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Systematic approach to growth: Macsteel USA leverages its size, systems and services to satisfy a diverse and growing customer base.

Article Excerpt
With more than $1 billion in sales expected this year, Macsteel Service Centers USA, headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif., is among the: lop 10 metals distributors in the United States. That kind of dominance took 20 years to develop and is still a work in progress, according to three of the company's top executives.

Metal Center News spoke with President and CEO Michael H. Hoffman, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Richard O'Toole and Senior Executive Vice President and Group Marketing Executive Russ Delaney about the company's most recent acquisitions, operational management and plans for the company's future.

"The Samson family founded Macsteel as Pain Africa Staalhandel in 1949, primarily as a trading organization. Macsteel began opening service centers in 1969, and landed on the U.S. West Coast with the 1983 acquisition of Ferro Union, Torrance, Calif. Starting in 1995, Macsteel entered a joint venture with Usinor Sacilor's U.S. distribution unit, Edgcomb Metals, and subsequently acquired Edgcomb entirely, expanding its presence on the East Coast and in the Midwest.

Switzerland's Dulerco sold Baldwin Steel Co., based in Laurence Harbor, N.J., to Macsteel in autumn 2002, and Britain's Corus Group sold Regal Steel Supply, Stockton, Calif., to Macsteel last spring. Last June, Macsteel built a new facility in Mexico, and this February, the company acquired Hokin-Katz, a service center in Los Angeles that specializes in close tolerance slitting and precision blanking.

The service center chain is actively pursuing further acquisitions, the executives say, only with companies that offer a strategic fit.

"We are [also] looking at joint ventures and supply partnerships, but we don't want to be more explicit than that," Hoffman adds. "These options are explored with companies that can add value to our business. We...

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