ranging up to 20 inches – is expected at the Texas site by summer, and K&B plans to soon begin offering inventory services there as well, Bouterie said. “Houston does just about everything Houma does,” she said.


Amid its evolution, K&B remained in its original location, gobbling up neighboring spaces and shifting headquarters to intersecting Redmond Road to accompany growth over that time.

The company’s upcoming move will ease the resumption of activities after tropical weather events and better position it to ship and receive deliveries.

K&B broke ground on its new headquarters facility last year. It is located on 35 acres of property near the La. 311 interchange with U.S. Highway 90 in Schriever, a trucking route along the proposed Interstate 49 corridor.


Overall, the investment in property and facilities there totaled $40 million, Gov. Bobby Jindal said in 2012. For Houma operations only, 250 people are on the companies payroll; companywide, that figure is just more than 500, Bouterie said.

The company’s logo has been recreated with modern fonts. Additionally, the ampersand was replaced with a plus sign, and Machine Works was substituted for Industries. Company officials say this represents a positive outlook toward the future and better represents its capabilities.

“We feel we have worked hard to set the standard for superior workmanship and responsive service, and we want a name and brand image that reflects the overall quality and professionalism of our organization,” Wood said.


Kurt Bonin, design control manager, and Doug Hemstreet, vice president of Louisiana operations, review a product design drawing that K&B Industries’ engineering department issued to be manufactured. K&B celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

COURTESY PHOTO