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From 'virtual' service center to processing innovator: after 10 years without equipment or warehouse, Flatrolled Steel has equipped its new Houston facility with a one-of-a-kind multi-blanking line.

Publication: Metal Center News
Publication Date: 01-NOV-06 		Format: Online
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Full Article Title: From 'virtual' service center to processing innovator: after 10 years without equipment or warehouse, Flatrolled Steel has equipped its new Houston facility with a one-of-a-kind multi-blanking line.(CASE STUDY: FLATROLLED STEEL INC.)(Company overview)

Article Excerpt
FOR THE FIRST 10 YEARS of its existence, Flatrolled Steel Inc. was a service center without a service center.

Mike Bollman formed the Houston-based metals marketer in 1995 after his previous employer opted to trim its product line and specialize exclusively in the distribution of hot-rolled coils. Spotting the resulting void in the marketplace, and at the urging of longstanding customers, Bollman saw an opportunity to set up his own "virtual" distributorship.

"Our customers asked us to continue to handle their business after my former company got out of the products they stocked: cold-rolled, pickled and oiled, and galvanized. So we started Flatrolled Steel," says Bollman, the company's managing general partner.

With commitments from some of those long-time accounts, Bollman launched the company with just a sales office--and the aid of various toll processors. "We had inventory, so we weren't brokers. We just stored our inventory at many different toll processors around the 10-state area we cover. But we didn't have any facilities or equipment of our...

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