BATON ROUGE, Feb. 2023 — This year, PALA Group is celebrating its 50th anniversary of delivering turnkey industrial construction solutions. While based in the Gulf Coast region, PALA has served clients across the United States with the highest level of service, safety, and quality — now for over five decades.
PALA was founded in 1973 by Rick Tarajano, an industrial contractor working for the Louisiana sugar industry. His focus on mechanical piping and equipment installations made it a natural fit to move into other industries like pulp and paper, refining, and petrochemicals throughout the 1970s.
In 1987, PALA formed its aboveground storage tank and ASME vessel operations. This division continued growing throughout the 1990s, securing contracts for small capital projects and tank farm maintenance with some of the Gulf Coast’s largest facilities.
In 2008, PALA became an employee-owned company (ESOP) via acquisition from the original founding Tarajano family. Since then, the business has further expanded and diversified its service offerings, including:
- US FUSION & Specialty Construction (2017): A subsidiary providing services complementary to PALA’s, including installing plastic pipe, concrete embed liners, and various erosion control systems.
- ARCCO Power Systems (2021): A subsidiary specializing in the sale, service, and rental of new and used generators ranging from 10kW to 3.5MW — offerings that are particularly useful in emergency response and disaster recovery situations.
- SMART Safety Group (2012): A company founded by PALA to help contractors and manufacturers in their quest to protect their most valued asset — their employees.
- Elite Helical Solutions (2021): A subsidiary providing specialized helical piles as a deep foundation solution for industrial, mid-stream, and commercial building markets across the Gulf Coast.
“PALA has evolved into a group of growing companies that relentlessly focuses on delivering the best possible service to our customers and creating value for our group of employee-owners,” said Scott Barringer, PALA CEO. “I’m proud to look back at our humble beginnings in the sugar mills of Louisiana and see how far we’ve come in 50 years.”