Long time Healdsburg customers of Groundwater Pump & Well can expect to receive the same service moving forward despite the recent takeover of the local company by a nationwide, pump, service and repair company, PumpMan, which acquired Groundwater earlier this July in a business buyout.
Despite the change, Groundwater president and founder, Ron Foster Sr. will remain with the company, along with his son, Ron Foster Jr.
“My dad and I will continue with the business. I will be considered as a field operations manager, but my father will have a little less responsibility and he’ll work as a project manager,” said Ron Foster Jr.
As part of the acquisition, Groundwater’s services, equipment, employees and inventory will be integrated with that of Santa Rosa Bartley Pump, another PumpMan-owned company.
Donald Devine, president and CEO of PumpMan, said the move will help the company better expand to serve a larger scale population.
“This bolt-on acquisition is key to developing scale in the region and growing the company into a strong nationwide player in the industry,” Devine said in a press release.
Groundwater started operating at the Bartey location about a week ago; however, the new work space isn’t quite new to Foster Jr. as he started working at Bartley in 1989 as a pump technician.
Foster Jr. started in the industry in 1975 and hasn’t looked back. “It is what I know best,” he said. And even though the two companies are merging, he said everyone at Groundwater is excited about the change, which will also allow them to implement a new organizational system.
“The employees will have a pay scale and benefits and that was very important to us when selling the company,” Foster Jr. said. “Moving forward, we hope we’ll be able to grow the business and become more efficient.”
Groundwater first came to Healdsburg in 1990, and since then has provided customers with clean water solutions for residential, agriculture, commercial, water treatment and well-rehabilitation services.
Carolyn Camp, spokesperson for the Southern California based company, says customers do not have to worry about their service changing, despite the company transition, which is slated to be completed by the end of this year.
“The service will be the same great service that they have come to know, but they will joining Bartley Pump,” Camp said.
