Moving Metal

More than just a warehouse—this 140,000-square-foot processing and distribution facility was built by Bralco in 1996 in La Mirada, California.

able. “Reliance ended up getting back their warehouse and their trucks and their company,” recalled one Feralloy official, “and it worked out fine.” “VERY, VERY GOOD ACQUISITIONS” Reliance did not let the focus on acquisitions divert it from making the necessary investments in building up existing oper- ations. In 1995, it expanded the Tube Service Co. location in Milpitas, California. The next year, Reliance broke ground on a new Bralco Metals headquarters in La Mirada, California, to replace the aging Pico Rivera facility. The new 140,000-square- foot plant included state-of-the-art processing and materials

people. And we could trust what they told us.” Word was getting around. The company leadership could be trusted, and knew how to blend corporate cultures without destroy- ing them—making Reliance, as Mollins put it, “the United Nations of the steel business.” There was a flip-side to this hands-off policy: if an acquisi- tion proved to be unable to perform, Reliance had to be willing to let it go. In the fall of 1995, for example, Reliance dissolved Feralloy Reliance, LLP, the joint venture with Feralloy Corpo- ration. It was a high-volume, low-profit venture, with large contracts and small lead times for delivery—Feralloy Reliance never managed to make such a challenging business profit-

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