Dallas firm buys Elite Buildings

Published in The Journal Record

Nov 16, 2005

Written by John Dobberstein

A longtime manufacturer of pre-engineered panel building systems in Tulsa has been acquired by a Dallas firm.

Elite Buildings was recently purchased by Pala Technologies Inc., a value-added reseller and systems integrator of power and control products and telecommunications equipment.

Pala plans to keep operating the Tulsa facility under its current Elite Buildings brand name, as a division of Pala Technologies. There are no plans to eliminate any jobs and the Tulsa division may, in fact, add employees and a second shift based on the new demands of customers, said the company’s president, Mark Meynig.

Elite’s structures are primarily used to protect equipment in remote locations and harsh climates. Customers include gas and electric utilities, pipeline companies, municipalities, telecommunications and mining.

We had only been selling power and control products, and we were looking for a product to wrap around that and offer a bigger package, Meynig said. Elite has always been in the gas pipeline and utility market, and we have a good background in telecommunications.

Elite was an attractive purchase, Meynig said, because Pala can now offer a turn-key solution to our customers with pre-wired, factory-installed equipment, or a field-erected building with equipment installed and commissioned on the job site.

We’re real pleased with the acquisition, he said.

Elite was founded in the early 1980s as a division of Industrial Structures Inc., a Tulsa company. Elite was purchased in 2001 by a Tulsa investment group that included Fred Gibson, owner of Heat Transfer Equipment Co., and Dave Lawson.

Elite was represented during the acquisition by David L. Perkins Jr. of Acquisition Advisors, a Tulsa-based merger and acquisition consulting firm.