This is Richland Pump & Supply’s 17th year providing supplies and service to the oilfield. Scott Ramus and Dave Williams opened their doors on Sept. 15, 1999; both had extensive experience in different areas of the oil field and both had been working for supply company Continental Emsco when the business was bought out by Wilson Supply. Wilson Supply kept the Sidney location open for only ten months before closing-up shop, and at that point, Ramus and Williams decided to start their own company. In the spring of 1999, they applied for a SBA loan, and once approved, kept newly founded Richland Pump & Supply at the same 1511 South Central Ave location that Wilson Supply and Continental Emsco had operated out of. With Ramus building and serving down-hole sucker rod pumps, and Williams handling the supply side of the store, the two spent long hours at work.
“We worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week at first,” remembers Ramus. “A lot of times our families would come down to the shop to have dinner with us because we were working so much. The first day we took off was Thanksgiving.”
In March of 2000 they hired two employees and ran the company with a four-person staff until 2002 when oil field activity started picking up. Today, Richland Pump & Supply has two stores, one in Sidney, MT and the other in Stanley, ND with a total of 21 employees, plus themselves. The second store was opened in 2006 after a long-time customer decided to open his office in Stanley, closer to where he was drilling.
“Having the second location has helped us better serve our customers, but I remember at the time this guy telling me that the first one to Stanley wins,” Ramus said laughing.
The business expanded in 2014, buying the building next to them for office space and additional storage.
As a company that has been successful and sustainable for 17 years in oil field service, before, during, and after the oil boom, the number one question seems to be: How is business?
“During the boom we were so busy we could hardly keep up, and we aren’t nearly as busy now, but I think that we reached a stabilizing point a while ago,” Ramus explained. “It’s effected our bottom line immensely, but we’ve used maintenance as a good source of revenue, which is the biggest difference between this boom and the last. When the last boom ended, it was like one day production was shut down and everybody was gone; this time there’s a lot of wells that are still pumping even though there’s not much drilling. Those wells need to be maintained and that has been really helpful.”
One striving point both owners have had is avoiding layoffs, which has been successful. Not one person has lost their job with the company due to the downturn, and Ramus noted that they can keep their staff busy most of the time, serving the entire Williston Basin. The company supplies and delivers down hole sucker rod pumps, tubing anchors, Gates hydraulic hoses and belts, Balon ball valves, line pipe, tubing, fittings, Norris sucker rods and fishing tools. For more information, contact them at 406-488-8706.
“I hope oil activity goes back up, but I don’t think it will ever get back to where it was,” Ramus added.
But, boom or bust, Richland Pump & Supply continues to provide fast reliable service to their customers, and stable employment for their staff, a testament to their overall success as a company.
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