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Article Excerpt
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
A VICTIM OF THE WEAK U.S. economy, the market for aluminum extrusions has eroded by more than 17 percent in the past two years, from over 4 billion pounds to less than 3.5 billion pounds. But because of its lean manufacturing and service center distribution approach, Service Center Metals claims to be holding its own in the market for soft aluminum extrusions.
Service Center Metals was founded by three friends, industry veterans and all former employees of Reynolds Metals Co.: R. Scott Kelley, president and CEO; Chip Dollins, vice president of operations; and R. Randolph Weis, vice president of sales and marketing. In 2001, the trio got together and began discussing the opportunity they saw for a tightly focused aluminum mill with state-of-the-art equipment.
Recruiting investors--and going without salaries themselves for nearly 17 months--the partners managed to pull together enough capital to construct and equip a 78,000-square-foot mill near Richmond in Prince George, Va.
The company began production in July 2003 with a single line including a 2,800-ton Presezzi extrusion press and OMAV material handling equipment. Business was so good that by April 2006, they had added a second line with a 5,500-ton press, doubling the size of the plant to 155,000 square feet and tripling its capacity.
Central to SCM's success is a small but highly motivated workforce (see sidebar above for details).
The economy was booming in 2003 when the company first launched, but in the past two years has cooled considerably. "Even in these difficult market conditions, we have been operating five or six days a week, 24 hours a day," says Kelley.
The company posted $140 million in revenue last year, up from...
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