Toggle Search Form. Toggle Mobile Menu. About Atmos Energy. We safely deliver reliable, affordable, efficient and abundant natural gas to more than 3 million distribution customers in over 1, communities across eight states located primarily in the South. As part of our vision to be the safest provider of natural gas services, we are modernizing our business and infrastructure while continuing to invest in safety, innovation, environmental sustainability and our communities.
Atmos Energy manages proprietary pipeline and storage assets, including one of the largest intrastate natural gas pipeline systems in Texas. In all, the parent company added 13 subsidiaries, some of which were closed down when they failed to operate at an acceptable profit margin. Included in these was Trans State Tire Company, which Pioneer bought in and sold off a year and a half later.
Pioneer's diversification continued into the s. In , it still owned and operated ten subsidiaries. Notably, after the energy crunch that started in , Pioneer began bolstering its exploration operations, and over the next ten years, riding the oil boom, turned itself into a billion-dollar corporation. As part of a restructuring move, in Pioneer formed Energas Company, its natural gas distribution subsidiary, and two years later spun it off as an independent company, one that Pioneer's managers did not expect to survive on its own.
Charles Vaughan, Energas' first president, had other expectations, however. He was determined to make the operation grow. Ironically, when the oil bubble burst in the mids, it was Pioneer that did not survive intact.
It was absorbed in a merger, while, despite the odds, Energas not only survived but seemed to thrive on economic adversity. Gulf Public had become part of a Louisiana utility company that had earlier started out in Alexandria, Louisiana, as an ice manufacturer and distributor.
Through acquisitions and mergers, TransLa had increased the geographical range of its customer base to stretch from Monroe in the northern part of Louisiana to Franklin in the southern part. Initially, Energas made history by attempting a hostile takeover of TransLa, the first such attempt in the industry.
However, when TransLa was placed on the block by its own board, the buyout by Energas became amicable enough. Its acquisition added 69, Louisiana residents and businesses to Energas's customer base.
The purchase also prompted the company to move its corporate headquarters to Dallas, a more centralized location. In the following year, , Energas acquired Western Kentucky Gas Company WKG , an outfit that, in , had began providing natural gas for about 2, customers. At the time of its acquisition by Energas, WKG's customer base had grown to almost , It was serving Kentucky communities in the higher growth regions of the state.
It also serviced a number of major industrial customers, including aluminum plants and food processors as well as the only Corvette plant in the world. These became wholly owned subsidiaries of Energas. In , Energas changed its name to Atmos, a name selected on the strength of the fact that it came from a Greek word meaning "gases in the atmosphere.
As part of the change, Energas Company was reorganized as an unincorporated division of Atmos. Atmos continued its dynamic growth into and through the s. In , it purchased the Greeley Gas Company, then privately owned by the Schlessman family. Greeley had been founded in in Greeley, Colorado. Like Amarillo Gas, until gas was piped in from the Texas Panhandle in the s, it initially distributed manufactured gas for homes and such public conveniences as street lamps.
In , Gerald Schlessman acquired the company and began expanding its operations by purchasing several smaller companies. At the time of its transfer to Atmos, Greeley had almost , customers in Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. Included in its customer base were residents and businesses in fast growing regions like Colorado's ski and resort towns of Durango and Steamboat Springs. In July of , Atmos reached a major milestone when it acquired its millionth customer.
United Cities was founded in as a butane air manufacturer and distributor, operating plants in 17 cities. It had grown through various acquisitions, eventually expanding its operations into ten states. As a division of Atmos, United Cities reduced its range to eight states, but by the decade's end it accounted for about , homes and businesses in Atmos's customer base, distributing natural gas in over cities and towns in midwestern and southeastern states.
By , Atmos had grown into the 12 th largest natural gas utility in the country, but not without some "painful side effects. In time, that policy proved very inefficient, particularly when the company tried to link them in its expanding network. Many of the companies had incompatible computer systems that often made customer information retrieval difficult if not impossible. None of them even had identical billing systems.
To improve service and cut overhead, Atmos sought to create uniform and consistent procedures for conducting its business. Accordingly, it phased in some new programs, starting with a fresh customer service initiative CSI. The CSI consisted of several projects, including the creation of a centralized customer support center, the implementation of hand-held meter reading devices and mobile data terminals for in-field service, and the development of a new customer information system CIS with the infrastructure to support it.
The implementation of these new initiatives quickly cut operation expenses and increased Atmos's net earnings. Until Atoms created its centralized call center in Amarillo, it had relied on more than unconnected local service offices to conduct its business, an inefficient system at best.
Atmos continued its growth into the start of the new century. Atmos's growth and consolidations strategies also involved some select divestitures and partnering agreements.
Among other moves taken in , Atmos sold the assets of a natural gas distribution system serving around 5, customers in the Gaffney, South Carolina, area to Piedmont Natural Gas. However, the company's focus in was on growth.
Besides its purchases in Louisiana, it acquired some smaller companies.
0コメント