With acquisition of a Wisconsin-based service center, Samuel tightens its grasp on the U.S. arena

September 2011 - Samuel, Son & Co. Ltd., Mississauga, Ontario, acquired Basic Stainless Inc., Marshfield, Wis., a service center with operations in Green Bay, Wis., and Minneapolis, allowing the company to fulfill its goal of U.S. expansion.

Samuel has been working on expanding into the Midwest for years. During the past two years, the company opened burning locations in Chicago and Milwaukee, but realized it needed a local presence in central Wisconsin to effectively serve the customer base in the region.

On June 30, 2011, Samuel acquired Basic Stainless, allowing Samuel to achieve a local presence to continue growing in the Midwest region and to expand further into the U.S. market.

“We believe that by combining their sales expertise with the strength of our purchasing supply chain we can become a significant competitor in the Midwest marketplace,” says Peter Baines, corporate vice president of communications and affairs at Samuel.

Samuel also became interested in the acquired company because it specializes in an area in which Samuel wants to expand.

“Basic Stainless is 100 percent stainless, which is one of our core products we want to grow in,” says Baines.

With the acquisition, like any other, will come change for both companies. <p> Basic Stainless will operate as Basic Stainless, a division of Samuel, Son & Co. Inc. with Jim Young, the former owner, as general manager reporting to Al Bromley, president of Samuel, Son & Co. Inc. Basic Stainless will expand its current inventory of stainless sheet, plate, bar, pipe and tube and add aluminum products in grades of 3003, 5052 and 5086. In the near future, Samuel will be adding carbon flat-rolled products such as coated and pre-paint.

Both companies will benefit from the acquisition, according to Baines.

“We believe that we can migrate aluminum and carbon products to the Basic Stainless locations and further expand their product offerings by giving them direct access to mill supply of stainless, carbon and aluminum products at competitive prices,” says Baines. “It will allow Basic to compete on larger pieces of stainless business that they previously could not be competitive on and enables them to use their sales expertise in aluminum and carbon that they previously did not have the resources to pursue.”

Overall, the combination of these two companies seemed to be a natural fit from the beginning. According to Baines, the companies have a lot in common in terms of business practices.

“When we started looking at Basic Stainless, it became quickly apparent that the values they place on integrity and high-quality service were very consistent with the “Samuel way” of doing business,” he says.  They have a solid customer base, which they have been able to develop despite the competitive pressure in the market place ... so we are both thrilled with the acquisition and excited about future possibilities.”  MM