National Welding Corporation

BVM: What is the significance of relationships to the growth of your business? Williams: “We work with some of the largest heavy civil contractors in the world and we’re often a small, but critical, component on multi- billion-dollar projects. Despite their size, the hierarchies of these companies all seem to know each other. Performance is critical, as the memory of one bad job lingers long after that of a hundred good projects. NWC frequently uses large national supply houses to provide consistent/ familiar equipment and materials to our work force, although local suppliers are sometimes a better option when our work schedule runs around the clock or the project is in a remote location. We pay our suppliers early and strive to take good care of them, as keeping them happy facilitates great support when we need their help.” BVM: Speaking to company culture, why would someone want to work for NWC? Williams: “To begin with, our motto is ‘When it’s got to be done now and it’s got to be done right.’ The company, by design, feels like an extension of family and this pertains to all levels. Workers are trained to treat management as a team player that can facilitate a good work environment. And management is trained to treat all workers with respect, as they are able to perform tasks you are either unwilling or unable to perform. Without this mutual support, a project can go tragically bad. Our open forum culture welcomes new ideas and concepts. We have found that encouraging others to share concepts for an application can be the catalyst needed for the best solutions.” BVM: How do you market the company? Williams: “Past performance of difficult projects over 20 years tends to get noticed by our peers and publications, which support strong word-of- mouth exposure. Our website has been devised to be a resource for the welding industry and provide tools for the pipe welding industry. Current plans include a weld cost estimator with general weld production rate guidance for field-welding applications. We also mail out a photographic calendar which showcases a dozen or so projects we worked on through the previous year. Initially, our website was not expected to generate business, but instead was intended to demonstrate our ability and presence to our current/future clients. We are now intending to generate business using the website by becoming a major resource to our industry and developing new markets utilizing that knowledge. “Looking to the next five years, we intend to gain market share via our unique ability to adapt material handling methods, which are often combined with welding, and to follow the growth expected in the infrastructure market. There is a lot of creativity involved in our specialty. Our focus on novel approaches for rehabilitation of pipelines provides a good market opportunity for us.” NAT IONAL WELDING CORPORAT ION