ESCO was founded by Wayne Engle as a small electrical contractor called E&S Electric. Wayne and his business partner, Larry Swan, completed their first commercial project – the Post Office located in Hiawatha, Iowa, that still stands today. Shortly after forming E&S Electric, Wayne bought Larry out, and ran E&S Electric until the mid 1980s when he added his two sons, Dave and Dan. From 1964 to 1985, E&S Electric expanded, doing business in five different states with over five branch offices. The primary focus was wiring street lights, commercial projects, light industrial projects, and residential homes for Skogman Construction.

The business was reorganized into two business units with new leadership. Wayne’s oldest son, Dave Engle, became CEO while his brother, Dan Engle, became a business partner. Dave’s role as CEO focused on business development, while Dan ran operations along with Wayne.

E&S Company dropped the “&”, becoming ESCO Electric Service, Inc. and ESCO Electric Company. ESCO Electric Service focused on the residential homes market, while ESCO Electric Company would focus on commercial and industrial markets.

With growing competition in the residential market reducing project margins below sustainable levels, Dan and Dave made the decision to shut down the residential unit and focus resources back into the more profitable markets of industrial, commercial, and automation.

The growing capabilities of the ESCO business units caused Dave and Dan to make the decision of picking a fictitious name, ESCO Group, in order to market combined service as a group, while still providing services and capabilities separately in each business unit.

After seeing a need for training ESCO clients in the standards of OSHA and NFPA 70E, a new business unit was created, ESCO Safety, led by John Luke. John visited clients onsite and delivered 4-hour and 8-hour safety presentations to make sure ESCO clients knew how to stay compliant and safe at work.

ESCO stepped into action when our clients and community needed help to recover from the epic flood that overtook Cedar Rapids, Iowa in June 2008. Our employees worked many hours in a short time to respond to the needs of our community. In a very trying time, ESCO was proud to power through and assist those in need. Many of our employees volunteered to fill sandbags and help small businesses protect their stores and homes, while our electricians worked non-stop to get our local plants back up and running. Many of our engineers worked night and day to get the city’s municipals back on track. Even our retired electricians went out into the community as “ESCO’s Old Farts,” to help neighbors whose homes had no power and damage to their electrical systems. It was a time to come together and we were there to help.

In 2011 ESCO Group saw continued growth and needed a new office building to accommodate for the employee increase. The company shareholders made the decision to build a 36.5k square foot facility as the new headquarters in Marion, Iowa.

In 2012, ESCO Group moved into its new headquarters in February.

In November 2014, ESCO opened a new office in Louisville, CO, near Denver.

ESCO opens a new building for the Des Moines location as the branch continues to grow.

With more expansion, ESCO opened remote offices in Indianapolis, Omaha, and Saint Louis.

ESCO Group successfully transferred 100% ownership of the company to its employees via an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) for its non-bargaining employees, effective December 31, 2021.