Business View Magazine | September 2019

73 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2019 Big River Steel is a greenfield steel manufacturer and they’ve just announced plans to double their capacity. They’re really the first steel mill in the digital era, and that’s in addition to Nucor’s two mills in northeast Arkansas. So, the steel industry has moved to the south and to the mid-south, and close to Memphis, and that gives us a competitive edge as a fabricator. In addition to being able to get product distributed, we can source our raw material now, made in America, right close to our Memphis fabrication plants.” “Another thing contributing to our growth is our preferred customer program,” Fischer states. “Historically, the trend with tank manufacturers has always been when somebody needs a tank, you get in line and wait - there’s a 10, 16, or 24- week lead time. We’ve changed that. We’ll get the customer’s inventory count for the next full year, and we have a stocking program where, if they need X number of tanks per month or quarter, we will pre-manufacture those in advance and have them on our sites, so when they call us, we’ll have those tanks ready to be shipped, immediately, eliminating those lead times. For those customers, it’s a tremendous advantage when they go to market.” Also, Fischer reports that most tank manufacturers don’t keep an inventory of standard size tanks. “Whether it’s a small standard tank or a 30,000-gallon tank, they’re going to manufacture those to order,” he says. “Essentially, that customer is going to have to get in line when that tank’s ready, versus us. We’ll keep a large number of our standard sizes up to two or three thousand gallons on our two sites, ready to be painted and shipped, which takes that lead time down from eight weeks to two.” Yet another competitive advantage is Newberry’s ecommerce purchasing and service web portal that allows customers to place, or check, order status, any time, quickly and efficiently. “We’ve got an online portal where customers can access our products and services on the web, order accessory www.centralpipe.com 3998 RUNWAY RD, MEMPHI S , TN 38118 The best selection of quality products! Top of the line products combined with a selection unparralleled in the Southeast.When you buy from Central Pipe Supply you can rest assured that you have the best part for the job. NEWBERRY TANKS & EQUI PMENT LLC