Steel Biz Savvy! Success Stories with Stanley Walker-Pacific NW Steel Leader

In 2019 this guest’s leadership was recognized as one of the Pacific Northwest’s  "40 Under 40" and one of Portland Business Journal’s “People on the Move.” 

Get ready for an exciting new episode of "The Red-Bearded Risk Guy" podcast, hosted by Joshua Keene, AKA the Red-Bearded Risk Guy! In this episode, Joshua sits down with special guest, Stanley Walker, President of NQ Industries, a fast growing steel manufacturer based in Portland, OR.

Stanley is a seasoned leader in the steel industry, with a wealth of experience in scaling businesses and navigating challenges. He shares insights, drawing from his experience as the former President of Oregon Metal Services, a steel supplier/manufacturer that was recently acquired. He talks about the strategies he implemented to drive business growth, problem-solving techniques. He shared great insights on both buying and selling a business. 

After a successful sale at Oregon Metal Services, Stanley and his management team shifted to start up mode! They have already grown NQ industries to over 15 employees in about 5 months!  They’ve taken a unique approach to insulate themselves from fluctuating steel prices by pivoting from steel supply, to selling a complete/almost complete product. Stanley shares valuable lessons learned from this journey and provides actionable advice for business owners, HR managers, safety managers, CFOs, or anyone running a business.

If you're looking for valuable insights on business growth, strategy, and risk management, then this episode is a must-listen! Join Joshua Keene and Stanley Walker as they dive deep into the world of steel industry leadership and share practical tips for staying ahead of the curve.

Tune in to "The Red-Bearded Risk Guy" podcast and be inspired by Stanley Walker's success story. Don't miss this engaging and informative episode, available now on your favorite podcast platform. Subscribe today to stay updated with the latest trends and strategies for protecting your people, profits, and public relations. Join the conversation and unlock the secrets to business success with "The Red-Bearded Risk Guy"!

Transcript

Youtube Transcript- Improved version coming soon!

00:00
yeah I mean there's just a lot of emotion that goes into it from every side I mean um you know Oregon metal body company an organ metal sold to a company so I go over two deals that actually happen but I mean over the last 15 years there were probably a dozen other ones that you know were in talks and then just fizzled through um even here at NQ Industries you know five months in uh we've had a couple talks with a few companies um to acquire them uh similar maybe size a little bit bigger but ultimately kind
00:35
of producing something very steel intensive like what we're doing now um and it's interesting because it's I think business owners of any size always overvalue themselves I think that's that's very normal and so then when you start putting pen to paper and sort of looking at back of the napkin type calculations and have a conversation you don't really want to be offensive when you tell someone so hey I'm sorry your company is worth it's worth this based on ebitdum multipliers or whatever
01:08
calculations you want to use hello and welcome to the red bearded risk guide podcast a show that helps business owners and Leaders with companies of 50 to 250 employees to protect their people profits and public relations we help business owners maximize profits by minimizing their total cost of risk your host Joshua Keane also known as the red bearded wrist guy is a commercial insurance and benefits and risk management expert in the Pacific Northwest but he has dedicated his career to helping businesses stay ahead
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of emerging business Trends on all business related challenges not just risk and insurance so we will get into interviews with industry experts on everything from strategy and growth to sales and marketing corporate risk management commercial insurance and even motivation these weekly conversations will provide actionable advice on the latest trends challenges and opportunities facing the business Community if you want to stay ahead of the curve and strategically position your business for Success then this podcast is for you tune in to the red
02:08
bearded risk guy and join the conversation today and also while you're at it be sure to like subscribe follow and leave a review thanks for being here [Music] all right Hello everybody welcome back to another episode of the red bearded risk guy with Joshua Keane I am a risk manager and insurance agent at Laporte Insurance in Portland Oregon and uh just interviewing Business Leaders in the area and um trying to learn what we can learn from the experts around us and today I have Stanley Walker with NQ Industries with us and he's been going
03:06
through some excited new exciting new changes in the still industry and we're starting a new business and uh with that I'll go ahead and hand it over to him and let him tell us tell us about yourself give us a little bit of background and tell us who you are super thank you uh yeah so my name is Stanley walker uh born and raised in Portland um been in the steel business for my whole career and then up until very recently it was part of a well-established organization and the steel service center sector and then about four or
03:39
five months ago uh the upper management team from that one company uh and myself uh all resigned and went to start up a brand new company from scratch here in Portland some people kind of shake their head at that but we wanted to do something different and somewhat the same but sort of make our own path and uh and that is where where we are today and and I can say we're having a great time uh four or five months in here awesome awesome and um so can you tell us a little bit about your role in your history at Oregon
04:17
medal and maybe just how you ended up in the still industry yeah yeah so I uh I went to University of Oregon uh for college and then it got right into the steel business at a company called at that time Oregon Metal slitters um started off in sales and then did you know a variety of different things whether it was in purchasing your general management um and then eventually that that led to some executive roles and then I was President over there for maybe the last six or seven years um and included in that with some
04:48
acquisition stuff which was great uh and that got us into a sort of a different sector of the steel business with laser processing forming not just peer distribution uh and that was great we had a great time doing that uh saw the Ebbs and flows of a couple steel downturns and then obviously covid um as well which which was wild for everybody um with that the steel business we were we were deemed an essential business during that time so we never shut down um so being part of a group that led our organization through that you know 110
05:22
employees um trying to navigate those uncharted waters uh was interesting and obviously something we'll never forget definitely I can only imagine and uh you know we were all affected by that but Manufacturing um there was a unique one um just because you know typically we were we had a lot of manufacturing here but we had a lot overseas and there was all the supply chain stuff and um obviously you're dealing with the commodity of still so how that's going to get shipped and how whether or not it's going to arrive when it's supposed
05:55
to arrive was up in the air with all the stuff that was going on with the pandemic um so yeah I can only imagine what it was like being in your shoes during those times I think you can remember like right when it first kind of broke in that February March April range like we weren't sure if we should go out of our houses you know we're all wiping down our groceries you know nobody knew anything um and just because maybe we were leading organizations didn't didn't mean we knew anything either so uh it was
06:24
definitely um some crazy time you can imagine you might even have uh people in an organization like that looking to the leaders of the organization even though you're not a health authority like hey what do we do how do we how do we navigate this so it's a unique position to be in yeah and um yeah awesome and and so there's obviously it's exciting and we can get into the whole enqueue industry scene and how you got into starting that but um can you tell us a little bit more about that whole departure from Oregon
07:00
metal services um and just you know what led to you guys deciding to to do that yeah so Oregon Metal had been around since the 50s um just a really well established uh good Steel company I kind of referred to it as a regional Powerhouse you know really did great things in the Pacific Northwest um in the steel World slitting cut to length and then again after an acquisition about five years ago did laser cutting um and forming uh revenue-wise about 100 million dollars and again employee count fluctuated uh sort of depending on how
07:36
the steel Market was but kind of peaked down at about 110 employees um so yeah we were part of the upper management group when I say we um everybody about a handful of us who really kind of steered that yeah and had a great time doing it um I think we all kind of had this vision of which way the company was going to go and that was going to uh potentially be something where the management group but was involved in the ownership change it just didn't work out that way um as I told our our group you know we're not the first group in the history
08:08
of business to feel like we got slighted uh and that just happened and so that's a tough lesson to learn in in real time as you're kind of learning it uh but looking back it was obviously a very good lesson so the company did ended up selling uh not to ourselves but to an outside group and they were just fine um it's an outside group out of Canada a very large Steel company with with good people um but I think we all went from a position where we kind of thought it was going to go a certain way we were used
08:39
to running the organization a certain way and then things things just changed and that's that's perfectly fine um so we gave it a world uh for a while we sort of tried to kind of fit into this Lane this box and then just realized it wasn't it wasn't for the best of the organization and it wasn't for the best of us to kind of continue on that way uh and that's what led to uh our departure um and what led to our starting ever this new company so again super difficult lesson to learn however I
09:11
think that was uh the push we needed to go do do this uh NQ Industries thing you know I don't think anybody messed up it really saw us as maybe entrepreneurs um as I joke to my wife you know what could possibly go wrong with a steel startup in Portland Oregon during a recession uh but you know we wanted to take that chance um and again four or five months in so we could still be bankrupt here soon enough but uh but we're having a great time right now and ultimately we're having a more success than I think any
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of us probably thought uh this early on yeah yeah so whether whether or not anybody on your team was looking for a sign to do what you did the sign came with what happened and you know you you mentioned uh there was a lesson on how things work with you know sales and mergers and Acquisitions and kind of teed you up for what was next um but uh yeah with a company that size I can imagine there's a lot of moving parts that go into M A stuff so it's really you can't predict the future especially if there hasn't been a ton of
10:19
planning that went into what how that's going to play out yeah it was interesting you know we as a group we're on the buying side of an acquisition about five six years ago which was a really great experience and that actually worked out uh very well I kind of referred to it as a transformational type acquisition for Oregon Metal and then you know a year plus ago we went through an acquisition as a seller and so it was very interesting to do due diligence from both sides um and obviously have the emotions that
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the highs and the lows that go with both um both sides of it um I think both experiences as a buyer and as a seller uh the the deal was dead several times in each instance and then it kind of keep bringing it back to life and you know and uh you know you just find a way to make it work um It ultimately we did in both cases definitely that's awesome well um well and here you are at NQ Industries so we're four or five months in and what um do you have a target market or what what is your focus as far as products
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and goods that you're producing or selling within Qs so we are you know what's called like a an oem or a manufacturer and hopefully right now uh we're making roll-offs bins containers for like scrap garbage and recycling folks um you know anything from small two-yard you know kind of front loaders that you might see outside of an apartment building um or a restaurant to the big 30 40 yard roll-offs that you know if somebody's tearing down a building or renovating their house you might see parks in their
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garage for a period of time and those are heavy use uh for scrap and so Portland uh the Pacific Northwest used to be a really great steel Town Steel Community and while that maybe has gone by the wayside to a certain degree there's still a lot of really good Recycling and Scrappers in this area so we're really feeding a niche and feeling this kind of void in the area um we've got the steel background so we know how to buy this deal and procure it uh we've been fortunate enough to get some great help in our shop I think our
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team now is up to like 10 welders uh and they're just awesome and so our quality is really good and then because we're so Nimble you know and small uh we're able to get pretty creative on uh our lead times and so yeah I think we're able to get better quality than our competition and then also get them pushed through the door uh faster than our competition as well yeah that's awesome and um you know for those that are listening that are in the Pacific Northwest and we're seeing signs everywhere for these
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college junk bloggers um or I'm sorry College Hunks I'm combining two franchises that we're seeing pop up um and then junk luggers and uh and it seems like they all have that standard they need that truck with that roll-off trailer so that they can dump it at the site and um and then we obviously um have a pretty big construction contractor Focus well the whole country does but there's a lot of that going on around here and I could see them needing those on those sites so um that's an interesting Niche it's not
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one that um I would think of but you know as you said it I was like you know I have a lot of it's just rainabella because I have a lot of clients that are franchisees of those two um John caller companies and so Facebook we sort of fondly refer to what we're making as like dummy products like you and I can understand what we're doing and so it's very steel uh intensive and so that's the background that we all came from and then it's making again this sort of value-added product that is
14:14
somewhat Recession Proof and not um beholden to the swings of the steel Market which is sort of what the old organization was um and as a group we kind of wanted to get away from that and sort of find something where we can control our own margins against Steel in the still sector um but a little I'll again a little less dependent on the market swings yeah definitely definitely um do you kind of on a side note but on in line with what you're talking about um have you ever heard of Cody Sanchez she's kind of a a big social media
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influencer right now but her big theme she has built her wealth portfolio by buying and building businesses and her whole thing is hashtag boring business and and that's exactly the model it's like hey what have we always needed throughout the history of being humans basically or as a society um regardless of what the economy was doing and it's things like roll-off container trucks and uh laundromats and just the basic stuff you know um that someone's always going to use and so am I going to get in trouble now
15:25
that I don't know who she was no but I'm more bringing her up because I think you should check her out um definitely worth following for someone that's in your your stage and um you know I I don't know I take take what she says with a grain of salt because I don't know about all the businesses that she owns but she does own a lot it seems like and um that's her big thing it's boring businesses um if if it's sexy it's probably trendy and it won't be around for long and uh
15:52
so yeah that's cool um so yeah uh I do you know want to pick your brain a little bit more about uh some of the merger sale stuff changes when you were back at Oregon Metal just because it's an interest of mine and I know a lot of my audience will be people in the area that are looking to buy or looking to sell within the next five to ten years um and so uh what was it like managing that merger um you know it sounded like it was organ metal slitters purchased a laser cutting company yeah and so the company that we
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bought was you know at the top 10 top 15 account at the time um the pure this was five six eight years ago uh but the pure steel distribution model again pretty beholden to the market and you were kind of seeing these Vicious Kind of swings and pricing which made it very difficult when you had to hold a bunch of inventory so so we looked at ways to get creative and again somewhat free in a longer Runway right of profitability and so we looked Downstream and so that's where the lasers and press brakes uh came through the owner of laser cutting
17:02
services a great man um was looking to exit the business um although he didn't really know that yet but like he just kind of knew that it was done uh and so we just sort of presented ourselves as uh as an Avenue for that um you know somebody that he would know who we are um he could stay involved in business as much as he wanted to or as little as he wanted to um and that's something I think that's really important in the steel sector or or Lumber or kind of any old school business in that one you know a lot of
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these business owners you know he or she built their business and it's their baby and they don't necessarily just want to hand the keys off to some suit in New York or Chicago or whatever they want to they want to have some sort of a personal relationship uh and trust that the new owners of that company are going to be somebody that's going to take care of the people take care of the Legacy again it's their baby um I think we did a very good job of that um and that's ultimately why that acquisition was such a success uh you
18:03
know to be clear we not everybody stayed you know I think there was enough um of a difference between the old regime and the new one that some people were like nope I like the old way better you know thank you have a nice day and that was fun um but the folks who we really believed that who wanted to stay all stayed and ultimately kind of four or five years later they were all still there so that was kind the fun part of that acquisition the merger was equally as as important you know because he didn't want it to be
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in US versus them so and so spending too much time there they're getting more capex been whatever it might be so so that's why the merger was was very crucial um and that went well too I think the entire management team did a very good job of understanding um the human element uh and that it can be scary like if you aren't in that room having the discussions you really have no idea what's going on except for you're hearing a bunch of rumors which is the worst thing in the world there are no good rumors they're all bad as in
19:07
everyone's going to lose their jobs um and so being aware of that and trying to put people's concerns to bed um was something that I took on kind of head on uh and wanted to make sure everybody as much as possible knew what was happening and kind of knew what our what our vision was for the future um and then as that merger kind of got going more and more in a positive light we ended up physically moving uh consolidating three buildings into two which was great because then it really was where you could wrap your arms
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around everybody see everybody every day um and make sure everybody understood that hey it's one team you know and that that was a simple as sort of combining the company names into one name um which worked out great and again I think it was all uh that human elephant um the emotional side uh that really worked yeah well it's like uh it could almost it's I'm thinking like sibling rivalry when you have a couple a couple companies like that that I wouldn't even think about that's like hey you know
20:10
who's getting more investment who's getting better newer equipment and and things like that so um another one of the mini movie moving pieces people wouldn't think about um and um so yeah that's that's interesting and you know one of my uh things I wanted to touch on and you kind of Dove back it right into it about the people piece um because you know that's been um for in the people I've talked to whether they're buying or selling um that's often a critical piece like you might have the vast majority of your
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value of your business tied up into the people that are managing it um and if those people are gone you don't have a business and so um just for example when you uh acquired the laser cutting company did that prior owner have anything placed anything in place um to kind of as far as key person retention goes or keeping people on board um so that you could feel safer making that purchase yeah he did a pretty cool thing and the good news about that is it was relatively local so like I was there during due diligence physically on site
21:17
pretty much every day so like the people got to know me and kind of understand what was going on with myself and the team um from the acquisition side so there there was familiarity uh with like a handful of us so it wasn't that scary uh but yeah the the old owner of that company um did put in uh caveats in the agreement that we had to retain um upper Personnel for for 12 months which was great and that was great for those key employees and also great for the acquisition because we wanted them to stay anyway
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um and so it worked out it worked out well um not everybody stayed that after the 12 months but it definitely helped from both ends sort of make it smooth for that initial transition period so yeah he he really he really cared about about his team um he and his wife had ran that business for a long time uh in a lot of the employees there I think he kind of thought of as almost kids of his okay and then you don't have to get too much into the details if you can't but was that like a gradual bite out where
22:23
he stated because you mentioned he could be as involved or not I know um just like in your industry in our insurance world we have a lot of agencies selling it's the same way it's one person that started it 20 30 40 years ago and has built it and um so they'll typically sell and they'll be on a a staggered buyout where they're essentially getting a salary that's buying them out um so it's less of a hit to the cash flow of the business um and then it also like you said it allows them to actually have some
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oversight and be Hands-On and be a resource to the people that are buying um the company yeah there was a little bit of an earn out just based on performance of the company going forward to sort of as like a safety net um his name is Ron and he's great we still get together on occasion and I remember him saying as we were getting close to the Finish Line yeah I'm just I'm still gonna show up I'm not sure what I'm gonna do every day but then after like a month he's like nah I'm pretty good this is great yeah and so I
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think some of that was the trust he had in his team already there and then the trustee had it in our group um from the acquiring side so I think he felt very comfortable very confident and and I think very happy with his decision and that's always the scary thing I think as a seller especially um as a business owner if it's your business you know again to use that same phrase your baby you get one chance right you get one chance to sell your baby and I think he was very happy uh with how it all went down but I'm sure you
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and I both know a bunch of other folks who get hindsight are not very happy with how that one chance to sell their business with you can actually think of one example right now that's buying their business back because of the way that things went and so I asked well yeah it's it's we've seen that a little bit in our industry too yeah yeah that that's always a funny process yeah yeah it's like okay I'll go back to the drawing board and get it back to where it was I guess but uh yeah that's
24:24
interesting um and so you know with without getting too much into details because I know um organ metal is still an active company and I don't know what you have in terms of privacy and stuff like that but um I know initially there were talks about um with the management purchase there um the the term that gets thrown around or people here and wonder what it is is ESOP or Employee Stock owned plan um correct me if I'm wrong was that the plan there and um I know it didn't go that route but talk a little bit about how that would
25:00
work and maybe give us some guidance if you have any on how those would work yeah I think there was the last five years who talks of like a leverage management buyout or an ESOP you know and both of those you know are fantastic and work out well for uh the team members and the management teams um there's two very good peers of ours in the steel sector Pacific Steel um and brown Strauss both of which are very successful esops um and ESOP is kind of in simple language terms just an employee owned company um seven body actually is another grade
25:38
software locally but uh you know it takes a certain amount of buying uh fraud from the ownership group it takes a certain amount of buying usually from a bank as well and then the employees you know there's some I don't say risk but but there's some good and bad things that come to the employees with an ESOP so we never really had an opportunity to to take that all the way across the Finish Line um but again I think every company has has pros and cons when they look at that um I think Pros for sure will be those
26:09
three examples that I rattled off their Pacific around Strauss and Summit yeah yeah another one that comes to mind well and I don't know how well it went I just remember when it was in the news for our area was Bob's Red Mill um I think it was about 10 years ago that they went East up and it was at least reported as a super positive scene that people were excited about and so yeah I mean it's cool we've seen these up and you see the stories of he or she who you know worked at that company as a
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you know operator right for 30 40 years and they're able to retire you know like a million dollars you know it's just it's just this cool moment um and that's a special need to see in the steel sector um to see that those possibilities are out there which which they are yeah definitely definitely um so what were some of you mentioned you had multiple deals that were you thought you had a deal and then it froze or it stalled and while you were going through that process um can you give us some insights into
27:09
you know what some of those challenges were yeah I mean there's just a lot of emotion that goes into it from every side I mean um you know Oregon metal body company organ metal sold to a company so like those were two deals that actually happened but I mean over the last 15 years there were probably a dozen other ones that you know were in talks and then just fizzled through um even here at NQ Industries you know five months in uh we've had a couple talks with a few companies um to acquire them uh similar maybe size
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a little bit bigger but ultimately kind of producing something very steel intensive like what we're doing now um and it is interesting because it's I think business owners of any size always overvalue themselves I think that's that's very normal um and so then when you start putting pen to paper and sort of looking at back of the napkin type calculations and have a conversation you don't really want to uh be offensive when you tell someone so hey I'm sorry your company is worth is worth this based on ebitdum multipliers
28:18
or whatever calculations you want to use where they think it's actually worth this and so you just got to be careful not not to uh upset anybody especially if you if you're trying to make a deal happen um so yeah I think the emotional side of it is very key uh I think the people side of it is is extremely important um I don't think I really want to do a business deal with anybody who doesn't really care about their team um that's super important to me um and I know our team feels that way as
28:48
well and we're kind of looking at Targets out there um on the acquisition side um people's is crucial especially in the steel business where there isn't a lot of young talents um at any level I mean we're still struggling to find good drivers or press brake operators you know or welders or whatever that may be and that's an industry-wide problem that's not that's not just specific here to the Pacific Northwest yeah yeah that human element seems to be the challenge biggest challenge in every
29:20
every level um awesome well I I appreciate you kind of giving us a peek behind the curtain on some of that stuff um and so you know we've talked a little bit about um the new startup experience kind of touched on probably most of what you could cover in a four or five month period but um what have been with specifically in queue industry do you have any big wins that you could share with us in or maybe a biggest win and a biggest challenge I know I'm putting you on the spot here but um what would that look like or what
29:54
comes to mind I would say the biggest win is just having fun again uh it's super neat to see the partnership group all having fun but then you know you walk into our two buildings and and talk to any of our our staff uh and the whole team is having fun and you know we're not Reinventing the wheel but I think we just we treat people the right way it's a it's a community and decisions are done in a collaborative uh way like just yesterday we had a sort of a company-wide pizza lunch right where we got both buildings together and
30:27
just sort of sat everybody down and kind of talked about where we thought we were going you know what uh suggestions they might have how things were going because I mean our longest tenured employee has been here for five months so you know we have there's a lot of uh new ideas and fresh ideas which is great so even people that like we had two people start this week and so our longest tenures five months or shorter 10 years two days right so it's like everybody's coming to the table with fresh ideas which is
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awesome um and there's a respect level up and down which is just awesome to see and so that's probably been the most refreshing thing so far um and then any struggles I would say some of the people side for sure with regards to recruiting although I'm pretty happy with where we're at right now in that uh but maybe breaking down some doors on the customer side uh we already had some relationships with the the Pacific Northwest Regional players but sort of you step outside that box you know there's a couple uh Waste Management
31:32
right is a big consumer of what we produce Nationwide Republic Services is another and those folks don't know us from Adam and so it's like okay how do we get in the door at those places I thought despite this interview I'm not a huge social media guy and so that's interesting to see it's okay is social media a way for us to get in to these places who don't know us um you know and our team is super creative they're like we'll just send them a box like just send them a truckload of stuff
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into the front door so we'll see uh but that that's a fun challenge to have um I will say our backlog is for sure stronger than I thought it would be um at this point which is great so it's nice to be kind of blowing past our projections um whatever we want to be yet but like we're a lot further along than what we thought we'd be um which sets us up for a fun 2023 and a fun 2024.
32:33
definitely definitely well um just a thought here has your team done any sort of uh How It's Made tours or um I'm just thinking that kind of like even just a video like you know without showing too much you know here's our process here's a tour of the factory here's some of the team um just as a way to introduce the company to some of these bigger targets we've got a little bit of that like I I'm a firm believer in the Pacific Northwest sort of Steel market and so anybody who wants to come see our shops
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whether it's competitors or vendors or whoever uh has an open door and um awmi uh is a great group and so you know we've offered to do some walk-throughs and whether it's mentorship things or job Shadows or whatever um there's not a lot of secrets in what we do so you know we don't have to be too close to hear about anything yeah yeah but yeah we're uh everything you said there is a good idea and anything we can do to not only spread the word about specifically NQ Industries and try to drive business but also again it's
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like we are really trying to beat the drum that you can still do Manufacturing in Portland you can still have a very good life by being a welder a truck driver a press break operator you know there's a lot of good um there's a lot of good in the manufacturing sector and the steel business that I think often is ignored um and if just a couple people see what we're doing here and are like oh well I can do that I can start my own shop in my garage or whatever and build upon it then it will be a pretty good success
34:14
yeah yeah no that's that's exciting and um I don't know it's just super cool to watch what you guys are doing um fun fun to see a new thing going going into place and see how you're solving the problems so I definitely need to get out there for a tour a friend and like you know every time you pick up the newspaper or Oregon Live or the Portland Business Journal it's like Columbia steel is closing or gunderson's getting rid of 300 jobs or whatever and like yes we might only have like 15 employees but at least it's
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something you know it's like we're trying we're trying to bring jobs back to this to this region um in any way we can Yeah well yeah you know most companies in the area especially startups would consider that pretty fast growth yeah yeah um not that I mean I mean you have your goals and not that you should compare your goals to other people's goals but still it's um it is impressive so that's that's exciting right yeah and and then um you've sprinkled bits here and there on the steel industry and kind of where
35:23
it's going but um it's a really old industry but is anything new happening are there any big changes in the pipeline in terms of um trains and maybe even technology obviously that's affecting everything so what uh what are your thoughts on that yeah I mean probably the three biggest I'll say that kind of stories or like headlines over the last maybe five years one was covet and just all the supply chain Whiplash and stuff and it went from you know a lot of Steel to you couldn't get steel and now there's
35:53
enough of it again so just this crazy cycle of pricing so that was a big story uh and you could kind of tie in the Ukraine war with that as well because that caused some supply chain stuff um there was a lot of consolidation um at the Mill level you had um what was once like 15 mils kind of shrink to 10 and now to maybe like five big companies owned a lot of the Mills here in this country um and the same could be kind of set on the service center side we obviously saw that uh with Oregon Metal as well and then a really big push for like green
36:29
steel uh decarbonization and all that uh which is very real uh you know we're ultimately feeding um recyclers you know and steel is the most recycled consumable in the world and everything um but right now I mean it's the steel industry for a long time it has been an industry that sort of is heavy on pollution and how you make this deal uh this is a very big Push by some of those big players that I mentioned earlier along with countries um to to look at the way you make steel and how can you make it better for our
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environment um and that that's where this push for the green steel comes from um I'll be very curious on that because ultimately it's going to be more expensive to make it Greener um so then will the end consumer be willing to pay x amount more for that car um or at a service center actually about more um for that rail car steel um I think we've yet to see we've yet to see that answer um but that'll continue to be a major Topic in our Industries is just again the pollution aspects and how we how we
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make it a little bit Greener yeah that seems to be the one of the one of the biggest challenges is like we've got some good ideas of the changes we know we need to make but on paper is it even possible to make any of these changes and still produce a good or still like still operate the way that we've operated so yeah I mean the US um Steel Group you know is I think the best in the world with regards to Green steel when you compare it to some of the other major producers especially like in China but it still is is nowhere near what
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people want it to be so yeah they definitely have more steps to take okay and then um the be another buzzword after kovid and I think it's a good buzzword that a lot of us are excited to hear is reshoring um you know manufacturing is coming back home and it seems like it makes sense that it it should be at home not just for supply chain reasons but even profitability reasons but um I mean I'll let you you talk about it because you're actually in manufacturing what does that look like for uh metal or
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just you're you're not you're working with other manufacturers too so what does it look like in your industry yeah I mean I I really hope so right I mean it's a great buzzword you know I think it's a good thing for politicians to say it helps sell newspapers advise newspapers but uh I mean it still comes down to cost right and then there's a lot of what we do especially in the manufacturing side especially steel manufacturing where a lot of it is still we're getting crushed by overseas
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so I want to say it's going to happen I haven't seen it yet but again I think if people continue to talk about it maybe a self-fulfilling prophecy to a certain degree um but it would be great to see it again this this country needs those jobs back uh and for the longest time I mean the US was the best steel country in the world um and we've just sort of Fallen lower and lower um on that list and we can we can get back there but it all starts with jobs yeah yeah well and I also I think if you're grading uh Industries on
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reassuring it's not really fair to compare them against each other in terms of what's being brought back because some things that might pencil out perfectly and be like oh this is this is even better or some is just like like the still theme making Greener still is this even breathable or not viable at all so awesome and um now I this is a general business podcast but it is titled the red bearded risk guy so I did want to ask a little bit about that um and you know risk management is a blanket term and it can
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be your employee safety it can be retaining key employees it can be related to your just your general profitability and so um what I guess do you have any stories related to that whether it's safety stuff or um you know how do you typically approach that or manage that yeah I mean I think the four Partners here is it's uh Rob Mike Carson and myself um safety is extremely Paramount I mean it's probably the most important thing that we talk about um and we all have our histories and experiences on the safety side
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um but we owe it to our team to have them be able to work their entire day in a safe environment and not be concerned about that at all so you know as a as a startup we're obviously monitoring our costs and our cash flow and everything but when it comes to safety none of that matters like it's just safety whatever it takes we need to be safe and we all we all stand by that um it's also a good reminder that like this is a very dangerous industry um welding can be dangerous forming can be dangerous
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we don't necessarily in this building have any overhead grades but you know with forklifts running around it there's a lot of stuff going on and that's that's how people get seriously hurt um you know in the steel business whether it's a mill or a service center or an oem I mean people die every year in facilities and oftentimes it's an accident but it's due to cutting Corners you know you you knew what you were supposed to do and you just didn't do it for some reason um until we tried to really teach our
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team that like let's not be lazy let's not cut Corners yes productivity and efficiency is important but it's not as important about being safe so again when it comes to that um that type of safety which is it's something we just continue to push in um and enforce that home okay and then what about um now that I know more about what you're actually making there um this is a big risk that's coming up with a lot of my clients both in manufacturing and construction right now is um the the warranty that's offered on
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their product it's not typically I don't know if you're even offering one seems like there need to be something I don't know for for trailers um your competitors I feel like a lot of the time are going to have some kind of warranty um and that can be pretty expensive so is that something you have in place or so because our we're not actually making the trailers we're just making the containers go on the trailers oh okay there is no warranty we always sort of like joke it's like once you put wheels
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on it that's when like there's a huge quarantine thing um so no so there is no warranty for our projects uh we QC everything um the majority of our of our wealth team is certified so yeah we've got this experience level to know what we're looking at and know how to load these trucks and all of that um and a lot of that has to do with our our sort of customers and the Partnerships we have there we're like they will come on site as well and help walk us through things as we got rock and roll on them maybe three four months
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ago we would have this parade of people in here kind of showing us how they want to do it how they would suggest we do it which was incredibly valuable um but no to go back to the initial question uh there isn't any um warranty or anything maybe been out um you know in in service for a decade somebody will bring in the band and be like hey we don't really want to buy a new one can you just refurbish the bottle and so you know we'll cut off the bottom weld up a new base and then maybe that gives them five more years of that
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roll-off awesome awesome um well that's a nice thing to not have to think about it as far as the market goes and it it is um you know that's that's actually risk management right there when you sit down and say hey what are we gonna make are we gonna make the whole trailer or are we going to make just the box that in itself is is risk management so um all right well thanks thanks for sharing that that that's the the least boring part of the pot or the most important part of the podcast so we saved it for the end when people are
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have got some momentum going um so yeah I uh I think that uh this has been a great conversation I really think again maybe I'm just biased because it's what I was most curious about is a lot of the merger stuff and the new Venture stuff and so I think uh the audience is really going to be um interested to to hear what you have to say when when this goes live um but uh do you have anything yeah it's just there's gonna be ups and downs on the m a side regardless of whether you're a buyer and a seller
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um be aware of the human element be aware of the emotions um and not everything is black and white right not everything just fits into this nice Lane of a textbook on how you orchestrate acquisition um just the more experience uh you can get the better definitely definitely um that actually you know slightly off topic but I did want to want to ask because you were talking about the people that consultants and people that came through and helped with um getting it all set up um was any of that um related to just your work completion
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time like lead time or how long it takes from start to finish and efficiencies and what goes where or did you already have people that were pretty strong in that category on your management team or yeah the partners all have a really good sort of different but somewhat overlapping experience and expertise which is just fantastic uh but I will be the first to tell anybody whether it's a customer or competitor we are not efficient yet like we're getting um and I think we're getting faster and better and safer and cleaner and you
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know everything uh but we are not there yet and again I'll look at some of our competitors that they're you know in a 200 000 square foot facility with like a gorgeous assembly line with like overhead cranes everywhere that is not us right now yeah a huge area where people don't even have to step set foot and yeah down the line we'll get there um but for now we're just we're just sort of starting small and we're growing the right way um and I'll say we're focused more on the people that than we are the actual
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like assembly line if that makes sense so we're kind of relying on everybody's strength whether it's again welding or I.T your sales or wherever it might look like um and we're relying on that versus relying on like the machine or the 200 000 square foot assembly Runner yeah awesome awesome um well I was in uh Wisconsin for a training and they were getting into manufacturing um stuff and actually the carrier put on this training and I was really impressed by this um they had a client that they insured
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but they have manufacturing Consultants within the carrier at this particular company and they got an order that was too big for them to handle as far as especially with their processes and inefficiencies um and uh they didn't want to turn down the job obviously it's a big opportunity and uh for whatever reason they reached out to their insurance agent insurance agent reached out to the carrier um because he had heard something about these consultant services that they offered and they sent someone out that
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literally did like standing on the shop floor with a stopwatch and this might not be new to you but I was just amazed I was like oh that makes sense that you would sit and say okay how long does it take to get from there to there and how many steps does that person have to take and how many movement can he just turn around and set this here instead of carrying it across over here and um lean manufacturing it helps on the overall safety too yeah yeah well and um I won't pitch the risk management safety stuff too hard but
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um you mentioned how cost aside safety is the most important part but um a lot of and I wish more leaders would understand that that's actually one of the biggest rois you get in your business is investing in safety um you can see it but yeah the the team knows if things are not safe and if they're getting pushed that way from the management or whoever and that's awful like it's just that's a bad it's a bad way to operate and I'm sure we've all experienced that or seen that um and that that's just not how again
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because we're a startup we can determine how we're going to do things yeah we know uh we know better that's beautiful yeah I mean if you're given eight-ish hours seven eight hours a day or more depending on what kind of shift you're doing um of your time away from your family to a company you would hope that the company cares about you getting back home to your family at the end of the day the company owes them you know yeah yeah it's a bare minimum so yeah um no that's that's awesome I'm glad
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that's such a value and you know we've been talking for a while I went out when you were still at Oregon Metal and got a tour and um it's always been very clear that that was a focus and that that mattered to you guys so um yeah I um I appreciate it and I appreciate you having me um you have I don't have any more burning questions for you but um do you have any other final thoughts or insights or anything whenever your schedule allows we'll have you out to our two buildings meet the team I know I think you've met a couple
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of them back when everyone was at Oregon medal but um it'd be good for you to meet the the team and sort of see what we're doing um and then yeah whatever I could do for you or answer any other questions just let me know awesome and um I don't know that anybody that buys roll off trailers or or makes trailers with your product will listen to this but how does anybody get in touch with you if they have questions about in-q Industries or even if someone is just a manufacturing concrete junkie that is interested in a tour yeah um
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yeah and we'll show anybody a tour again there's no no secrets in what we're doing uh again not only are we trying to grow this business we're trying to grow the sector of Steel and get good especially young people in into this business um so yeah we're www.qmustries.
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com okay thanks to our partners I'm now on LinkedIn uh so Stanley Walker I'm on there um yeah I know I'm just kidding but don't reach out with any questions um yeah our doors are always open um and yeah or again our goal is to get more more jobs in the area and more jobs in the steel business and and more people interested in it great well I will include that in the show notes when this goes live and uh yeah thanks again it's been great catching up and chatting with you and just learning more and I will reach out after the call here to
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get that tour scheduled maybe we can get some video while I'm there and we can include it with the the podcast when it goes live depending on when I can get up there awesome well thanks again and have a good day appreciate it see ya a little bit perfect [Music] foreign