Company History

Heat Transfer Specialists, Inc. was founded by Bud Hagner and Dick Weinland in 1968 and represented just two manufacturers; Basco and Escoa Fintube Company.  In 1970, Bud Hagner formed Bas-Tex and HTS now represented this new hairpin heat exchanger company.   HTS continued to grow and add additional manufacturers and in 1977 Chris McAfee was hired where he worked until his retirement in 2004.

In 1979, HTS was merged with the Ted Jordan Company which brought HTS up to four salesman and six manufacturers, including the addition of Hughes-Anderson.

In 1983, Bas-Tex purchased the Brown Fintube Company and in that same year Betty Busch started working for HTS, Inc.  Scott Sanders, our current President, was hired in 1985 in an effort to focus on the Texas Gulf Coast Refinery and Petrochemical market, a focus that remains to this day.

HTS, Inc. started representing Alfa Laval in 1984 and was also fortunate to add Tulsa Heaters in 1986.  Bill Watson joined the company in 1991 as HTS’s fifth Salesman and in 1994 he was offered the opportunity to open a Louisiana office that was named, not surprisingly, Heat Transfer Specialists, Inc. of Louisiana.  Ultimately, Bill purchased the Louisiana office from HTS, Inc. and Bill, along with Tim Nichols, still run this successful representative company (www.hts-la.com).

In 2002 Dick Weinland and Ted Jordan passed the torch to Scott Sanders and with the retirement of three long time salesmen HTS, Inc. hired Chad Degges in 1998, Miles Freeman in 1999, Chris Chalmers in 2001, and Brent Bentley in 2004.