Top Contractors | ENR Texas & Louisiana Contractor of the Year
Performance Contractors Finds Peak Form in 2024
Performance Contractors’ client list includes many of the largest companies in the oil and gas sector. Last year, the contractor completed the Light Tight Oil Project for Chevron at its Pasadena, Texas, facility. Roughly 95% of its work was self-performed.
Fueled by a strong backlog of work in the oil and gas sector, Performance Contractors has tallied a couple of banner years. After reporting a company-best $2 billion in revenue in 2023, the contractor followed up with another record in 2024, posting a total of $3 billion. Although the company is licenced in 34 states, nearly all of last year’s revenue—$2.82 billion—came from work in Texas, Louisiana and the Southeastern states.
Over the last decade, Performance Contractors has expanded its portfolio beyond the oil and gas sector into markets such as energy, pharmaceuticals and food and beverage. The firm also recently ramped up its self-perform work. Marking its 45th anniversary last year, it has grown from a local Baton Rouge, La., firm to a national player with more than 12,000 personnel and 25 million work-hours worked. Throughout that time, the company has remained privately owned and maintained its commitments to operational excellence and safety. In light of the company’s recent results, ENR Texas & Southeast named Performance Contractors its 2025 Texas & Louisiana Contractor of the Year.
President and CEO Kevin Courville says the company anticipated its recent string of successes years ago. It was positioned to have revenue hit $2 billion in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic put several of its projects on hold.
“For us, 2024 was a special year,” he says. “When everything was released, we had all that backlog that had not been worked off. So those projects got started, and the pipeline started to come back. That really propelled a record-breaking year in 2023 and set us up for 2024.”
Performance Contractors completes module assemblies for projects around the country at its two module assembly yards in Louisiana, including the 200-acre facility in Morgan City, pictured here.
Photo by Collin Richie
Powered by LNG
Courville says Performance Contractors saw growth particularly in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market as well as in power and steel mills. The company currently works on LNG projects for developer Venture Global. The scope for one of those—Plaquemines LNG in Plaquemines, La.—includes pipe fabrication, modular fabrication, pipe and steel erection, insulation, paint, scaffolding, electrical and instrumentation, millwright services and commission and start-up support. Peak workforce is about 5,000, with nearly 21 million work-hours expected at completion. The company is building modules for those projects at its Louisiana fabrication facilities in Morgan City and in Port Allen.
“The abundance of natural gas has really brought a lot of investment from around the world, and we’ve been able to ride that wave,” he says.
Although Texas projects have driven the majority of its work in recent years, LNG work in Louisiana helped propel the company’s record results in the state. Courville says it also has remained steady in Texas. Among its contracts is a $300-million project for Linde in Nederland. The 18-month project includes installation of equipment, pipe, steel, electrical, instrumentation, insulation and scaffolding. Peak workforce is estimated at 1,200.
Performance Contractors offers a wide range of services for construction, maintenance and fabrication, including pipe fabrication and installation; turnaround services; module assembly and installation; and steel fabrication. Courville says the company has seen particularly strong growth in module assembly and pipe fabrication. It has four pipe fabrication facilities and two module facilities—both with barge access. “We do very large modules—some of the largest modules that are built in the U.S. for land-based delivery,” he says. “That’s really been mostly in the LNG market. There’s been a tremendous amount of growth, and that is part of the growth that we saw in Louisiana in 2024.”
Performance Contractors offers a cross-training program for soft craft personnel interested in pipefitting. The free program graduated more than 100 employees in its inaugural year.
Photo courtesy of Performance Contractors
Surge in Self-Perform Work
As part of its growth strategy, Courville says the company expanded its self-perform capabilities, particularly in the soft craft services such as scaffolding, insulation, coatings and fireproofing. Performance Contractors has also bumped up its in-house craft for electrical and instrumentation services. “We’re direct hiring a lot more today than we did five years ago,” he says.
Last year, the company launched a new cross-training program for soft craft personnel interested in pipefitting. Offered free of charge after work, the program graduated more than 100 employees in its inaugural year.
Courville says its expansion in self-perform services feeds a larger strategy to use in-house workers, when possible, to meet need. “You control your own destiny,” he says. “That’s the reason why we fabricate all of our own pipe and ... our modules. We now do a lot of the things that it takes to finish a job. It just gives us a whole lot more control over finishing these projects, as opposed to managing subcontractors.”
“The abundance of natural gas has really brought a lot of investment from around the world, and we’ve been able to ride that wave.”
— Kevin Courville, President & CEO, Performance Contractors
A major part of the company’s business development leans on repeat business. Although the company does take on new clients, such as Space X, the vast majority of its work comes from long-standing customers. “Our top-10 customers back when we started are still our top customers today,” he says. “If you look down the list, we have a lot of 45-plus-year customers.”
The company has also built strong relationships with a cadre of clients and project partners. Burns & McDonnell has worked on numerous projects with Performance Contractors over the years as both a partner and client. It often leverages the firm’s expertise in pipe and module fabrication and mechanical contracting, says Ed Anello, vice president of project delivery at Burns & McDonnell. Performance Contractors brings “the right skill sets, the right leadership, the right safety, the right quality and a very consistent approach to the different types of work we’ve done with the firm,” he says. Those brought to lead work represent a top team who “know what they’re doing, how to plan and execute and how to interact with our team.”
Courville says that business strategy has fueled the company since its founding by Art Favre in 1979. Performance Contractors’ growth has been 100% organic, built with
out any mergers or acquisitions, he notes. Steady history as a family-owned business has resulted in many
of its employees spending their careers at the company. As an example of that potential, Courville says he first co-oped at Performance Contractors while attending Louisiana State University for construction management between 1983 and 1986.
After graduation, he signed on with a different company, but in 1993 was recruited to come back as a project manager. Since then, Courville has risen through the ranks from project manager to project executive, chief operations officer and now president and CEO—a role he assumed in 2021.
With the intent of creating careers, Courville says Performance Contractors focuses on recruiting, training and retaining young talent. The company draws from colleges as well as high schools and vocational schools.
“It starts with the recruiting, then you have to have good, solid training programs and career development programs,” he says. “I believe that’s a strength of our company. Every one of our recruiting centers has an evaluation center where we can evaluate craft-level workers as to what level they are at in their craft before they ever hit our jobsites so that we [can ensure that we] get them on the right career path.”
The company also places a heavy emphasis on hiring veterans through its Built to Serve workforce initiative. Last year, the it ranked at No. 19 on the Military Times’ Best for Vets: Employers list.
Build It Safe
As an industrial contractor, the company’s commitment to safety is foundational. In 2024, it introduced new safety initiatives. Its We Build Better – By Building It Safe program aims to enhance field leadership engagement through micro-learning video messaging and a renewed focus on execution standards.
“We Build Better – By Building It Safe is a pretty bold statement,” Courville says. “We realize that, but we feel like it puts accountability on us as leaders and our craft as well.”
The firm also launched Mind Your Moves, a campaign addressing non-work-related task safety to reduce incidents. “We concentrate more on the things that can be life-altering, but many things can happen between tasks, like just walking the jobsite or coming through the turnstile,” says Courville. “So mind your moves.”
Commitment to community is also part of the company’s culture. Nationally, Performance Contractors has contributed to the Alzheimer’s Association, United Way and military groups such as Folds of Honor.
The company raised $391,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 2024 through its annual Chippin’ In for St. Jude event. The firm also encourages employees to give back, offering to match employee donations. “It gives us an opportunity to participate more locally,” he adds.
Looking to the future, Courville says he sees another big wave of opportunities rolling in for Performance Contractors. While there has been some pullback this year, which the CEO attributes to election-year uncertainty, he expects the pent-up demand to release in 2026.
“We’ll go into 2026 with the largest backlog we’ve ever had,” he says. “So we’re very optimistic that the next several years look good, and we’re hoping for more record-breaking years. We don’t feel like we peaked in 2024.”
