Business View Magazine | April 2019

54 SHAMROCK STEEL, INC. and I keep it on the floor. I buy the steel plate in rectangular form, cut the circles, and put them in stacks in inventory. Then, all I need to do to fill an order is place that circle in a machine and roll the edge on it - we call it the straight flange. It’s done pretty quickly when everything’s set up. We use freight companies and freight brokers for distribution; 90 percent of our shipments are by flatbed truck. We have a small group of six or seven haulers that are a good fit with us and we rely on them.” BVM: Who are your main customers? McGahan: “The majority of our customers are east of the Mississippi River, but basically we ship all over the U.S.. We even have customers as far away as California, Massachusetts, and everywhere in between. One drawback about being in a niche market like this, there aren’t many customers nearby, they’re all spread out. A lot of them are family businesses, in the second, third, or fourth generation, making storage tanks; mostly for fuel, sometimes for water or other chemicals. So getting out to see all of them on a regular basis is difficult. And I hate that, because that is the most enjoy- able part of my job – thanking customers in person. I will never forget my first customer: John Hunter at Modern Welding Co. in Orlando, FL. John was one of those “signs” I mentioned