Moving Metal

An Amada Pulsar laser cutter at work at Siskin Steel & Supply Company, purchased in October 1996.

years, Reliance kept existing management in place and gave CCC the autonomy required to outperform its competitors in the structural steel marketplace. Next, Reliance took another look at the southeastern U.S. market, the fastest-growing part of the country both economically and demographically. Reliance had entered the Southeast in 1975 with the purchase of Steel Products Company in Atlanta, but after years of dismal performance the company beat a retreat in 1987. Nine years later, a newer and better opportunity arose when Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Siskin Steel & Supply Company, Inc. came knocking at the door. The company, which began in 1900 as a scrap metal yard, opened its first metals service center in 1949. In sub-

providing services to more than 30,000 customers. Net income continued to skyrocket, growing fifty-eight percent to reach $22.7 million at the close of 1995. Reliance continued its acquisitions the next year, starting in January with the purchase of certain assets of the Albu- querque-based metals service center VMI Corporation and continuing in February with the purchase of CCC Steel, Inc. Founded in 1967, CCC Steel was a privately held carbon steel service center with operations in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. By 1996, it had become one of the largest structural steel distribution companies in the western United States. After three months of negotiation, Reliance purchased CCC. This was the company’s twenty-second acquisition in just eleven years. Heeding the lessons learned during those

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