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M. J. Electric History
M. J. Electric's history dates back to 1924 when MJE first opened its doors in the basement of the First National Bank building as Mette Electric Company. Shortly, E. J. Poirier, who later became the sole owner, changed the name to E. J. Electric.
M. J. Electric's first office was in the basement of The First National Bank Building.
Marshall J. (M. J.) Potterud acquired the business in 1942 and changed the name to M. J. Electric. In 1959, J. W. Reiten and Warren J. Brule partnered and took over the business when Marshall retired. In 1962, the company was incorporated became M. J. Electric, Inc.
M. J. Electric's first service truck.
In their first year in business, MJE did $90,000 in annual sales, almost twice as much as Marshall had ever done. Initially concentrating on small projects for residential, institutional, and commercial customers, MJE gradually began to expand, working on governmental projects (K. I. Sawyer, Kinross, and Wurtsmith airbases) and at local mines in the Upper Peninsula.
MJE grew rapidly and moved out of the bank basement into its own office in Iron Mountain’s Industrial Park.
Eventually Brule and Reiten began to go in different directions. Brule was interested in heavier work, the industrial, power generation, etc. whereas Reiten gravitated toward local work and smaller contracts.
When Lawrence Paul, owner of Paul Electric in Iron Mountain, wanted to retire, he asked M. J. Electric to buy his inventory and rent his building on Hughitt Street. MJE transferred the residential and small commercial work to that office which was managed by Reiten. Brule continued to pursue the larger work. Ultimately in 1964, Reiten and Brule decided to split the business with Reiten keeping Paul Electric and Brule keeping M. J. Electric.
The 1970's and 1980's saw the rise of the Industrial, Power & Controls (IPC) Division and Utility Division. The IPC Division obtained several key heavy-industrial projects in the mining, pulp and paper, and power plant markets. The Utility Division continued to grow and began to specialize in three areas: transmission and distribution lines, substations, and underground power and communications. In 1975, M. J. Electric moved into the present office building on West Frank Pipp Drive in Iron Mountain.
In 1986, MJE purchased Valley Electric Service, an established electrical contractor in Appleton, Wisconsin, and formed the Process Controls & Instrumentation (PCI) Division to specialize in the growing instrumentation and tubing market.
M. J. Electric purchased Paul Electric Service back from Reiten in 1992 to once again perform commercial and some residential electrical construction in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Wisconsin.
In December 2000, M. J. Electric, Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of InfraSource, Inc. InfraSource offers end-to-end utility network services including design/engineering, operations, maintenance, and program management on a project or turnkey basis. As a result of this acquisition, M. J. Electric, Inc. gained a satellite Utility Division office in Shoemakersville, PA, once owned by Fischbach & Moore.
On May 7, 2004, InfraSource was listed on the New York Stock Exchange as IFS and M. J. Electric, Inc. became a publicly owned corporation.
On January 1, 2007, M. J. Electric, Inc. changed to a limited liability company and is now known as M. J. Electric, LLC.
In August 2007, InfraSource merged with Quanta Services in an all-stock transaction. As a result of the merger, InfraSource became a wholly owned subsidiary of Quanta Services resulting in MJE being a Quanta Services Company. Quanta Services is a leading provider of specialized contracting services, delivering end-to-end network solutions for the electric power, telecommunications, broadband cable and gas pipeline industries. Quanta Services is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as PWR.
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