When Shawn and Sara Wenner acquired Empire Pipe in North Mankato, Minnesota, in 2009, they were taking a gamble. The company exclusively worked with excavating contractors performing post-inspections, and demand had slowed to a trickle during the recession. “It was a baptism by fire,” notes Shawn.
But the husband-wife team was committed to understanding and adapting to the needs of the communities they serve. Empire pivoted to providing more maintenance services, and municipal clients now represent a majority of the company’s customer base.
Through it all, “our cameras are our eyes and ears for performing all this work. They are our validation, our storytellers. We put a big emphasis on doing quality work, and if we haven’t done a good job the camera helps us get back to that.”
Empire had communicated exactly what it needed with Macqueen, Envirosight’s dealer for Minnesota. The combo—a main line crawler with add-on lateral launch capabilities—fit their needs to a T, and the main line crawler’s lift option was a main selling point. “The lift just makes it so much more versatile,” explains Wenner. “You’re able to go down without a wheel change in a sewer that’s been cleaned. You can go from a 6-inch sewer to 15 and center your camera head. And it’s huge on diagnosing problems. If you have high water flow, you can raise the boom high enough that you can get to the problem. With a standard camera you would be under water. It seems simple, but it’s huge to have on a smaller diameter crawler. The operators love it.”
Located just an hour and a half from Minneapolis, Empire now serves a range of customers. “We’re kind of right in between both environments,” says Wenner. “We’re close enough to the metro area that we take advantage of working with that, but we’re also in the rural areas where they need that service.”
And what they provide to smaller communities in the area shouldn’t be underestimated. Many have few resources and minimal in-house expertise. “Rural towns are doing a triage because they have limited funds, they have to assess their situation. We always recommend they talk to professional engineers, but they consult with us a lot to help them focus on what they think is the most important.… We particularly enjoy having that relationship, so we can be problem solvers for them.”
The ROVVER X system offers unbeatable ease of use, versatility, reliability and—importantly for contractors like Empire—a camera lift that allows crews to rapidly adapt to a variety of pipe sizes and conditions. Want to learn more? Schedule a demo or talk to a sales rep near you.