Moving Metal

Square tube is pulled from inventory at Tube Service in Milpitas, California.

and just get out of the way. The last thing we want to do is acquire a company and then screw it up. We’ve got all these different cultures and we respect them,” he said. Typically, observed James P. “Jim” MacBeth, former Reliance Senior Vice President, Carbon Steel Operations, “everybody wants to put their stamp on their acquisition and to stick their flag in the other guy’s ground. We don’t.” Siskin’s name, logo, equipment, trucks, and management all remained the same. John Pregulman, Siskin’s President and the great-grandson of the founder, acknowledged to Metal Center News, “They let us do what we’ve done for the last ninety-eight years. Our management didn’t change. Nothing changed that would affect the running of the company.” “We could have gotten more money from other companies,” Pregulman admitted, “but we liked Dave Hannah, Joe Crider, Gregg Mollins, and Steve Weis—they are just exceptional

sequent years, Siskin closed its scrap metal operations and expanded, starting several new service centers in the South. Although by the mid-1990s Siskin’s owners were ready to sell, it was not because business was slumping. Indeed, when Hannah took a look he found what he later described as “a very strong company with a great reputation.” On October 1, 1996, Reliance bought Siskin Steel with its four service centers in Nashville and Chattanooga. Reliance appeared to have finally established a firm foothold east of the Mississippi. Here again, Reliance provided staff and back office support that helped its new acquisition run more efficiently, but when it came to serving its markets, the company was hands-off. Hannah later explained the rationale behind leaving the larger, well-run acquisitions alone. “They are good operators and doing every bit as good as we are,” he told Metal Center News . “We want to give them more tools

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