b'C O N S T R U C T I O N & T R A N S P O R T A T I O N S Y S T E M S G R O U PIn the Trenches with SunstateSCOA Group Company Continues Expansion into New Trench Safety Markets with Acquisition of CascadeI n 2019, SCOA Group Company Sunstate entered the specialized services niche of underground and confined space safety with theaddition of its trench safety division, which currently operates inGeorgia, Oklahoma, and Texas. When Sunstate, traditionally aconstruction equipment rental company, looked to expand itstrench safety & shoring offerings, they found that Pacific Northwest- based Cascade Shoring LLC and Cascade Trench Safety LLC couldserve as a smart addition. Sunstate acquired Cascade in Novemberof last year, gaining business entities that include rental branchesin Portland and Seattle, adding new muscle to its planned expansioninto these new markets.We are very pleased to welcome this outstandingAlignment with the people and the culture of any Cascade team into the Sunstate family, comment- business is one of the first and most important areas ed Sunstate CEO Chris Watts, whose company hadwe assess, Watts explained, and it absolutely was an already expanded its traditional operations into theimportant factor in this decision. Cascade, like Sunstate, Pacific Northwest region three years ago. Our rep- places a high value on their employees, and treats them utation for best-in-class service was earned by build- as if they were family. Cascade has multiple Heneveld ing strong teams and cultivating a culture that valuesfamily members engaged in leading the business and treating people with respect. And, we believe Cascadesensuring that the family business feel perpetuates, but commitment to quality and service is a good fit withthey now have the ability to leverage the resources of a our own.much larger company to support their growth oppor-Weve seen tremendous success with our new trenchtunities.services, said Watts. Our customer-focused serviceSunstate aims to strengthen its competitiveness based model of reliability and commitment to a flawless rent- on alignment with SCOAs own growth strategy, al experience makes us uniquely qualified to meet thewhich cites geographic expansion and optimization; exacting needs of our underground safety customers.digital transformation; and product and service diversi-Also, Sunstate has traditionally relied on organicfication as methods for growth. growth to fuel our nationwide expansion. AcceleratingOur entry strategy was to first prove the concept, and growth of our trench safety offerings through this ac- our own competency, through greenfield starts, Watts quisition builds on the success of this fledgling division,said. We spent the last two years opening six green-while also combining the expertise and strengths offield trench safety branches. We felt comfortable with both Cascade and Sunstate to bring even more robustour people, processes, systems, and our results, even rental solutions to our business partners in this region.over a relatively short time period, to give us confi-Watts is the son of Sunstate founder Mike Watts, sodence to consider acquisition opportunities. In order Chris also saw familial parallels in the Cascade lead- for the trench safety division to achieve enough scale ership. As Cascades former owner and CEO Steveto make a positive impact on the overall company ROI Heneveld retires, his sons Greg Heneveld, Sam and profitability, we cannot rely entirely on greenfield Heneveld, Tim Heneveld and Josh Heneveld, alongstarts. Simultaneously, we continue to open greenfield with twenty Cascade employees, are joining the general rental branches, so unless the pace of trench-re-Sunstate team to continue driving trench operationslated growth moves more quickly than general rentals, and sales in this region.we will not achieve the desired impact.16 visions Winter 2021'