While Cajun has been known primarily in the industrial civil side of the business, its industrial mechanical side has always taken more of a back seat in recent years, says William J. Clouatre, vice president of Business Development for Cajun Constructors.

“We’ve had more industrial clients ask us to evolve and we’ve been very selective. We’ve had some resources there, but we haven’t had that depth that our civil side has on the mechanical side.”

In working with IDC in the past, both companies realized the potential of a solid relationship. Clouatre says Cajun has worked with IDC throughout the years on many of the same sites and with the same customers.

“We approached them to either pursue joint venture work, turnkey EPC work or teaming, those types of things. That relationship kind of evolved to where the majority owner was stepping out of the business, was getting to an age where he wanted to move on, and it afforded us this opportunity,” Clouatre says. “So the decision we ultimately came to was how about an acquisition. And they said yes.”

Discussions leading up to the acquisition lasted six months to a year. The companies negotiated a full acquisition of IDC by Cajun, allowing the current company management to remain, along with all field staff and craftsmen.

The new company will be called Cajun IDC and will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Cajun Constructors. Cajun also intends to expand IDC’s assets and facilities moving forward.

“IDC has been averaging about 600-700 personnel and we assumed 100% of their backlog,” Clouatre says. “They were also averaging about $75-100 million in revenues over the last few years.”

"This is a great opportunity for both companies,” says Todd Grigsby, president at Cajun Constructors. "The addition of IDC tremendously increases Cajun’s mechanical expertise and depth, and is a great benefit to our customers. The combined strengths of the two companies will offer us additional opportunities to secure larger mechanical and turnkey construction projects.”