Moving Metal

TRANSITION AND GROWTH But first Reliance had to complete the management transition that had begun prior to the IPO road shows. By now, Gimbel was weak with Parkinson’s disease and Crider was contemplating his own retirement. Their successors were tested and ready. In November 1995, forty-four-year-old Dave Hannah was named the new President, succeeding Crider, who remained CEO. “He has gained extensive experience in the metals service center industry during his fourteen years at Reliance, and his leadership will greatly benefit us in the future,” Crider told the Los Angeles Times . Gregg Mollins became Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. For his own replacement as CFO, Hannah had already identified Steven S. Weis, a former Vice President and CFO at Rubbercraft Corporation. Weis was a quiet but brilliant businessman who started out as a certified public accoun- tant and auditor at Ernst & Ernst. “He was a great teacher and he brought some different perspectives because he did not come from the metals industry,” said Lewis. “He came in and I learned a lot from him.” Under the leadership of Crider, Hannah, Mollins, and Weis, Reliance embarked on a new and even more ambitious acquisition drive, funded by the new capital made available by the IPO. One of the first milestones was reached in July 1995 with the formation of American Steel LLC. In an agreement with American Industries, Inc., Reliance paid $19.25 million for a fifty percent interest in the new company and complete control over its assets and operations. The American Steel venture provided Reliance with three metal service centers in the Pacific Northwest and its first facility north of the border. By the end of the year, the Reliance portfolio totaled twen- ty-eight facilities spread out over ten states and Canada,

From left, Gregg Mollins, Dave Hannah, and Joe Crider in the mid-1990s.

The nation’s recovery from the early 1990s recession helped, but Reliance had accomplished its own recovery the hard way, by careful diversification. None of its recent growth included the highly cyclical sectors that had weighed upon the industry in the early 1990s. Now, flush with cash and the prestige that came with a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, Reliance was about to ride a new wave of growth and success as it refined its corporate strategies to take full advantage of the windfall. “We feel strongly that the metals service center industry will continue to grow in the foresee- able future for many reasons,” Gimbel and Crider concluded, and there was every reason to believe that Reliance would grow with it.

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