Welding & Gases Today | Q4 2021 by Welding & Gases Today

The Official Publication of the Gases and Welding Distributors Association

The Sales & Marketing Issue

Selling in the New Normal

2021 AC

The GAWDA Annual Convention returns to in-person meetings and follows guidelines to ensure safety for attendees COMMITTEE CORNER

GAWDA’s Committees Provide Updates

Fourth Quarter 2021

MEMBER PROFILE

Huber Supply

CONSULTANTS

Preparing for an Audit

ASK YOUR BOARD

Advice from GAWDA Board Members

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contents Fourth Quarter • Fall 2021 • Volume 20, No. 4

DEPARTMENTS

PRESIDENT’S VIEW Takeaways From Your GAWDA President BY ABYDEE BUTLER MOORE

DIRECTOR’S DESK GAWDA Participation Continues to Grow BY JOHN OSPINA

12 32 36

EDITOR’S NOTE Giving Back

BY STEVE GUGLIELMO

COVER STORIES

ASK YOUR BOARD How Has Communication Changed Over the Past Year?

The Sales & Marketing Issue

COMMITTEE CORNER GAWDA Committee Chairs Give an Update to Membership

GAWDA CONSULTANTS Preparing for an Audit 14 BY STEVE GUGLIELMO, TOM BADSTUBNER, MARILYN DEMPSEY, MICHAEL DODD AND RICK SCHWEITZER

26 28

SELLING IN THE NEW NORMAL 62

Sample Safety Practices BY MARILYN DEMPSEY

Entry Level Driving Training

BY RICHARD GOTTWALD

Conceive, Believe, Achieve

Whatever it Takes Lessons on motivating toward success

I TR FOURTH-QUARTER OUTLOOK Indicator Consensus Building for 2022 Softening

BY BRIAN BEAULIEU

2 • Fall 2021

86 88

BY JAY SPIELVOGEL

BY JOHN TAPLEY

Rebuilding Relationships Post COVID BY RANDY SQUIBB

Best Practices to 5 Guide Your Sales Compensation Redesign BY MIKE EMERSON

Sales Pipeline Forecasting Fact or Fiction?

BY ART WASKEY

nalytics That Quantify A Value & Grow Profits Get control of your results BY RANDY MACLEAN

BY STEVE GUGLIELMO

& Training Playbook

he Potential Benefits T of ESOPs as a Succession Plan Rather than selling to another company, many members are selling to their employees

edical Oxygen Suppliers M Respond to Surging Demand from COVID-19 Hospitalizations

The GAWDA/CGA Safety 46

BY STEVE GUGLIELMO

BY MICHAEL DODD

Made in the USA More than a slogan

Where Businesses Should Focus This Year to Recapture Sales With suggested tools that will make the biggest impact BY THOMAS J. ARMITAGE

earch Engine Trends S for the Gases and Welding Industry

elling Hard Goods & S Gases In A Digitized World BY J.R. “BUZZ” CAMPBELL AND KEN THOMPSON

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contents Fourth Quarter • Fall 2021 • Volume 20, No. 4

THE TEAM

GAWDA EVENTS

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

John Ospina jospina@gawda.org PUBLISHER

021 GAWDA Annual 2 Convention Preview

021 GAWDA Regional 2 Meeting Recaps

Bill Brod billb@gawdamedia.com EDITOR IN CHIEF

Steve Guglielmo steveg@gawdamedia.com

PAGE

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Natasha Alexis nalexis@gawda.org

MEMBER PROFILE

Andrea Levy alevy@gawda.org

HUBER SUPPLY COMPANY Continuous Innovation for More than 80 Years

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Robin Barnes robinb@gawdamedia.com

BY STEVE GUGLIELMO

VICE PRESIDENT, SALES

Tim Hudson timh@gawdamedia.com RELATIONSHIP MANAGERS

Hannah Gray hannahg@gawdamedia.com Lesli Mitchell leslim@gawdamedia.com Anne DeSantis anned@gawdamedia.com

PAGE

NEWS ROUNDUP

108

INDUSTRY EVENTS

118

NEW OFFERINGS

110

INDUSTRY NEWS

122

ADVERTISERS INDEX

115

IN MEMORIAM

WELCOME NEW 123

MERGERS & 116

ACQUISITIONS

MEMBERS

124

THE LAST WORD

Welding & Gases Today (USPS 22-975) is published quarterly: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, with additional publications in Spring and Summer. • Non-member subscription rate is $195 per year. • GAWDA members (key contacts and branch locations) receive the magazine as part of their dues. • GAWDA members can order additional yearly subscriptions (4 issues) for $40. • Welding & Gases Today is published by Data Key Holdings, LLC on behalf of the Gases and Welding Distributors Association. • Periodicals postage paid at Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and at additional mailing offices (ISSN 1558-5344). • Editorial correspondence should be sent to Editors, c/o editor@gawdamedia.com. Advertising correspondence and materials should be sent to William Brod, Data Key Holdings, LLC, 1415 W. Genesee St., Syracuse, NY 13204; telephone (315) 445-2347, fax (315) 422-1721. • Postmaster: Send address changes to Welding & Gases Today, Gases and Welding Distributors Association, One Oakwood Blvd, Suite 195, Hollywood, FL 33020 • Welding & Gases Today is the official journal of the Gases and Welding Distributors Association (GAWDA) and carries news and announcements concerning GAWDA. • It is not responsible for contents or opinions other than association activities. • Contents are copyright ©2021 Data Key Holdings, LLC. • All rights reserved. • Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher. • Questions and comments can be sent via e-mail to Editors, c/o editorial@gawdamedia.com. • Data Key Holdings, LLC reserves the right to print portions of or all of any correspondence mailed to the editors without liability on its part and no such correspondence will be returned. • Visit Welding & Gases Today Online at www.GAWDAmedia.org. Statement of Ownership Publication Title Welding & Gases Today. Publication number 22-975. Filing date 08/2021. Issue frequency quarterly + 2 special issues. # of issues published annually: 6. Subscription price part of member dues. Mailing address of known office of publication and headquarters: One Oakwood Boulevard, Suite 195, Hollywood, FL 33020. Headquarters address same. Publisher: William Brod, Data Key Communications, 1415 W. Genesee St., Syracuse, NY 13204. Editor: John C. Ospina, GAWDA Executive Director, One Oakwood Boulevard, Suite 195, Hollywood, FL 33020. Editor in Chief: Steve Guglielmo Data Key Holdings, LLC, 1415 W. Genesee St., Syracuse, NY 13204. Owner: GAWDA, One Oakwood Boulevard, Suite 195, Hollywood, FL 33020. Average net press run 1803/1875. Outside county paid/requested mail subscriptions 1850/1875. In-county paid/requested mail subscriptions 0/0. Sales through dealers and carriers 0/0. Requested copies by other mail classes 0/0. Total paid and or requested circulation 1775/1803. Outside county nonrequested copies 0/0. In-county nonrequested copies 0/0. Nonrequested copies distributed through USPS by other classes 0/0. Nonrequested copies distributed outside the mail 150/400. Total nonrequested distribution 150/400. Total distribution 1850/1875. Copies not distributed 100/100. Total 1950/1975. Percent paid and/or requested circulation 97.5/96.2.

4 • Fall 2021

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PRESIDENT’S VIEW

Takeaways From Your GAWDA President BY ABYDEE BUTLER MOORE

Abydee Butler Moore is GAWDA’s 2020-2021 president, as well as President and COO of Butler Gas Products Company. She can be reached at 412771-7660 ext. 316 or abutlermoore@ butlergas.com.

6 • Fall 2021

n every GAWDA stage I have taken this year, I have preached takeaways – that it is our homework to learn and implement at least one idea that pays for the trip. I find it only fair that in my last article as your GAWDA President, I reciprocate with my takeaways. These are the things I have learned as your GAWDA President in 2020 and 2021 that I am taking away. Thank you! It has been quite the trip.

WORKING IN THIS GREAT INDUSTRY IS AN HONOR AND PRIVILEGE I have been overwhelmed with support and encouragement these past two years. Our industry is full of incredible people. We spend energy building each other up professionally, supporting one another in times of need, and the entire network is better because of it. Whether it is transparency over a safety issue and lessons learned, or collaboration regarding a technology leap of faith, like a new ERP, this industry helps its own. The dense saturation of local and regional family-owned and closely-held businesses paired with the scale and global influence of the publicly-held multinationals make for a diverse, safety-focused, and well-financed industry. Get involved in this great industry; give back and volunteer to steer its future. I pass the GAWDA President baton humbled and appreciative to have served. I will be active and engaged in this industry for life.

Get involved in this Association; they will help you and they will teach you the business.

SUCCESS TAKES A VILLAGE I love serving on Boards because not only does it feel good to give back, I also learn like a sponge. When you surround yourself with aspirational peers, you grow and “play up” to the talents in the room. Simply put, you win when you hang out with winners. Surround yourself with the best you can find. GAWDA is in outstanding hands with Bob Ewing, Robert Anders, Gary Halter, and our next Executive Committee member, who will be announced at this year’s Convention and who we’re very excited about, on the Presidency track. Our team at Butler Gas has been incredibly supportive and enabling these past two years – especially when you throw having a baby in the timeline mix as well! It truly does take a village. Everywhere I turn, I am in awe of the people

Committed To Being Here. Committed To You. We understand the meaning of essential. Businesses and industries count on you, just like you count on us. In these challenging times, we’ve continued to do what we do best: build a better world by developing welding products and solutions to keep you moving forward. Our commitment is to being here. Our commitment is to you.

PRESIDENT’S VIEW around me: my husband, my daughters, my parents, my colleagues at Butler Gas, my fellow volunteers, and our staff at GAWDA HQ. Thank you. We are all in the people business and when we need to outperform the competition, we need to out-people the competition.

IT IS THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME TO RUN A FAMILY BUSINESS The child who grows up with the opportunity to work in her family-owned-and-operated business who chooses a different path must have her reasons, but I struggle to understand what would be so attractive about not contributing to a multigenerational legacy. Familial luck of the draw, I guess. The opportunity to run a family business is sheer luck – lovingly tagged the “Lucky Sperm Club” by some industry legends. If you are a Next-Gen reading this, contemplating your path in or out of the family business, I implore you to give the family business avenue a shot. It is the most rewarding, challenging, and purposeful gig imaginable. I am the luckiest person in the world getting to grow up in a family business, come to NWSA/GAWDA conventions

from 90 days old, volunteer on GAWDA Committees for 13 years, and serve as your Association President.

NOTHING BEATS IN-PERSON. Our Association and many of our businesses experienced significant technology growth and elevated sophistication these past two years. But now, just because we can does not mean we should. We can hold meetings virtually. We can work remotely. But should we? Nothing beats in-person. Real face-to-face communication, people physically showing up for each other is a beautiful thing. Frequent, direct, in-person communication is always best. People do not leave companies; they leave managers. Show up for each other and engage. As my Dad endearingly has bestowed upon his fellow NWSA/GAWDA Past Presidents, it is now time to go from the penthouse to the outhouse. I am extremely grateful for this journey. And a final rallying cry, especially for my fellow Next-Gens, to pay forward the best advice I have ever received: get involved in this Association; they will help you and they will teach you the business.

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8 • Fall 2021

DIRECTOR’S DESK

GAWDA Participation Continues to Grow BY JOHN OSPINA

A John Ospina is GAWDA’s executive director. He can be reached at GAWDA Headquarters in Hollywood, FL, via telephone at 844-251-3219 or via email at jospina@gawda.org.

10 • Fall 2021

ll of GAWDA’s face-to-face meetings have seen strong support from our members this year. Members are back! The Spring Management Conference closed with 702 attendees, which was the highest attended SMC in ten years. This year also saw the return of our Regional Meetings. The three regional meetings were also well attended. You can see the full recap beginning on page 58. The Annual Convention continues to grow. At the time this article was written, registration stood at more than 700 attendees, 104 booths and our committee activities were all sold out. Nearly 100 participants had signed up for the 3-TWO-1 Reception, which is held for attendees that have gone to three or fewer national meetings. With a month to go before Convention, we fully expect that this will be an event to remember. You can read more about the activities planned on page 50. While there is no replacement for personal interaction between members, digital meetings and content continues to have strong support from our members. It offers a convenient and low-cost way to get timely information and training to more member company employees. Many of our online webinars are free and, whenever possible, we record them and keep them archived on the GAWDA Members Only site. If there is an online event that you can’t make it too, the recordings and information are always available online later. I’d like to challenge each and every one of you to come up with at least one new person in your organization that might benefit from offerings like the Consultant’s Roundtable, the ITR Economic Updates, Sales Training Webinars or any of the other online events that are scheduled through

PAGE

2021 ANNUAL CONVENTION

the end of this year and all throughout next year. These events are promoted through the GAWDA Connection Newsletter and in member email blasts. If you have employees that are not on our email list, all you have to do is email Andrea Levy at alevy@gawda.org with the subject line “Please add us to the mailing list.” Please include your company name, the individual’s name, title, and email address. That’s it! All of our online events, as well as our face-to-face meetings can also be found on our website under the “Events” tab. If you have employees without company email addresses, they can access GAWDA TV Episodes by going to Google and typing “GAWDA TV episodes.” They can do this at their leisure, and it will give them a general understanding of what is going on in the industry and what benefits and offerings GAWDA provides to keep them engaged and involved. I hope more of you continue to take advantage of the wealth of information and support GAWDA offers through our online portal and webinar offerings. Get ahead of the pack by staying engaged and informed. As always, thank you for your continued participation in GAWDA.

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FROM THE EDITOR

Giving Back

Fax to: (954) 367-7790 Mail to: GAWDA Headquarters One Oakwood Blvd. Suite 195 Hollywood, FL 33020 Email to: bellenbogen@gawda.org

BY STEVE GUGLIELMO

DONOR LEVEL SUGGESTIONS CORPORATE DONOR

GAWDA President Abydee Butler Moore and her husband Ryan have selected Children’s Literacy Center as the recipient of donations from the 2021 GAWDA Gives Back Program. Donations from the Gives Back campaign will fund specific projects at the charity and GAWDA will also be taking new or gently used donation books that members can send to the hotel. We will announce the dates in which members can send the books via email blast and it will also be posted on the 2021 Annual Convention registration.

I Steve Guglielmo is GAWDA Media’s Editor-in-Chief. He has more than a decade of experience working with industrial associations. He can be reached at steveg@gawdamedia.com.

12 • Fall 2021

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’ve worked in association publications for 2000 Annual Convention in Maui, when GAWDA my entire career. I mentioned in my first ever donated to Adult Day Care Centers. editor’s note, in the Q3 2019 issue of Welding In the two decades since GAWDA Gives Back & Gases Today, that I was hired fresh out of - YES!was formed, every subsequent GAWDA President I want to make a contribution in the AMOUNT OF $ to 2021 GAWDA Gives Back Charity. college to work with GAWDA’s previous publisher. and their spouse have continued the tradition by While I worked primarily with one of our other reviewing local charities and picking the one or association publications at the time, and eventually two charities that are near and dear to their heart. went to work for a different publisher, again withPayment Information And GAWDA members have answered the call other association publications, before rejoining with aplomb, raising more than $2 million for GAWDA Media, I’ve gotten to experience some charities across the country. really cool things in my career. This year, we are headed to Colorado Springs, I’ve gotten to travel to some really cool places, where GAWDA President Abydee Butler Moore eat at great restaurants, meet people from all over and her husband, Ryan, will once again continue the world and network in places I probably would this grand tradition. The Moore’s have chosen the have never gotten to go if not for this job. But Children’s Literacy Center (CLC) as the recipthe coolest thing about working with GAWDA ient for donations for the 2021 GAWDA Gives isn’t the food, or the resorts, or the golf courses. Back Program. The CLC works with families It’s working with people who genuinely want to in Colorado Springs communities to provide an make a difference. effective literacy program that helps the struggling One of my primary missions since I bereader become a successful reader. Through onecame editor of Welding & Gases Today is to to-one tutoring, each student gets personalized shine a light on all the member benefits that tutoring with long-lasting results. come with your GAWDA membership. How GAWDA is inviting all members to support are your member dues working for you and CLC’s mission to build a life of success through your company? But today, I want to discuss a foundation of literacy. This year, in addition the GAWDA Gives Back Program and how to our members’ generous donations, GAWDA GAWDA members are bringing benefits to is asking Members to promote a book drive at the cities that we visit. each company as CLC is in need of new or gently GAWDA Gives Back started in 2000, when used books for 1st – 6th graders. then NWSA President Dave Mahoney and his On behalf of GAWDA Media, I want to send wife, Donna, suggested that GAWDA help a heartfelt thank you to all GAWDA members support the cities and communities that we visit who have ever donated to GAWDA Gives Back. when we hold our annual Convention. Dave You make us proud to be GAWDA members. and Donna, together with GAWDA’s Board of Thank you so much, we can’t wait to see you all Directors and leadership team, worked tirelessly in Colorado. to make this vision a reality, culminating in the Supporter Friend

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CONSULTANTS ROUNDTABLE

CONSULTANT ROUNDTABLE

Preparing for an Audit GAWDA’s consultants discuss how to prepare for an audit as well as other recent trends in the gases and welding industry BY TOM BADSTUBNER, MARILYN DEMPSEY, MICHAEL DODD, RICK SCHWEITZER AND STEVE GUGLIELMO

he GAWDA Consultant Program is a GAWDA member benefit that is included as part of your member dues to the association. It is consistently rated as one of the most valuable member benefits that GAWDA provides. Between the four of them, GAWDA’s consultants bring more than 150 years of industry-specific experience to the association. For this issue, we spoke with the consultants about a variety of topics, including emerging regulatory trends in the industry post-COVID, how to prepare your company for an audit as regulatory agencies begin to ramp inspections back up, and things to be on the lookout for through the end of 2021 and into 2022. Thank you to Tom Badstubner, GAWDA’s FDA and Medical Gases Consultant, Marilyn Dempsey, DHS, EPA and OSHA Consultant, Mike Dodd, DOT Consultant, and Rick Schweitzer, Government Affairs and Human Resources Consultant, for lending their time and expertise to discuss these important topics. The following is a lightly edited transcript of that conversation.

14 • Fall 2021

WELDING & GASES TODAY: Have you seen trends emerging in the last few months that impact GAWDA members, now that companies are back in the office and returning to a sense of normalcy? MARILYN DEMPSEY: I think that people are looking more at progressing their business. They’re cautious, because COVID is still out there, but there are questions that are beyond COVID. RICK SCHWEITZER: I’ve gotten a number of members asking about how to deal with employees who simply refuse to take the COVID vaccine. How do you treat them in the SAVE THE DATE FOR GAWDA’S PROFESSIONAL COMPLIANCE WEBINAR GAWDA’s 2021 Professional Compliance Seminar is an online event that will take place in the mornings the week of October 25-29, 2021. For more information or to register for the event, visit gawda.org/gawda-webinars/

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CONSULTANTS ROUNDTABLE

workplace? It presents some tricky legal and, really, morale problems for employers. If someone doesn’t have a legitimate medical or religious reason for not getting the vaccine, it’s clear, legally, that you can terminate that employee. But you might not want to. In some cases, you might end up terminating 30% of your workforce. So, going back to the basic standards of isolating people, letting them work remotely, making them wear masks, although sometimes if people don’t want the vaccine, they also don’t want masks. Just trying to keep employees following basic hygiene protocols. MARILYN: Tom shared with me a CGA survey result. They took a survey with more than 50 CGA members and they found out that there are still significant mask requirements; 50% require some employees to wear masks and 38% currently require masks for all employees. Most of the respondents do not require vaccinations against COVID-19 as a condition of employment. But 55% are encouraging and/or incentivizing the vaccination. Business-related travel is restricted for nearly 75% of those surveyed. Most organizations do not require employees to quarantine or test after business travel unless

they suspect that they have been exposed to COVID-19 or develop symptoms. And, when asked about their operational impacts, 70% of respondents said that the Delta variant has no significant impact on current operations. Among those who did report concerns, they said that re-introduction of COVID-19 screening, PPE and mitigation protocols to comply with updated CDC guidance might be coming up. Staffing issues and related interruptions of work are a concern, especially with the possibility of delayed availability of parts, travel restrictions and heightened travel precautions. This is directly from the CGA survey. TOM BADSTUBNER: Are we seeing anybody that is requiring COVID tests instead of vaccines? RICK: Not in this industry. I’ve heard of other companies in other industries say that you either have to have a vaccine or a negative test within 72 hours, sometimes even for customers. But I haven’t seen that among GAWDA members. WGT: So, obviously I’m not a doctor or a legal professional, but I assume that companies are allowed to require some sort of proof of

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CONSULTANTS ROUNDTABLE

vaccination? Is that based on the honor system? I had always thought that medical information was protected in some way and that you weren’t allowed to ask? RICK: The EEOC has indicated that it is acceptable to require vaccination. And to require vaccination implicitly means that you have to have some proof of vaccination, which is typically the card that you get once you’re vaccinated. It’s not a HIPAA violation because HIPAA does not affect private employers. It’s not an ADA violation, except in very limited circumstances when somebody has a legitimate medical disability. And basically, it’s not an equal protection violation or a fourth amendment violation because unvaccinated persons are not a protected class. WGT: How about in the non-COVID arena? Are there any kind of common issues or questions that you have been getting? MIKE DODD: I’d say a common theme that I’m seeing in the last several weeks have been a lot of clearinghouse questions. Here’s a program that has been live for over a year and

a half and I’m amazed at the number of calls I get like, “How do I get registered?” or “I don’t think I’m registered” or “How often do I have to do these queries?” So, I get the impression that people are finally getting back to work, getting back to something more normal. And now, they’re starting to get back into things like compliance issues. The thing that is coming to the top of their heap at the moment is the clearinghouse. RICK: I also wonder, Mike, if, come August 31, if the COVID exemptions for CDLs and medical certificates are finally expired, if we’re going to see a bunch of people who are trying to get their CDLs, and medical certificates renewed as well. MIKE : Oh yeah. I haven’t had that thrust yet, but you’re right. There’s going to be a lot of people coming due. There’s a piece of me that thinks that it’s just certain areas that have held off. Most of the people I’ve been working with it seems like they’ve been normal and getting their licenses and med cards. No issues. But maybe it’s just some areas that have been really tough. Maybe the New York city area. But, here in the Midwest, I’m working with people and nobody has had any problems at all. continued on next page

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WGT: Along those same lines, there was some news out of Washington last week (editor’s note: this inter view took place on August 17) as the long-rumored infrastructure bill finally did pass the Senate. We’ve been talking about it, it seems like, for four years. Now that it has, functionally, can you talk about what it means for GAWDA members? RICK: The first thing to note is that, as of now, it has only passed the Senate. It has not yet passed the House. A separate highway and infrastructure bill has passed the House, but that is now off the table. So, Nancy Pelosi has to get this Senate bill through the House, but she also wants to tie it to this $3.5 trillion budget bill that they are putting together over the next several weeks in the Senate. I don’t know if she’s going to be able to do that, or not. They need all 50 of the Democratic Senators to vote in favor of it to get it through the budget reconciliation process and I’m not sure if several Democratic Senators will go along with it. But let’s assume that it does get passed. The Senate bill right now is a five-year bill. It’s about $1 trillion in spending. There is $110 billion over five years for roads and bridges, which is one of the benefits of it. Presumably, there will be money to improve highways in the country and to fix a lot of bridges that are now deficient. There are no new taxes in this bill. Fuel taxes are not going to go up. But there is a pilot program for a vehicle miles traveled tax where they’re going to take volunteers of both automobile owners and commercial vehicle owners, and anybody that operates trucks or buses. They will be eligible to participate in this voluntary pilot program just to see if a VMT would be an effective replacement for the gasoline and diesel fuel taxes at the federal level. That is going to take several years probably, but the idea is that, eventually, for the next fiveyear bill for highways that we’re probably going to get rid of the federal fuel taxes and replace them with a vehicle miles traveled tax. The good news about this bill is that there is no provision 18 • Fall 2021

in there mandating that DOT go back and look at the hoursof-service changes that it made last year. So, things like the short-haul exemption, which allows companies to operate 14 hours in a 150-mile air mile radius and be exempt from VLDs and driver logs and the 30-minute break requirement. Those are going to stay in place, assuming that this bill does get passed. There is also no review of the effectiveness of things like exemptions and exceptions, including the short haul exception. One of the bad news provisions is that the Congressional Budget Office has said that about $256 billion out of this spending is unfunded. The Democrats said that this whole bill would pay for itself, and it clearly doesn’t, so it will just add to deficit spending over the next five years. But, all in all, I don’t think it’s a terrible bill. It did get bipartisan support in the Senate. They got 19 Republicans to vote for it. The final vote was 69-30. So, I think that if Nancy Pelosi can separate it from this $3.5 trillion bill, this will pass. The question is the politics right now. MIKE : When Rick says that the hours of service are not going to be looked at or adjusted, that is a big deal for our membership. The current change of rules for the 14 hours and the 150 miles was a really big plus and benefit for our members. So, I’m glad to see that that is not going back to the way it was. MARILYN: This doesn’t have to do with the recent bill, but I have noticed that there is a bit more activity with inspections. TOM: I’m seeing the same in state and federal FDA inspections. The activity level is still below the pre-pandemic inspection frequency. WGT: Is that a function of things starting to get back to normal, or do you think that something else is driving that? TOM: At least in the FDA’s case, it’s just that things are getting a little bit more back to normal, and they’re contracting with state agencies more than before to do the local inspections. It’s not burdensome, but we are seeing more and more local inspections.

CONSULTANTS ROUNDTABLE

WGT: I know you’re having the Professional Compliance Seminar in October, and this is going to be the theme of the Seminar. Now that it seems like audit activity and inspection activity is on the upswing, a topic that I think that everybody can speak to is how do you excel in an audit? What are some good best practices that GAWDA members should keep in mind when the inspector is knocking at the door? TOM: By far, the best time to prepare for an audit is before the audit. That’s the time to get your files and processes in order. I think that a good management tool is an internal audit or “mock audit.” We have sample internal audits for food, for drugs, and for devices that the members can use to check their own compliance. During the internal audit, you’ll find if there are any gaps in training or in calibrations or in any kind of testing, or if your review of records should be strengthened. In summary, a periodic internal audit is the first priority, and it may trigger other actions that will help assure your ongoing compliance. MIKE : To add to that, one of the things that we as the consultants do is that we emphasize these audit processes at

least annually. Because we know it’s a big deal. Our upcoming webinar that we’re having in October is going to really emphasize what to do when the respective agencies walk in the door or if they do remote audits. We’re still getting a lot of DOT remote audits. And one of the things that I wanted to emphasize is that we have a lot of new compliance people. I never remember seeing as many new compliance people in one year as I’ve seen in this past year. So, for a lot of them, this is going to be their chance to know what’s going to happen before it does happen so that they will feel a lot more comfortable once it does happen. And then the other thing I really wanted to emphasize to the membership that is reading this is that we consultants have a lot of tools and a lot of things to give to people to prepare them in advance and to help them with it and we’re always here and available when they’re there. On the phone, in person, doing remote. We are on call to help them through it. So, when they ask a question, they might not exactly understand the question, we can turn around and put it in simple English and say, “Here is how you best reply” or “Here is what they’re

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looking for.” Usually that makes things go so much smoother. So, they need to rest assured that they’re not going through this alone and that we’re here to help them through it. We really prefer helping them before the audit. That’s always the best. But we also do help a lot of them during the audit. The one I always hate is the one where the auditor has been there, they’ve audited and now they’ve sent the penalty letter. We didn’t even know about it. We didn’t have a chance to help them with an action plan or help them prepare or to promptly respond to show that they’re concerned. They’ve gotten the letter, which means, “I guess we didn’t get your attention, so here is a fine.” And now it’s almost impossible for us to help them reduce it or help them look better. That’s the one we always hate to get. RICK: And when we get notice of one or more violations, whether it’s at the pre-penalty stage or even responding to a proposed penalty, Mike and I always tell them that what DOT, especially, is interested in seeing, but I think this goes for other agencies as well, is not just that you have fixed the immediate problem but that you’ve put management systems in place to ensure that this does not reoccur. They want to make sure that this is not just a Band-Aid but it’s a wholesale change in your culture, in your training programs and that it eliminates the possibility of this coming up again. MIKE : One of the things we also emphasize is that it’s not just a fix, we want to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But remember, if they come back later and they’ve been known to come back six months to one year later to do a follow up, if you told them that you fixed it, but you didn’t fix it, it now gets labeled what they call a “willful violation.” And those penalties go up about ten-fold. They take no prisoners. Their attitude is, “we didn’t get your attention, or you lied to us. So now we’re going to make things more difficult.” So, we really emphasize that you fix it, and you make sure it stays fixed. If they come back in again, let them find something else. Don’t let them find the same thing you said you fixed. RICK: Even if they find something else, your prior violations are still going to work to increase the penalty on the new violations because you’ll be a repeat offender. But it’s not as bad as finding the same violation twice in a row. MARILYN: Preparation is the key. Getting your files together. Making sure that your training documents are complete. Making sure that you’re completing all the required training. Not just hazardous material, but hazard communication. And the emergency response plan is up to date. There’s a check list on the GAWDA website (Oct 2019 Safety Organizer). Also, review your state regulations, especially with the new COVID regulations. 20 • Fall 2021

As Mike and Rick pointed out, corrective actions are something we can help with. And it’s nice when we can help with those corrective actions before the inspection, but if you get an inspection, you need to take corrective actions. The corrective action must be a program; not just a flavor of the month, where we stick something in, and think everything is magically fine. The change must be a commitment and adopted into the culture. RICK: If you’re going to retrain, don’t just retrain the people at one location. You have to retrain everybody who is in a similar situation at your company. If you have multiple locations, have a comprehensive retraining program so that everyone gets the same message. TOM: To build on that subject, the FDA has found a violation at one location and investigated other locations for the same non-conformance. For example, a company receives an FDA Form 483 (Inspectional Observations) at one location for testing procedures. And then the FDA finds a duplicate violation at a second location. This can turn into a more serious compliance citation (e.g., a Warning Letter). One other suggestion, particularly for FDA investigation responses – We have seen enough FDA audits that we have developed a highly effective template for responding to the agency. We recommend that members contact us after the inspection with the results. We can share the standard responses that we use for potential violations. We want to assure that the member is not under pressure to comply in an onerous way that sets precedent for other members. So, we have standard responses that have assisted members using industry standard procedures. MARILYN: Another thing you might want to consider is when you hear that one of your customers was inspected. Recently, I‘ve received calls from a couple of members whose customers have been inspected and the inspection started to creep into their business. The emphasis right now is on COVID inspections, especially of medical facilities. That can flow over onto you because they look at the whole supply chain. So, if your customers are being inspected, it’s not too far-fetched to think they may come visit your facility. WGT: A few of you have touched on it, so I wanted to bring up the GAWDA.org Members Only website. What kinds of documents are on there that will help members do those pre-audits and internal preparation? MARILYN: The Safety Committee just completed a training program for different people. For loaders, drivers, fillers,

CONSULTANTS ROUNDTABLE

admin, sales. It’s a great source to find out the things that you really should train on. That’s one place I would look. There are different training programs on there that you can go to, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Mike has a great driver training program on there. MIKE : Other things we’ve got are the Safety Organizers, which are our monthly topics that we’ve written on. We’ve got nine years and over 100 issues of DOT topics, FDA topics, etc. And almost all of those will be individual, specific topics that are part of the big audit scope. And I’ve also, about once every year or two, I’ll put something out about the DOT record keeping system and here are the things you might get audited on. I’m sure Tom does the same thing. He does it in almost every monthly issue about what you need to do to stay FDA compliant. We are providing a lot of resources that people can see it, read it and use it. WGT: Last question before we go, this is the last issue of 2021. Anything that is on the docket or to

be on the lookout for the rest of 2021 and the early part of 2022? MIKE : We’ve been really emphasizing that the new driver entry program is scheduled to go into place next February. I’m really keeping my fingers crossed that, at the last minute, there will be enough outcry that they will delay it again because I think it’s going to pinch down on the supply of available drivers. But we can’t bank on that. So, I’ve been telling all of my members every chance I get when they’re talking about a new driver, please go get any potential drivers CDL’d, HazMat Trained, and anybody who needs to upgrade from an A to a B, get that done now, before February, because they can do that at a relatively low expense. But if it does go into place on February 7, it’s going to require them to attend certified schools and the expense is going to go to thousands of dollars per license. So, we’ve been doing our best to tell people in advance, be prepared for this. MARILYN: Remember, compliance filings are due (OSHA, EPA) within the first quarter of the new year.

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CONSULTANTS SAFETY

Sample Safety Practices BY MARILYN R. DEMPSEY, GAWDA DHS/EPA/OSHA CONSULTANT

The following is an excerpt from the GAWDA Safety Organizer, a monthly bulletin sent to GAWDA members. For more information on the GAWDA Safety Organizer, or to read past issues, visit the GAWDA.org Members-Only Section.

Marilyn R. Dempsey Safety Dragons Workplace Consultants, LLC  940-999-8466  marilyn@safetydragons. com.

T 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

his OSHA, EPA and DHS Safety Organizer focuses on six Sample Safety Practices added to the GAWDA website by the GAWDA Safety Committee: Facility Securement Control of Hazardous Energy – Lockout/ Tagout Confined Space Employee Onboarding Ladder Safety Safe Handling of Cylinders

FACILITY SECUREMENT All member facilities contain hazardous material that can be targets for theft. The Sample Safety Practice “Facility Securement’’ provides guidelines for facility securement of welding distributors and fill plants. These guidelines include control of access to the facility, clear perimeter site lines, visitor protocols and surveillance recommendations.

CONTROL OF HAZARDOUS ENERGY LOCKOUT/TAGOUT Every facility has a need for Lockout /Tagout according to OSHA 29 CFR §1910.147; “safeguards must be established to protect workers from the unexpected energization or startup of machinery and equipment, or the release of hazardous energy during service or maintenance activities.” Lockout / Tagout programs must be written, employees must be trained, the program must be audited, and the audit must be documented annually. 26 • Fall 2021

CONFINED SPACE Confined spaces are defined as areas that have openings large enough for a person to enter but not intended for continuous occupation. Some examples of confined spaces include acetylene generators, hydrotest pits, lime tanks, cargo trailers with manholes, lime trailers, product storage tanks with manholes or other similar areas. Any confined space that may pose a risk to human health requires a permit process to be included in the Confined Space written program.

EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING Employee Onboarding is a comprehensive list of how to introduce the new employee to your company’s safety and learning culture. This begins with a review of the company’s history, contacts, policies, and a tour of the facility. The document then outlines what trainings will apply to the job description of Driver, Inside/Outside Sales, Fill room and Administration/Support. This list is a best practice from the committee members. It is not meant to cover the specialties of every GAWDA member.

LADDER SAFETY Ladder Safety covers both Straight/Extension ladders and step ladders. The two types of ladders have different applications and safety requirements that employees should be knowledgeable before using either type of ladder.

SAFE HANDLING OF CYLINDERS Safe Handling of Cylinders is one of the most important factors in our business. Injuries due to cylinder handling include broken and pinched fingers, tendonitis of the elbow and torn rotator cuffs. These injuries not only make for a

CONSULTANTS

SAFETY

All of these Sample Safety Practices may be found on the GAWDA website. To locate the page: 1. Log into the GAWDA website 2. Hover your cursor over “My account” or “Resources” and you will see the “Members Only Page” 3. Click on “Members Only Page” 4. Under “Member Documents” on the left side of the page, you will see “Sample Safety Practices (alphabetically listed).” 5. Click on “Sample Safety Practices (alphabetically listed)” and scroll/click to the topic of your choice. You can read the document on your computer screen, click Preview, or Download the document for printing or later use.

“bad day” but often have the employee out (or on modified duty) for weeks or months and significantly impact not only your productivity but also your Workers Compensation insurance “mod” rating for 3 years. If you ever wondered what the most common practice for cylinder handling in our industry, then take a look at this document. It may not completely fit for your company but will give you foundation to create your policy, SOP, and training. Fall 2021 • 27

CONSULTANTS DOT & SAFETY

Entry Level Driving Training (ELDT) becomes effective February 7, 2022  BY MICHAEL DODD, GAWDA DOT CONSULTANT

DOT WEBSITE •

GAWDA DOT & Safety Consultant Michael Dodd is president of MLD Safety Associates in Poplar Bluff, MO. Members can reach him at 573-718-2887 and at MLDSafety@hotmail. com.

New Requirements for Entry-Level Driver Training—Information Available at https:// tpr.fmcsa.dot.gov/

•

Mandated by Congress, final rule issued in 2016 on driver training curriculum for entry-level CDL drivers; applicants for Class A or B CDL, or hazmat endorsements, required to complete knowledge and behindthe-wheel training from an instructor under FMCSA standards; training entities will self-certify compliance. List of certified training entities will be listed on FMCSA website on the Training Provider Registry. Compliance date extended to February 7, 2022; delay gave FMCSA time to develop the online Training Provider Registry, and States time to modify their information technology systems and procedures to accommodate their receipt of driver specific ELDT data from the TPR.

WHO IS SUBJECT TO ELDT REGULATIONS? •

28 • Fall 2021

•

FINAL RULE •

ELDT regulations establish minimum training requirements for entry-level commercial motor vehicle (CMV) operators in interstate and intrastate commerce who are applying for: ` A Class A or Class B commercial driver’s

license (CDL) for the first time; An upgrade of their CDL (e.g., a Class B CDL holder seeking a Class A CDL); or ` A hazardous materials (H), passenger (P), or school bus (S) endorsement for the first time. The requirements do not apply to individuals holding a valid CDL or an H, P, or S endorsement issued prior to February 7, 2022. Individuals who obtain a commercial learner’s permit (CLP) before the compliance date of February 7, 2022, are not subject to ELDT requirements as long as they obtain a CDL before the expiration date of the CLP or renewed CLP. `

WHEN ARE THE ELDT RULES EFFECTIVE? •

•

Beginning February 7, 2022, applicants must complete the training required in 49 CFR part 380, prior to obtaining any of the following commercial license credentials for the first time: a Class A or Class B commercial driver’s license (CDL); an upgrade to a Class B or a Class A CDL; or a hazardous materials (H) endorsement for the first time. Driver applicants must obtain training from a training provider listed on the Training Provider Registry. States may not issue CDL or HME without verification of training.

WHO CAN BE A TRAINING PROVIDER? •

Any entity (motor carrier, vocational or private school, etc.) may be a Training Provider. To be eligible for listing on the

CONSULTANTS

DOT & SAFETY

SDLA VERIFICATION TYPE OF LICENSE OR ENDORSEMENT:

SDLA MUST VERIFY COMPLETION PRIOR TO ALLOWING

Class A or Class B commercial driver’s license (CDL) Passenger (P) endorsement School bus (S) endorsement

Skills test

Hazardous materials (H) endorsement

Knowledge test

Training Provider Registry, an entity must meet the following requirements set forth in 49 CFR § 380.703: ` Follow a curriculum that meets the applicable criteria in Appendices A-E of Part 380; ` Use facilities meeting the criteria in § 380.709; ` Use vehicles meeting the criteria in § 380.711; ` Use instructors meeting the criteria in § 380.713; ` Meet recordkeeping requirements in § 380.725; ` Be licensed, certified, registered, or authorized to provide training in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations of any State where in-person training is conducted. ` Training providers must attest that they meet the specified requirements. In the event of a FMCSA audit or investigation of the provider, they must supply documentary evidence to verify their compliance. Training providers must continue to meet the eligibility requirements to stay listed on the Training Provider Registry.

TRAINING CURRICULUM •

•

TRAINING SPECIFICS • •

• •

ROLE OF STATE DRIVER LICENSING AGENCY (SDLA) •

•

SDLAs must verify that an entry-level driver has completed the required training before allowing the driver to proceed with testing. Training provider must submit driver’s information to SDLA by midnight of 2nd business day following completion of training. The point at which the SDLA must verify completion of entry-level driver training depends on the type of license or endorsement the applicant is seeking.

Driver must complete a mandatory theory (knowledge) and behind-the-wheel (BTW) training program to take the skills test for a CDL. In the case of a hazardous materials (H) endorsement, the driver must complete mandatory theory (knowledge) training provided by a training provider listed on FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry prior to taking the knowledge test for the H endorsement.

No minimum number of hours for classroom or behind the wheel training Must complete the curriculum areas set out in 49 CFR Part 380 ` Appendix A has CDL Class A curriculum requirements. ` Appendix E has HME curriculum requirements. BTW training must be conducted in the type of vehicle for which CDL is sought (Class A or B) Once training is complete, Training Provider submits info to SDLA in the State requested by driver applicant.

WHAT MUST YOUR COMPANY DO? You are already required to verify that a driver has a CDL with a valid HME before allowing the driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle with a placarded load of hazmat. • This rule does not impose new requirements on motor carriers (GAWDA distributors); it simply requires the drivers to meet training standards before obtaining or upgrading a CDL Class A or B or obtaining an initial HME. I want to thank Rick Schweitzer for all the above materials. •

Fall 2021 • 29

MEMBER BENEFIT

Medical Oxygen Suppliers Respond to Surging Demand from COVID-19 Hospitalizations BY RICH GOTTWALD, CGA PRESIDENT & CEO

A Richard Gottwald is President and CEO of the Compressed Gas Association (CGA). He can be reached at 703-7882748 or rgottwald@ cganet.com.

30 • Fall 2021

s COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations rise in hotspots such as Florida, member companies of the Compressed Gas Association (CGA) are taking extraordinary measures to respond to surging demand for medical oxygen in those communities. Our members are committed to deploying all available resources to respond to the increased demand for medical oxygen and working collaboratively with health care providers, as we fight this pandemic together. Health care remains a top priority for our industry. Medical oxygen plays a crucial role in treating those who are seriously ill with COVID-19, and the compressed gas industry continues to work diligently to safely and reliably supply health care systems in the U.S. and Canada with this life-saving gas. The recent spikes in COVID-19 related hospitalizations in Florida and other hotspots have made it necessary to prioritize oxygen for medical use over most non-medical applications, in order to respond to the growing needs of COVID patients.

Medical oxygen prioritization will remain in place as long as necessary to meet this extreme demand. There are several aspects to medical oxygen supply that are being impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. These include: hospital supply system capacities; the availability of equipment needed to store and transport medical oxygen, as well as the availability of qualified drivers; and medical oxygen production and distribution capacities. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, CGA member companies have responded to the demand for medical oxygen through a range of measures including sourcing additional medical gas cylinders, converting cylinders and containers to medical oxygen use, and where possible, increasing production and distribution capacity. CGA member companies will continue to monitor and respond to this rapidly changing situation. Related resources provided by the Compressed Gas Association include: • Medical Oxygen Safety & Supply Resource Center for Health Care Facilities

Compressed Gas Association

ABRASIVE PRODUCTS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL

HEALTH CARE FACILITY OXYGEN FIRE SAFETY Oxygen is widely used to treat symptoms of COVID-19. Some therapies use large quantities of oxygen or it is used in areas of health care facilities not designed for oxygen use. These uses can create oxygen-enriched atmospheres containing greater than 23.5% oxygen. Although oxygen itself does not burn, oxygen-enriched atmospheres can enhance combustion of items like clothing and bed linens. Even fire-resistant materials that normally do not burn in air, such as drapes and gowns, can burn in an oxygen-enriched atmosphere. To avoid incidents involving oxygen it is important to understand the associated risks. HERE ARE CRITICAL STEPS THAT HEALTH CARE FACILITIES CAN TAKE TO REDUCE THE RISK OF MEDICAL OXYGEN FIRES:

PROVIDE OXYGEN SAFETY TRAINING

PERSONNEL USING OXYGEN AND OXYGENENRICHED GASES SHALL BE ADEQUATELY TRAINED AND KNOWLEDGEABLE IN OXYGEN SAFETY. PERSONNEL USING OXYGEN EQUIPMENT SHALL BE ADEQUATELY TRAINED IN ITS OPERATION.

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IN OXYGEN-ENRICHED ATMOSPHERES, MATERIALS CAN BE EASILY IGNITED BY IGNITION SOURCES SUCH AS FRICTION, OPEN FLAMES, HEATED SURGICAL EQUIPMENT, OR ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT.

REMOVE POTENTIAL IGNITION SOURCES

DO NOT ALLOW SMOKING, FLAMES, SPARKS, OR OTHER SOURCES OF IGNITION IN THE VICINITY OF OXYGEN USE. INFORM PATIENTS OF THE HAZARDS AND “DO’S AND DON’TS” OF OXYGEN USE.

USE OXYGEN-SAFE EQUIPMENT

USE ONLY EQUIPMENT SUITABLE FOR MEDICAL OXYGEN USE.

KEEP HOSES, CANNULAS, AND MASKS IN GOOD CONDITION.

ENSURE THAT CONNECTIONS TO TUBING, REGULATORS, AND OTHER EQUIPMENT ARE TIGHT TO PREVENT LEAKAGE.

DO NOT USE OIL AND GREASE WITH OXYGEN EQUIPMENT

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CGA M-24

Standard for Mitigating Oxygen Hazards in the Health Care Environment https://bit.ly/3blW3Ak

CHECK EQUIPMENT PRIOR TO USE FOR PROPER FUNCTION. ANY CONTAMINATED, BROKEN, MALFUNCTIONING, OR LEAKING EQUIPMENT SHOULD BE REPLACED OR SENT FOR REPAIR OR CLEANING.

BODY OILS, LIP BALMS, HAND LOTIONS, FACE CREAMS, HAIR PRODUCTS, SPRAYS, AND OTHER ITEMS CONTAINING OIL AND GREASE CAN EASILY BURN. KEEP HANDS FREE OF OIL AND GREASE WHEN HANDLING OXYGEN EQUIPMENT. KEEP OIL AND GREASE AWAY FROM AREA WHERE OXYGEN IS IN USE.

CGA P-45 Fire Hazards of Oxygen and Oxygen-Enriched Atmospheres https://bit.ly/2OQlHFW

CGA M-26 Guideline for Mitigating Oxygen Fires in Personal Use https://bit.ly/3pytrsE

CGA TM-8 eLearning: Oxygen Safety

E.T

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20° CGA is a leading authority on technical and safety information for the industrial, medical, and food gases industry in North America and around the world.

SUPPLIER INFORMATION

Download CGA safety posters at www.cganet.com/resources/safety-posters/

• •

Home Oxygen Safety Resource Center CGA COVID-19 Industry Toolkit

Founded in 1913, the Compressed Gas Association is dedicated to the development and promotion of safety standards and safe practices in the industrial, medical, and food gases industry. CGA represents more than 130 member companies including manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, and transporters of

gases, cryogenic liquids, and related products and services. Through a committee system, CGA develops technical specifications, safety standards, and training and educational materials, and works with government agencies to formulate and promote compliance with responsible regulations and standards. The Association also works with other industrial gas associations around the world to harmonize standards to advance safety in the industrial gas industry.

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ASK YOUR BOARD

Ask Your Board

sk Your Board is a new feature that will run in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Quarter issues of Welding & Gases Today. The purpose of Ask Your Board is to ask common business questions that all GAWDA members might be dealing with and to see how GAWDA’s Board of Directors are dealing with these issues within their own companies. To submit a question for GAWDA’s Board Members to consider, please email steveg@gawdamedia.com THE QUESTION

How has your communication, both internal and external, evolved over the past year? Are there any changes that were made that you anticipate continuing long-term?

ABYDEE BUTLER MOORE 2021 GAWDA PRESIDENT  Butler Gas Products We really upgraded our communications technology in 2020, learning and embracing new (to us) platforms like Zoom, RingCentral, Online Meeting, and Teams. We also remembered the personal health and wellness side of safety, connecting with our colleagues on deeper levels and having their backs. We communicated with our customers however they chose, either in person or on video. We got creative with customer networking like park walks, outdoor 32 • Fall 2021

dining, and ski excursions. We also engaged further in the communications of our Associations. From sales training to safety roundtables, we leaned on GAWDA heavily throughout the bench depth of our organization. We learned many of these things in 2020 as necessity, like technology expansions and creative selling, yet kept them up through 2021 and plan to build upon them in years to come.

BOB EWING 2021 GAWDA PRESIDENT-ELECT Red Ball Oxygen Pre-pandemic, electronic meetings were rare. Now, for better or for worse, they have become a standard method of communicating. We now have regularly scheduled calls on Microsoft Teams, and frequent video “huddles” throughout the day, as needed. It’s no substitute for face-to-face, but it does help us shrink the perceived distance between HQ and our branches. These tools can be over-used, but I think, overall, they have improved collaboration and teamwork.

BRAD PETERSON 2021 GAWDA FIRST PAST PRESIDENT Mississippi Welders Supply Company, Inc. We assembled a small group in the very early stages of the pandemic that enabled us to look at multiple facets of our operation and communicate very quickly throughout the

ASK YOUR BOARD

company what we saw as challenges and what our response to the challenge(s) was going to be. The messages to all employees always came from our HR director, explaining the directives were a group effort. Messages coming from the same person not only spoke with the same voice consistently, it also ensured there weren’t competing or conflicting messages coming from other department heads. This also alerted our staff that messages coming from the HR director had substance and value. We will continue to use this practice when important matters arise that need to be disseminated to all teammates in the future. Externally, we very quickly relied upon outside and inside sales staff to call, email or text customers to find out their needs, provide delivery updates, whether to docks or curbside, in an effort to streamline all deliveries while avoiding close contact with customers. While we’ve returned to normal delivery practices, we’ve learned to communicate better with customers, saving us and them time.

Lasting Connections

UNLEASHING SOMETHING NEW

NED LANE 2021 GAWDA SECOND PAST PRESIDENT Cee Kay Supply, Inc. In March/April 2020 we communicated early and often via video, sharing what we knew as it unfolded and how we would adapt to keep our employees safe and supply our customers. Our crisis team would meet weekly, and we would communicate to the rest of the company each week any changes in our policy and COVID trends (National/State/Local). Initially, we did this by video, later transitioning to a weekly email. We relayed facts as best we could and did our best to stay away from opinions. The good news is that we believe our efforts and communication resulted in no infection transfers at the workplace. Some changes that we have adapted include: • Teams has become a valuable meeting tool. • For our larger quarterly meetings, employees have the option to attend in person or join via Teams (live). This is great for outlying branches and those not comfortable in a group setting. • We are also able to record the meeting easily in Teams for those on vacation and unable to attend.

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Fall 2021 • 33

8/12/21 12:34 PM

ASK YOUR BOARD BRAD ARMSTRONG 2021 GAWDA VICE PRESIDENT General Air Service & Supply, Co. We made the decision, along with most of the other businesses in the country, to shift work outside of the office on March 13, 2020. While this was a difficult adjustment, I am proud of our employees for being flexible and continuing to produce results even in the face of this challenge. We are also fortunate to work in an essential industry and were honored to continue to serve our customers during the height of the lockdown. Highlighted here are the ways our communication shifted from company-wide announcements, internal, and customer-facing communication. We have found that in difficult times, an abundance of information can help ease concerns. With guidelines and headlines changing so quickly, our management team was faced with the challenge of keeping our employees up to date on the status quo. We implemented weekly newsletters announcing staff moves, staggered schedules, cleaning protocol, and business

updates. Additionally, I filmed and released a monthly video explaining the current situation, key projects and initiatives, and reasons behind our decisions. Our team quickly adapted to working on platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Both internal meetings and those with customers shifted to online. Prior to 2020, most of our meetings took place in person, but in 2020 we all became re-acquainted with conference calls and the lost art of talking on the phone. Now that we are returning to some sense of normalcy, many of these changes have taken hold and become permanent fixtures in our business. Several of our employees still work from home or work a hybrid schedule with time split between the office and home. While we have resumed in-person meetings, many still take place virtually and previously tech-averse staff now have no qualms logging in to an online meeting. We continue to provide updates to our staff but have shifted to quarterly videos and bi-monthly newsletters instead of weekly emails. While we did not come out of the pandemic completely unscathed, we are thankful that our staff took this challenge head-on and adjusted to change with minimal disruption to our business.

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ASK YOUR BOARD ALLIE EARLBECK 2021 GAWDA VICE PRESIDENT Earlbeck Gases & Technologies Internally, we ramped up our communication frequency to address our employee’s concerns and questions on the changing policies. Companywide emails seemed too impersonal, and, at a time where a lot of people felt isolated, we felt it was important to keep a human touch to our communication. We started utilizing video recordings to give our “state of the union” briefings, so our team didn’t have to feel in the dark about what was going on. That was a change that we have kept up with, as it has proved to be an efficient way to send out updates because we can include staff members that wouldn’t typically have availability to attend all staff meetings. More importantly, it helps capture the nuances in tone and body language so that people can feel comfortable with the decisions that are being discussed. Externally, we also increased our communication with our customers to check in on them and their businesses. We wanted to drive home the point that we are here to serve our customers, good times and bad.

Do you have a topic to ask the GAWDA board? Submit your question to steveg@gawdamedia.com

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COMMITTEE CORNER

Committee Corner

s part of its continued push to help GAWDA members get the most out of their membership dues in the association and stay on the front lines of emerging industry trends and hot-button issues, GAWDA has several volunteer committees devoted to specific areas of the industry. The volunteer committees include: Government Affairs, Human Resources, Industry Partnering, Insurance Trustees, Leadership Development, Member Services, Safety, Women of Gases and Welding, and Young Professionals. This new feature in Welding & Gases Today will update readers on the latest news and events from each committee. We thank all the committee chairs for their help and input as well as their service to the association and its members.

If you are interested in enhancing your GAWDA experience and joining a committee, visit gawda.org/about/ committees to fill out a GAWDA volunteer form today. 36 • Fall 2021

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

Co-Chair Chuck Beal, American Welding & Gas

Co-Chair Rick Schweitzer, GAWDA Legal Counsel

The GAWDA Government Affairs Committee is working on several items of interest to the members. First, we are collaborating with CGA to encourage the FDA to issue new regulations on medical gases; CGA and GAWDA worked together to provide a draft set of regulations to the agency in 2018 and have responded to additional requests for information from the agency. The timing of publishing the new regulations is still unknown, however. As Congress is considering reauthorizing the federal-aid highway program, we are working to preserve DOT’s final rule revising the driver hours of service regulations that became effective September 27, 2020. The final rule: expanded the short haul exemption from 12 to 14 hours and from 100 air miles to 150 air miles for all CDL drivers and revised the

mandatory 30-minute break to occur after 8 hours of driving and to allow the driver to perform non-driving work during the break. House Democrats want to revisit and perhaps withdraw these revisions. We also are working to preserve the DOT’s preemption of state law meal and rest break requirements for drivers of vehicles carrying placarded amounts of hazardous materials. Further, GAWDA supports enactment of the DRIVE Safe Act, which would allow 18-20-year-old individuals to drive commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce (including hazardous materials shipments) after completing a strict training and apprenticeship program, and we support a DOT rulemaking to allow use of electronic shipping papers for hazardous materials transportation by highway mode.

COMMITTEE CORNER  INDUSTRY PARTNERING COMMITTEE GAWDA supports enactment of the DRIVE Safe Act, which would allow 18-20-year-old Co-Chair Justin Johnson, Keen Compressed Gas

Co-Chair Terry Scanlan, Messer

individuals to drive

The Industry Partnering Committee held its quarterly meeting at the Spring Management Conference. We are proud to report that we have added two new members: Kevin Lynch, ANOVA, and Michael Brozowic, Norton/St. Gobain, to bring our membership to 9 supplier representatives and 5 Distributor Members. In 2021, the Industry Partnering Committee was requested to assist in the promotion of the AWS/WEMCO Excellence in Welding Award – Distributors. We will continue to work with the AWS on promotion and continue to develop additional actions for the 2022 awards. Another area that the IPC continues to be active in is the continuous improvement of the Contact Booth Program at the SMC and Annual Convention. This year’s SMC featured a Contact Booth Only pass and Chair Johnson reached out to all GAWDA members in Tennessee and adjoining states to remind them of this special offer. Additionally, the IPC recognizes the need to provide guidance to new vendor participants at the Contact Booth. It is as simple as not sitting or eating during booth duty to the collection of contact information. A best practice document is currently in development. Finally, the IPC continues its work on a two-way scorecard that is being developed for use by distributors. This is an initiative to create a balanced scorecard process when evaluating

distributor/vendor relationships. Other key initiatives that the Industry Partnering Committee has been tasked to work on include creating more opportunities for vendor inclusion within the Annual and SMC Conventions, close collaboration with the Membership Committee, and further collaboration with the AWS/WEMCO.

vehicles in interstate

commercial motor commerce (including hazardous materials shipments).

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COMMITTEE CORNER INSURANCE TRUSTEES COMMITTEE

Co-Chair Jimmy Walker, Jr., SafTCart

Co-Chair Brian McLaughlin, GAWDA Group Life Insurance Consultant

The Insurance Trustees Committee m e t a t G AW DA’s 2 0 2 1 S p r i n g Management Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The committee continues to recruit new members to join the committee, with a list of prospective committee members being actively developed. The committee is working with Met Life to enhance its marketing materials. The Group Life Insurance page on GAWDA.org was recently revamped and an article on the Life Insurance Program was featured in the 3rd Quarter Issue of Welding & Gases Today. All audits have been completed and tax liabilities have been satisfied. The committee continues to brainstorm on how best to compete with standard issue insurance programs and on better ways to sell our program.

MEMBER SERVICES COMMITTEE

Co-Chair Rafael Arvelo, EQUIGAS

Co-Chair Dana Sorensen, Minneapolis Oxygen Company

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The Member Services Committee is working on several initiatives, currently. The first is approaching “at risk” companies, which we have defined as all new companies with four years in GAWDA or less, to reach out to them to explain all of the benefits of GAWDA that they might not have experienced or even know about. We continue to work on the “Test Drive” for membership as well. We also recently set up two sub-committees. The first is the “Engagement” Committee, which will be chaired by Rick Young, while the second is the “Growing Membership” Committee, to be chaired by Jason Reigner. The goals for the MSC and the two subcommittees continue to be more proactive outreach to at-risk companies as defined by the Board as well as growing our membership by highlighting programs like access to the consultants and the CGA Access Program. continued on page 40

38 • Fall 2021

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COMMITTEE CORNER SAFETY COMMITTEE The GAWDA Safety Committee meets monthly via the Go-To-Meeting platform. The committee is comprised of 22 members from all aspects of the welding industry from distributors to manufacturers to insurance experts including four GAWDA consultants, one CGA representative, and two GAWDA board members. We consistently tackle the safety issues that plague the GAWDA membership. We do this by breaking our committee into four subcommittees that have revolving chairmen and assign existing sample safety practices for a dustup to keep it relevant and a new topic based on input from the membership. The entire process evolves over five to six months until we agree to publish the results of the subcommittee. Our method of development allows each Safety

Co-Chair Jim Herring, SafTCart

Co-Chair Bill Woods, American Welding & Gas

Committee member to have a voice in the documents we produce. We divide our group twice a year and generally publish eight different safety practices which can be found on the GAWDA website under members only documents. The safety practices we are currently republishing are as follows: • Transport of Pressurized Containers on Elevators • Flood Emergency Preparedness • Regulatory Agency Visit Guidelines • Ergonomics in the Workplace The new topics are: • Walking-Working Surfaces • OSHA Recordkeeping • Fall Protection • Proper Lifting and Movement For more information about our committee or if you are interested in joining, please visit the GAWDA website.

WOMEN OF GASES AND WELDING COMMITTEE

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Co-Chair Judy Miller, WESCO Gas & Welding Supply

Co-Chair Sue Reiter, Air Products & Chemicals The Women of Gases and Welding (WGW), GAWDA’s newest committee, continues to promote our mission “to

COMMITTEE CORNER See page 54 for more information on the WGW and Young Professionals Annual Convention events

Young Professionals Event

Thursday, October 7, 2021

12:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Lunch and guided hike of Seven Falls

enhance the success of women in the gases and welding industry” as well as “foster a more diverse and inclusive environment for women” in our GAWDA membership. We continue to work toward these mission objectives through personal and professional development as well as educational and networking opportunities. Several Zoom meetings have occurred throughout the year, as well as an in-person meeting at the recent SMC, with a loaded agenda focusing on rejuvenating our strategic committee goals and objectives, planning and coordinating efforts for the upcoming WGW event at the Annual Convention in Colorado Springs, developing the new WGW Educational Grant Program, and more. WGW Event at the Annual Convention Our WGW event is Thursday, October 7, 2021, from 12:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. It includes a networking lunch and private hiking adventure at Seven Falls. Everyone at the conference was invited to the event. The capacity limit for the Women of Gases and Welding Event is now full. Sponsorship opportunities are still available, please reach out to WGW Committee Co-Chair, Judy Miller, at jmiller@wescoweldc.com for more details.

Friday, October 8, 2021 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. A “lesson” in brew at Ivywild

Educational Grant Program WGW Committee has also been working on establishing a new Educational Grant to provide opportunities for GAWDA female members through educational advancement. Final details are being sorted out. We will have more information on this after our next committee meeting in mid-September. Other Current Projects: • 2021 Marketing for WGW Committee

Committee member, Melissa Heard, is working with GAWDA Media to promote the committee initiatives, grant, and events. Melissa will use the current channels through GAWDA Media (W&GT and GAWDA TV). • WGW Volunteer Committee Members The WGW Committee agreed to add a male distributor member to the roster. The current roster includes 3 distributors and 4 suppliers.

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS COMMITTEE

Co-Chair Liz Standley, ILMO Products

Co-Chair Cody Patrick, Gas Equipment Company

The Young Professionals event for the 2021 Annual Convention, A “Lesson” in Brew, which will take place on Friday, October 8, at Ivywild, has sold out. We are looking forward to seeing everyone in Colorado Springs! CGA and GAWDA are currently hosting the Young & Emerging Professionals Summit online. Sessions have been well attended and an extremely helpful resource for learning basic technical knowledge. The Young Professionals committee extends a warm welcome to new committee members Melissa De Jesus, Phoenix International; Logan Evans, Volunteer Welding Supply; Edward Leon, Cryogenic Industrial Solutions; Andy Riordan, American Welding & Gases, Inc.; and Jan Uczkowski, Generant. Fall 2021 • 41

MEMBER PROFILE

Continuous Innovation for More than 80 Years How Huber Supply Company has evolved through four generations of leadership BY STEVE GUGLIELMO

ost companies that have survived for more than 80 years look unrecognizable compared to their beginnings. Perhaps no company better represents that massive transformation than Mason City, Iowa’s Huber Supply Company. Huber Supply Company was formed in 1939, when Elmer Smith’s boat broke down on Lake Erie, stranding him in Port Clinton, Ohio. It was there that Smith met Nelson Schmidt, who worked for his father at a boat repair shop and was able to fix Elmer’s boat over the weekend. Elmer, who was working for Smith Equipment at the time, told Nelson to look him up if he was ever in Minneapolis and needed a job. Nelson came to Minneapolis to take Elmer up on the offer and found a room with George Huber’s grandmother, only a couple of blocks from Smith Equipment.

42 • Fall 2021

It was then that George and Nelson hit it off and began to talk about starting their own oxygen-acetylene route in Minnesota. At the same time as Nelson and George were acquiring a truck to start their route, Smith Company had come out with an electric welder. However, Elmer didn’t like the ventilated top of the welder and asked Nelson to make a better one. As Nelson and Elmer finalized the welder, George secured oxygen and acetylene cylinders for the route, and the company began to take shape. However, tragedy soon struck the fledgling company, as Nelson was tragically killed in a car accident in Watertown, South Dakota. “After Nelson passed away, my great grandfather continued to grow the business,” says Huber Supply President and fourth-generation leader Rodney Huber. “The company really

MEMBER PROFILE

started with a route and grew from there.” However, as the company was hitting its stride, George was drafted to fight in World War II and was forced to sell the business. But when he was not medically cleared to serve, George approached the buyer, only to find that the business was no longer for sale. “So, he looked for the closest Airco distributorships, and the closest one was in Mason City,” says Rodney. “He relaunched the business in 1945 in Mason City.”

GROWTH

As the company continued to grow, Huber’s son, Loren Huber, joined the company. “My grandpa, Loren, got involved with the company after having worked on his own for a while,” says Rodney. “And then my dad, Doug, followed the same path as my grandpa. And we’ve gone through a couple of buyouts in the last ten years or so, to consolidate the business under my dad. And now, my siblings and I are the fourth generation of the family to work in the business.” Today, Huber Supply Company has grown to three store locations and 30 employees. It is one of a consortium of independent distributors who are involved in Absolute Air, which Rodney expects to be a huge growth driver for the company going forward. “In the last ten years our growth has really picked up. Especially as far as adding product offerings,” Rodney says. “When my dad took over the business, he really expanded our

bulk offering. We had a lot of growth when he first took over the business and we put a lot of bulk tanks in. So, as a result of that, our repair department grew. Once we moved to our new location about five years ago, we brought hydrotesting in house. That was something myself and my brother spearheaded. And we’ve expanded our Internet site, which launched about ten years ago. That’s really big. Weldingoutfitter.com. It’s about 10% of our business.” The company also started hauling its own bulk gas about three years ago. “That has really spurred on some growth in the last three years,” says Rodney. “We put a store in Ames as a result of a major moving out of that market. And we’ve had opportunities to expand into different segments.”

ABSOLUTE AIR While the company has experienced major growth in the past ten years, Huber expects that growth to kick into overdrive in the next ten. “We are very excited about our future. I think that we will be double our size in the next five years. And we will have six or more branches. I think this Absolute Air venture is really going to take us to the next level,” he says. “The project was something that we felt we needed to be involved in. If we didn’t do it, we saw down the road that we would maybe get left behind in our marketplace and we wouldn’t be able to compete. So, it became a question of if we would reform how we saw ourselves as a company and maybe drop the bulk side of the Fall 2021 • 43

MEMBER PROFILE has always pushed the networking side of the business. He’s always thought that it’s a really big part of running a successful business. And it’s really helped us out. We’ve been able to bounce ideas off of people we’ve met and tour several other facilities to get new ideas. It’s been very important.” Those strong industry relationships extend into its supplier base as well. As a full-service distributor, representing the best products in the industry is very important. “Lincoln Electric has always been a big partner of ours on the hardgoods side of the industry,” Rodney says. “And for the size company that we are, we rank very highly on their sales list. We just have a very strong relationship with them. We always have.”

FAMILY-OWNED AND INDEPENDENT

business and pursue other avenues. Or, would we really go all in on it? And we decided to take the risk and go all in. And I think, in our marketplace, we have a really good opportunity.” Absolute Air is expected to come online in the first quarter of 2022 and will give customers an independent gas and cryogenic solution provider. The state-of-the-art Air Separation Plant will assure an ongoing source of supply of Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon requirements. In addition to the consortium being key to Huber’s future growth, the group of independent distributors has also been a huge driver in Huber’s recent bulk growth. “When we decided to start hauling our own bulk gas, we had a period of transition before we got our own trucks, where the Absolute Air companies were helping us haul some of our product,” says Rodney. “We didn’t have anybody lined up at that time and we had to wait for our trucks to come in. Those relationships have been really important.”

STRONG INDUSTRY RELATIONSHIPS Those strong relationships have been a hallmark of the company’s history and a big reason for its growth over 80 years. The company is not only an active GAWDA member and a part of Absolute Air, it also is a member of the IWDC. “For myself, even though I’ve grown up in the industry and around the company, there’s a lot of stuff that I didn’t know about that we weren’t doing,” Rodney says. “My dad 44 • Fall 2021

In addition to its strong industry relationships, the company’s independence and company culture have also been integral to Huber’s success and longevity. “We hear all the time from customers who found our website about how great it is that we’re family owned,” Rodney says. “In our area, with all of the consolidations, there aren’t a lot of independent options anymore. It gives our customers something different. And our pricing structure is different. For example, we just picked up a customer because they were under contract with somebody else and they asked us to come in and look at their bulk tank. We said, ‘We can’t do anything with it, but we’ll take a look at it and give you some recommendations and you can try to fix it yourself.’ And so, our tech was able to go over there, look at the tank, diagnose it and they were able to fix it. And the reason why they called us in is because they couldn’t get somebody local with their supplier. So, I think being family owned and local is very important.” Rodney took over as company president in 2019, after working with the University of Iowa’s Advance Iowa Family Business Forum, to ensure a smooth transition. “We worked with a group that is helping us with the transition planning. My parents are still involved. And they have handed off a lot of things in the last couple of years to us kids. I would say that we were already transitioning naturally into some of these roles, and then we put our stamp on it and made it more forward facing to the employees,” Rodney says. “It has changed our company structure a little bit. My sister and brother are Vice Presidents of different sides of the business. My brother handles more of the gas operations side of the business and my sister handles more of the internal office and warehouse administrative side. And there are still hiccups that you deal with on a day-today basis. But it’s getting better and better as we grow.”

MEMBER PROFILE

That generational shift is emblematic of what the company is also going through on a macro level. “There is a culture shift right now, or a generational shift that we have going on in our business. We have a lot of employees who have been here for 30 or 40 years that are starting-to-think about transitioning. And we have some young up-and-comers that are in the business. So, there is going to be that gap to bridge. And we’re working through that. I think we have some really good, young people in our business that are talented and customer oriented,” Rodney says. “Within our company, we promote people that have positive attitudes. And when I say attitude, I mean a willingness to help the customer out. They’re always positive and pulling in the same direction. That’s really important for us. We want to create an environment where everybody likes to work together.”

BECOMING DIGITAL The final piece of the puzzle for Huber has been its digital strategy. Launched ten years ago, weldingoutfitter.com is its e-commerce platform that today accounts for nearly 10% of the company’s business. “Early in my career, when I was working on our dock as a cylinder filler, my dad wanted me to transition inside,” Rodney says. “I had some background in website design in high school and college and I always had a little bit of an interest in that. We had a website, and it was really bad. So, I redid that website. And then I said, ‘Why don’t we start selling online?’” He continues, “So we started small. When it first launched, it was not very successful. We got one or two orders per week. And our first sites were kind of clunky and were not very good. And then we transitioned to another group. And we brought in a consultant on the SEO side of things. And as we grew out of the consultant, we started doing more and more in house.

Three years ago, we brought in somebody to do the search engine optimization in house and the online advertising and do a little bit of the management of the site.” He advises that success did not happen overnight. “You have to be dedicated to it. You have to have the support personnel; you have to have the customer service and shipping people. It does really become a beast. If you don’t go into it with your eyes wide open and understand that it’s going to require some resources to be thrown at it, then you’re not going to be successful. I think we went through those growing pains, and I’ll be honest, it just continues to grow, and we’ve gotten into a bit of a sweet spot.” Huber acknowledges that the e-commerce site will continue to grow in importance moving forward. “The role of the salesperson is changing. It was changing before COVID, but it happened faster as a result of it. I don’t think you’re going to get in the door as easily. I think that’s going to stick around. It can be hard to get inside a factory. They’re locked down like Fort Knox,” he says. “And I know with the next generation of purchasers, they don’t want a face per se, they just want to be able to pick up the phone or send an email or go to a website to find what they need. They don’t want to necessarily find somebody to chit chat with. So, I think we should be conscious of that. Things are going to move more digital.”

GOING FORWARD Even though the company is more than 80 years old, Huber Supply Company is as young and vibrant as ever. In its fourth generation of leadership, the company is poised to explode in the coming years, as its involvement in Absolute Air begins to bear fruit and its digital platforms continue to gain traction and prominence. With a strong history and cultural base combined with these new age innovations, the sky is the limit. Fall 2021 • 45

MEMBER BENEFIT

The GAWDA/CGA Safety & Training Playbook Utilizing the Program & Leveraging its Resources

n Thursday, July 15, GAWDA and the CGA hosted a live webinar entitled “The GAWDA/ CGA Safety & Training Playbook.” The webinar discussed how GAWDA members can participate in the CGA subscription program and get the highest safety return on investment from their GAWDA membership. GAWDA members have free access to the full CGA library of technical publications and the online training modules, just by virtue of participating in the CGA Subscription Program. “We realized at the Spring Management Conference that we have huge untapped potential in rolling out the CGA/ GAWDA alliance program throughout our membership,” said GAWDA President Abydee Butler Moore at the start of the presentation. “Currently only 90 distributor companies take advantage of this resource. One of our objectives for this year is to increase participation and to increase understanding of all the phenomenal resources that are available through this GAWDA/CGA subscription program.” The webinar, which can be found on GAWDA’s MembersOnly page, was open to existing subscription members as well as members who are not yet participants. It covered a wide range of topics, including: • An overview of the GAWDA CGA subscription program • Who is eligible to participate 46 • Fall 2021

How GAWDA members can participate • Accessing the resources The webinar also included a member panel, where GAWDA members: Mike Bourgeois, Operations Manager at Coastal Welding Supply, Inc., and Lonnie Nash, Compliance Manager at Haun Welding, discussed how they utilize the subscription program within their own company. It concludes with an audience Q&A session. The full onehour webinar is accessible through the Members-Only site. The following is a brief summary. •

PROGRAM OVERVIEW The GAWDA/CGA Subscription Program is open to any GAWDA Distributor Member in good standing who submit required subscription and safety data forms. Participants must not be a former member of CGA with a termination date later than October 10, 2011. Benefits of the program include free access to CGA’s library of safety publications and eLearning modules, invitations to industry seminars and webinars, and discounted pricing on hardcopy publications and the CGA Handbook of Compressed Gases. “There are two types of membership sizes that can sign up two different ways,” says GAWDA Executive Director John Ospina. “If you have less than ten employees, all you really

One of our objectives for this year is to increase participation and to increase understanding of all the phenomenal resources that are available through this GAWDA/CGA subscription program. need to do is submit your application form and you’re good to go. If you have 11 or more employees, you need to submit your application form and your OSHA 300 form.” Members who submit one year of their OSHA 300A forms they are eligible for the subscription program, but not to participate in the CGA Safety Award Programs. To participate in the Safety Award Program, members must submit five years of OSHA 300A information. Participating members get access for one employee per company location to receive CGA publications and 15 employees per company location to receive the CGA e-learning modules. The safety dada submissions are processed by CGA staff and aggregated to track industry safety trends. Data reported from the program is shown in aggregate format and never identifies specific companies. CGA will never share safety data identifying individual companies without express permission.

WHAT DO YOU RECEIVE? Once approved, GAWDA members have access to leading safety standards. CGA’s library has more than 360 industry safety standards, a value of $3,900 per user. Participants also get access to training end education programs, which can be easily incorporated into safety training for employees, with access to eLearning, videos, and live seminar/webinar content. You are also eligible to attend live events that offer take-home value for personnel at every level of operations. To learn more about how to access each of these participant benefits, watch the GAWDA/CGA Safety & Training Playbook webinar on the GAWDA Members Only Page Today.

WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY

In the Third Quarter 2021 Issue of Welding & Gases Today, CGA ran an article entitled “GAWDA Members Share Why They Participate in the CGA Subscription Program.” “I’m on the CGA website just about every week,” says Ben Polavin, Safety and Compliance Officer for Purity Cylinder

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MEMBER BENEFIT Gases. “Without their publications library, it would be difficult to access that kind of knowledge base, from such a trusted source of safety information for our industry.” He continues, “For us, it’s absolutely worth the effort to participate in this program and report the required safety data. For one thing, more of our clients and prospects are asking for the same safety data, so it helps that we’re already collecting the information. And the most important part of Purity are our people. We want them to be safe. Participating in this program helps us to do that.” During the webinar, Bourgeois and Nash echoed those sentiments. “Haun Welding Supply has been utilizing the GAWDA/ CGA subscription program for approximately 12 years,” says Lonnie Nash. “I first learned about this benefit by participating in a GAWDA Professional Compliance Seminar. Haun has a number of DOT registered high and low-pressure cylinder requalification facilities, which are required to have several CGA resources available that contain testing methods and inspection criteria. We use these resources and safety bulletins

WHY BTIC AMERICA? Superior quality Competitive pricing First-class service 48 • Fall 2021

For more information about the GAWDA/CGA Subscription program, visit GAWDA.org today. for both daily inspection references and for all of our in-process and function specific training.” He continues, “Prior to realizing that access was a benefit of our membership in GAWDA, we were reluctant to add to our library of training resources unless it was necessary, as they were expensive. Now, we can quickly and easily download them whenever we or our customers need additional information on just about anything regarding the gas industry, without worrying about the cost.” Adds Bourgeois, “At Coastal Welding Supply, we really strive to be an industry leader in both compliance and safety, not just for our employees but also for our customers. Utilizing the bulletins, the CGA pamphlets and safety topics really helps us achieve this goal.”

2021 AC PREVIEW

EYES UP

2021 ANNUAL CONVENTION A

OCTOBER 6 – 9, 2021 Held at the

1 Lake Avenue Colorado Springs, CO 80906

Photo: The Broadmoor

For more information and registration, visit www.gawda.org

50 • Fall 2021

The average high temperatures are in the mid 60s and the average low temperatures are in the mid to high 30s. Convention attire is business casual. A sweater or jacket may be advised. The President’s Farewell Gala is cocktail attire.

2021 AC PREVIEW

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2021 Annual Convention Schedule

TIME

12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

MEETING

T U E S D AY, O C T O B E R 5 , 2 0 2 1

Early Badge Pickup

LOCATION

The Broadmoor

W E D N E S D AY, O C T O B E R 6 , 2 0 2 1 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Convention Registration

The Broadmoor

8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.

Executive Committee Meeting

The Broadmoor

9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Board of Directors Meeting: Part 1

The Broadmoor

11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Strategic Planning Meeting with Committee Chairs

The Broadmoor

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Committee Meetings

The Broadmoor

2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Board of Directors Meeting: Part 2

The Broadmoor

4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

3-TWO-1 Reception

The Broadmoor

5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

President’s Welcome Reception

The Broadmoor

7:30 p.m.

Industry Hospitalities

The Broadmoor

T H U R S D AY, O C T O B E R 7 , 2 0 2 1 7:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Convention Registration

The Broadmoor

7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.

Networking Breakfast

The Broadmoor

Opening General Business Session • The CEO Track (Moderated by Abydee Butler Moore) 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Six independent CEOs gathering to tackle our industry’s competitive edge, development gaps, opportunities, and threats: Wally Brant, Richelle Smith-Brecht, Jason Krieger, Mark Raimy, Jenny McCall, Alex Kennedy

The Broadmoor

• Deepak Malhotra Harvard professor and negotiation guru teaching deal-making and conflict resolution

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Past Presidents Luncheon

The Broadmoor

12:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Women of Gases and Welding Event

The Broadmoor

1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Exhibitor Move-In

The Broadmoor

1:00 p.m.

Industry Hospitalities

The Broadmoor

F R I D AY, O C T O B E R 8 , 2 0 2 1 6:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.

Exhibitor Move-In

The Broadmoor

7:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Convention Registration

The Broadmoor

7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.

Networking Breakfast

The Broadmoor

8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Contact Booth Program

The Broadmoor

10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Spouse and Family Brunch

The Broadmoor

1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Young Professionals Event

Offsite

1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Industry Hospitalities

The Broadmoor

6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

President’s Farewell Gala

The Broadmoor continued on next page

Fall 2021 • 51

2021 AC PREVIEW

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Convention Schedule Continued TIME

MEETING

LOCATION

S AT U R D AY, O C T O B E R 9 , 2 0 2 1 7:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Convention Registration

The Broadmoor

7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.

Networking Breakfast

The Broadmoor

Closing General Business Session • Francesco Maione Air Products President Americas discussing his business philosophies, professional journey, and the future of industrial gas distribution

8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

• Marcus Lemonis Entrepreneur, CEO, and TV personality of CNBC’s The Profit revealing the secrets of why he’s the notorious “business turnaround king”

The Broadmoor

• Induction of 2022 GAWDA President Bob Ewing Industry and family welcoming of Bob Ewing, President of Red Ball Oxygen, into the GAWDA President’s Office

Safety and Wellness Plan

GAWDA is working closely with The Broadmoor Team, Freeman Exhibit Management, other support vendors and state and local public health authorities to provide everyone a safe and successful Convention environment. Those efforts include thorough and constant cleaning and sanitizing of surfaces, assembly venues, meeting rooms and exhibit spaces.

Badge Pick Up To provide contactless options, badges will be mailed directly to you 21 days before the event. If registered after the 21 day deadline, attendees must pick up their badge at Registration onsite. A PDF copy of the Program Book will be posted on the Attendee event website and the APP.

Masks and face coverings are recommended in public indoor settings - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending that all individuals wear a mask indoors in public, in areas of substantial or high transmission levels, to maximize protection and prevent spreading to others. GAWDA will provide masks onsite at the Annual Convention. We will continue monitoring reports and guidance from the CDC, Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, and the El Paso County Department of Public Health and assess potential changes to this policy. The health and safety of all GAWDA Annual Convention attendees remains of the utmost importance to us. As the event date approaches, please check here for the latest updates.

Committee Meetings Hand sanitizers will be placed in each committee room and other meeting locations. Call in lines will be provided for committee members that can’t attend in person as needed.

Flying into Colorado Springs and Getting to the Hotel Mask or Face Coverings are required at all International Airports and all Uber rides around the country.

52 • Fall 2021

Contact Booth Program Along with Freeman Exhibitor Management Safety Protocols, wide Booths aisles. Additional safety equipment available for purchase from Freeman. Additional signs posted for one-way traffic aisles. Large foyer for safe networking. Hand sanitizers throughout the event space. Receptions Large space for social distancing. With terrace, outdoor options. FOR MORE INFORMAITON VISIT GAWDA.ORG

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MEET THE ANNUAL CONVENTION PRESENTERS The CEO Track MODERATED BY ABYDEE BUTLER MOORE Six independent CEOs gathering to tackle our industry’s competitive edge, development gaps, opportunities, and threats: • Wally Brant, CEO, Indiana Oxygen • Richelle Smith-Brecht, President and CEO, S.J. Smith • Jason Krieger, President and CEO, American Welding and Gas • Mark Raimy, CEO, Welders Supply • Jenny McCall, President/CEO, WESCO Gas & Welding • Alex Kennedy, CEO, Red Ball Oxygen

Deepak Malhotra ECONOMIST Deepak Malhotra is the Eli Goldston Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. His teaching, research and advisory work is focused on negotiation, deal-making and conflict resolution. He has won numerous awards for his teaching, including the HBS Faculty Award by Harvard Business School’s MBA Class of 2011, and the Charles M. Williams Award. His latest book is entitled “Negotiating the Impossible.”

Francesco Maione

Marcus Lemonis

PRESIDENT, AMERICAS, AIR PRODUCTS

ENTREPRENEUR, TV PERSONALITY

Francesco Maione is president, Americas, at Air Products. He is responsible for the growth and profitability of the company’s Atmospheric Gases and HyCO product lines, as well as Operations, across North and South America.

Marcus Lemonis is best known for breathing life back into struggling small businesses on CNBC’s The Profit. Lemonis is more than a TV personality, he is a successful entrepreneur, advocate and philanthropist.

Fall 2021 • 53

2021 AC PREVIEW

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Thursday, October 7, 2021 12:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Pricing: $95.00 Lunch and guided hike of Seven Falls Seven Falls is a series of seven majestic waterfalls, located a little under a mile from The Broadmoor, and it is one of the most popular sites to visit in Colorado Springs. (It is so impressive, it even made National Geographic’s list of International Waterfalls!) Known as “The Grandest Mile of Scenery in Colorado”, this resplendent cascade is nestled in the sky-scraping Pillars of Hercules, a 900- foot box canyon. Though the space between the pink granite canyon is a narrow 41 feet wide, the sight of the enclosed waterfalls is unmissable. Registration includes lunch, bus to and from Seven Falls, entry to Seven Falls and guided hike.

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54 • Fall 2021

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Young Professionals Event

Friday, October 8, 2021 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Pricing: $15.00 A “lesson” in brew at Ivywild The Young Professionals group for GAWDA’s Annual Convention will be treated with Colorado hospitality in a truly unique event venue. Guests of this event will travel approximately 10 minutes via motorcoach to Ivywild, a former elementary school converted into a place where visitors can mix and mingle over local cuisine and craft beverages. Here, guests are ushered into the Barrel Room, which is exclusively rented for GAWDA Young Professionals. Guests can choose to take a private tour at Bristol Brewing Company or partake in casual gaming and relax in the attached beer garden. Upon completion of the tour, the guests are invited back to the Barrel Room & Beer Garden to relax and partake in some casual brewery games like Jenga, Cornhole and Washers.

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Fall 2021 • 55

2021 AC PREVIEW

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8 reasons to download

T H E G AW D A Annual Convention APP

STAY INFORMED

DOWNLOAD OUR MOBILE APP TODAY! Available on the App Store and Google Play.

1. Activity Feed to interact with Attendees 2. The complete 2021 Annual Convention Agenda 3. Detailed maps for meeting locations 4. Full List General Session Speakers 5. Contact Booth Layout with Exhibitors 6. A chance to interact with Live Polls 7. Downloadable 2021 Annual Convention Program Book

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56 • Fall 2021

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NEWS FROM GAWDA

Northwest Regional Meeting

2021 GAWDA Regional Meeting Recaps

fter having to cancel all of its 2021 Regional Meetings, this year saw the return of these important networking and educational opportunities. For the first time since 2019, GAWDA members had the opportunity to gather at three regional meetings. Below is a synopsis of each of these meetings as well as a sampling of pictures from each event. For a full photo gallery for each of the regional meetings, visit gawdamedia.com. For a sneak peek of the 2022 GAWDA Regional meeting schedule, visit gawda. org/activities/regional-meetings.

NORTHWEST REGIONAL MEETING After not hosting a Regional Meeting since August 2019, GAWDA Regional Meetings returned for 2021 with the Northwest Regional Meeting, which was 58 • Fall 2021

held from July 21-23 in Sunriver Oregon. The event was a major success, with 136 registrants who were treated to amazing industry presentations from industry heavyweights including Dave Lambert, Dave Weitzel, Hector Villarreal, and Mary Carter, as well as networking opportunities like an opening reception and dinner, a golf outing and bocce ball. A great time was had by all who attended. “This meeting was an impressive feat,” says Northwest Regional Meeting co-chair Eric Bliss. “Back in March, we had to make the decision on whether or not we would be able to conduct the meeting in a manner that is fit for the Northwest. Especially in the state of Oregon, which, at the time, had some of the strictest COVID restrictions in the country. The distributors got together and decided to move ahead with it. Our expectations were fairly low, we were

going to be thrilled if we could get 50 attendees to join us. As it turns out, people have a desire to travel again. We had over 130 attendees at the event! I want to give a big shout out to all of the people that came and sponsored this event. Without their help, these events just wouldn’t happen. I would also like to thank Brent Laing and the great people at Industrial Source for helping co-chair the event. Robert Gerry was instrumental in organizing our speakers, which provided fantastic content and made it easy to grab takeaways that help provide a ROI on the trip. To our speakers: Dave Lambert, Hector Villarreal, Dave Weitzel and Mary Carter, thank you for your presentations and time it is greatly appreciated. Thank you everyone for helping with the 2021 NW regional meeting it was fantastic to see everyone in person again.”

NEWS FROM GAWDA

CENTRAL REGIONAL MEETING The second GAWDA Regional Meeting of 2021 took place in Oregon, Ohio, at the incredible Maumee Bay State Park from August 9-10. Central Regional Co-Chairs Eric Wood, O.E. Meyer, and Bob Ranc, Weldcoa, put together an amazing event that was well-attended by both GAWDA Distributors and Suppliers. The event had 72 registrants, who were treated to a cocktail reception and dinner with breathtaking views overlooking Lake Erie. The event also featured a GAWDA Association update from President Abydee Butler Moore and an enlightening presentation from Lincoln Electric’s Mike Mintun entitled “View of the Welding Industry, 2021 into 2022” where he gave his overview of what is in store for the welding industry in the next couple of years. August 10th featured a networking breakfast and then attendees had the opportunity to hit the links with fellow members. A great time was had by all!

Central Regional Meeting

continued on next page

Fall 2021 • 59

NEWS FROM GAWDA SEVEN SPRINGS REGIONAL MEETING The GAWDA Seven Springs Regional Meeting was the final Regional Meeting of 2021. The event took place at the picturesque Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, from August 24-26. The event kicked off on Tuesday, August 24, with lunch and lawn games on the resort’s grounds, before attendees were broken into groups for a clay pigeon shooting competition. Teams of three or four were able to shoot at seven different stations. After the competition, attendees had a networking happy hour on a deck overlooking the grounds. Later that evening, attendees met for a barbeque dinner at the resort’s Foggy Goggle restaurant and bar, complete with live music and an opportunity to participate in axe throwing. On Wednesday, August 25, the meeting kicked off in earnest with a networking breakfast, followed by the unique “Reverse Contact Booth Program.” The reverse contact booth literally flipped the script on the traditional contact booth program, as the 28 distributor companies in attendance had their own display table, while the suppliers in attendance were able to walk the floor and meet with them individually. It was a great opportunity to establish new relationships as well as to deepen existing ones. After the reverse contact booth, the educational portion of the event took place. GAWDA President and Seven Springs Chairperson Abydee Butler Moore kicked off this portion of the meeting with an association update. As she did at SMC, she challenged attendees to find the key take home value that will help pay for and justify their attendance at the Regional Meeting. Following Abydee, attendees were treated to great presentations from GAWDA Board Member Eric Wood, who discussed Gas Agreements and 60 • Fall 2021

Seven Springs Regional Meeting

Contracts; Weldstar President Matt Winkle on identifying, recruiting and retaining the next generation of leadership, and Meritus Gas Partners Vice Chairman Rob D’Allesandro, who discussed the company’s experience with mergers and acquisitions. After the presentations, attendees gathered together for a networking lunch, followed by a golf tournament at the amazing Seven Springs Resort Golf Course. After golf, there was a networking dinner at the Mountain Club.

Finally, the conference concluded on Thursday, August 26, after a Safety presentation from GAWDA Consultant Marilyn Dempsey. Overall, 225 GAWDA Members were in attendance. Through raffles and prizes, the event also raised a large amount of money for this year’s GAWDA Gives Back Charity, the Children’s Literacy Foundation. A great time was had by all. Thank you to the unbelievable sponsors who made this event possible and to the GAWDA members who were in attendance.

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SALES & MARKETING SELLING IN THE NEW NORMAL

More than a Slogan BY STEVE GUGLIELMO

he term “Made in the USA” is one that is familiar to everybody. We’ve seen it on packaging. We’ve seen it in commercials, usually accompanied by flags waving, baseball in the background and apple pie coming out of the oven. And research suggests that the term does more than evoke feelings of patriotism. It can actually drive consumer spending and habits. But the term “Made in the USA” and other similar claims, like “American Made,” are more than just branding and sloganeering. Made in the USA is actually a federally protected designation from the Federal Trade Commission. According to the FTC’s website, to be accurately described as Made in the USA, a product must not only be assembled within the country, but “all or virtually all made in the U.S.” The site continues, “‘All or virtually all’ means that all significant parts and processing that go into the product must be of U.S. origin. That is, the product should contain no – or negligible – foreign content.” The designation applies to claims both explicit, i.e.. Made in the USA, and implied, like “built in America.” The FTC has, in recent years, forced some companies to clarify those implied statements by adding statements like “Built in America from Imported Parts” or by asking them to specify the percentage of parts in the product that are American vs. foreign.

COMPLYING WITH MADE IN THE USA STANDARDS While there is no actual “certification” required from the FTC that a product is American made, the FTC does have the authority to punish companies who market their products as American made if they are not. In fact, the FTC recently finalized a new rule that will crack down on marketers who make false, unqualified claims that their products are Made in the USA. 62 • Fall 2021

On July 1, 2021, the FTC released a statement from FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra, Chair Lina Khan and Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, which said, “Today, the Commission has voted to adopt a final Made in USA rule. The final rule reflects a substantial number of comments from the public, which overwhelmingly supported this policy change by the Commission. By formally codifying this rule, the Commission has activated a broader range of remedies, including the ability to seek redress, damages, penalties, and other relief from those who lie about a Made in USA label. The rule will especially benefit small businesses that rely on the Made in USA label but lack the resources to defend themselves from imitators.” Dynabrade, a Clarence, NY, manufacturer of high-end abrasive power tools and vacuum systems, has many products that it markets as Made in the USA. “Made in the USA is very important to us as a company,” says Director of Marketing Ronald Veiders. “Being a local company and servicing distributors in the USA and globally for over 50 years, the ideal of a product being designed, engineered, manufactured and assembled in the USA is still highly sought after, and has high regard. All of our tools fit within this production model. We also pride ourselves that while we have some automated processes in our facility, our assembly process is by hand by our employees, and every tool is tested by a Dynabrade employee to ensure it operates appropriately. It’s that craftsmanship and attention to detail that goes into every Dynabrade tool we offer.” Veiders notes that some of its product lines, like its Dynabrade NITRO series of tools, do not qualify as Made in the USA and so the company is very careful to never put a Made in the USA claim on any of those lines or products.

SALES & MARKETING

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DOES “MADE IN THE USA” MAKE A DIFFERENCE? A study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group in 2012 revealed that 80% of Americans are willing to pay more for a product that is labeled “Made in the USA.” And the past several years have only added to that consumer sentiment. First, as goods from overseas have seen price increases due to tariffs, then, as COVID made lead times and raw materials from overseas more difficult and more expensive to get. “Our distributors are proud to offer Dynabrade Made in the USA tools, and end-users see Made in the USA as high on their decision-making process,” says Veiders. “We send surveys out annually to ensure we are delivering the best products and service we can, and the responses are overwhelming.” Another GAWDA supplier, Norris Cylinders, announced in June 2021 that it had achieved the “Made in the USA Designation.” “For more than 70 years, Norris Cylinder has provided a strong commitment to providing customer solutions with demonstrated quality and exceptional service to the compressed industrial gas industry,” said Thomas Amato, TriMas President and Chief Executive Officer. “We believe this important step to recognize our Made in the USA status is a win for our cus-

ACCORDING TO AN INFOGRAPHIC FROM STANDARD TEXTILE:

80% of consumers prefer “Made in America” products

60%

of Americans say they are willing to pay 10% more for products that are American produced

$1 spent in manufacturing, $1.89 is added to the economy

For every

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SALES & MARKETING SELLING IN THE NEW NORMAL

But being Made in America can provide competitive advantages beyond nationalism or patriotism. “Made in America is one of the first things that I wanted to do when I started designing our tools,” said the late Bob Doan, who founded Flange Wizard, Inc. “You have to have complete control of your products so that the distributors can get the products when they want them.” Norris Cylinder President Chuck Manz echoed those sentiments. “As a Made in the USA manufacturer, we are able to assure our customers that all of their gas packaging and safety requirements are locally addressed,” he says. “We

manufacture in Texas and Alabama and source virtually all of our materials or components from other U.S. manufacturers, thereby cascading our commitment to the U.S. workforce, and maintaining more control over lead times and quality.” Made in America is a powerful marketing tool. But the process for ensuring that your company actually qualifies as a Made in America manufacturer can be tricky. The FTC has shown an increased willingness to pursue false “Made in America” claims. So, if you are Made in America, yell it from the mountain tops for all to hear! But if you aren’t, think twice about claiming or implying that you are.

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o how can your company ensure that it is complying with the FTC rulemaking? According to an FAQ from the FTC website for Unqualified Made in the USA Claims, i.e.. Those that don’t specify things like “60% U.S. Content” or “Made in USA from imported parts” (ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/ guidance/complying-made-usa-standard: What substantiation is required for a Made in USA claim? When a manufacturer or marketer makes an unqualified claim that a product is Made in USA, it should have — and rely on — a “reasonable basis” to support the claim at the time it is made. This means a manufacturer or marketer needs competent and reliable evidence to back up the claim that its product is “all or virtually all” made in the U.S.

What factors does the Commission consider to determine whether a product is “all or virtually all” made in the U.S.?

product. In some instances, only a small portion of the total manufacturing costs are attributable to foreign processing, but that processing represents a significant amount of the product’s overall processing. The same could be true for some foreign parts. In these cases, the foreign content (processing or parts) is more than negligible, and, as a result, unqualified claims are inappropriate.

What items should manufacturers and marketers include in analyzing the percentage of domestic content in a particular product? Manufacturers and marketers should use the cost of goods sold or inventory costs of finished goods in their analysis. Such costs generally are limited to the total cost of all manufacturing materials, direct manufacturing labor, and manufacturing overhead.

Should manufacturers and marketers rely on information from American suppliers about the amount of domestic content in the parts, components, and other elements they buy and use for their final products?

costs can be assigned to U.S. parts and processing, and

If given in good faith, manufacturers and marketers can rely on information from suppliers about the domestic content in the parts, components, and other elements they produce. Rather than assume that the input is 100 percent U.S.-made, however, manufacturers and marketers would be wise to ask the supplier for specific information about the percentage of

how far removed any foreign content is from the finished

U.S. content before they make a U.S. origin claim.

The product’s final assembly or processing must take place in the U.S. The Commission then considers other factors, including how much of the product’s total manufacturing

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SALES & MARKETING SELLING IN THE NEW NORMAL

The Potential Benefits of ESOPs as a Succession Plan Rather than selling to another company, many members are selling to their employees BY STEVE GUGLIELMO

cross all industries, companies are facing a generational shift that is impacting their entire organizations. As C-suite executives and owners reach retirement age, they are faced with a question of what to do with the business. At the Seven Springs Regional Meeting, Meritus Vice Chairman Rob D’Allesandro laid out what he describes as the five alternatives to selling the business outright, ranking them on a spectrum from staying independent to an outright sale. Those options included an Enhanced Supply Relationship, a Joint Venture with another Distributor, an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, a Partnership with an Equity Sponsor/Partner, and an Outright Sale. In recent years, an increasingly popular option is the ESOP. One of the reasons ESOPs have become so popular is that owners may worry about what will happen to their employees under new ownership, if they choose to sell the business in order to retire. In an ESOP, those employees now become part of the ownership group, giving them a stake in the success of the business and the company a potential recruiting and retention competitive advantage. ESOPs are especially attractive to companies who may not have an in-house successor who is prepared to step into a leadership role or may not be financially able to purchase the company from the retiring owner. Such was the case when Oxygen Service Company’s original owners were set to retire in the early 90s. “Our two original owners were Bill Lund and Bill Huber,” says Oxygen Service Company President Ryan Diekow. “One of the decisions they made as business partners was not to bring family into the business. So, when they got to the point of retirement, they were at a bit of a crossroads. Do they sell to one of the large distributors out there, or do they go down this employee ownership road? They decided to actually take less for their business but reward the folks who had been loyal 66 • Fall 2021

to them and helped them build the business over the years. It was an exciting opportunity for us, as employees. And it’s exciting because Bill Lund still comes around the business today. He’s extremely proud to still be associated with Oxygen Service and to leave the employee ownership legacy.

ATTRACTIVE BUSINESS QUALITIES According to an article from Rivero, Gordimer & Company CPAs and Advisors, there are several qualities to help owners determine if an ESOP could be the ideal exit solution. This list includes: • Company has strong cash flow • Company has a history of increasing sales and profits • Company is in a high federal income tax bracket • Company is not heavily leveraged and has substantial stockholder equity • Company has capable second-line management in place • Company has 30 or more employees • Company has more than $5 million in annual sales. The article goes on to say, “In addition to analyzing the financial aspects of an ESOP as an exit strategy, it’s also important to consider the employees. Proponents of employee ownership emphasize the incentive and team-building advantages of paying employees in part with employer stock. Critics argue that concentrating employees’ financial resources in their employer’s securities increases their exposure to their employer’s fortunes. The future success of the company will be partly dependent on the employee culture and mindset. The ESOP Association performed a study of its members and found that most of its members reported increased productivity and improved employee morale. A study by the National Center for Employee Ownership found that ESOP companies grew more than 5% a year faster than their non-ESOP counterparts.”

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EMPLOYEE RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION Many GAWDA members have pursued a full or partial ESOPs in recent years and report being happy with the results. In the 2nd Quarter 2018 issue of Welding & Gases Today, we published an article entitled “ESOPs: As a Succession-or-Sell Option, Employee Ownership Can be a Win-Win-Win Solution.” That article spoke with multiple GAWDA members who have created full or partial ESOPs and how it has impacted their productivity and their company culture. “I think being a 100% ESOP does give us an advantage when it comes to recruiting,” Diekow says. “One of the things that we discuss, especially when it comes to our younger employees, is we’ve gone away from calling it a retirement benefit to calling it a wealth-building tool. A lot of folks, especially younger folks, don’t see themselves with the same company for the next 30 years. We’re trying to make sure that they understand the advantage of being part of an ESOP and the tool that it is.” General Air Service & Supply became a partial ESOP in 2007, which its website describes as “part of its secret sauce for recruiting and retaining the best in our industry.” “The decision to form an ESOP in 2007 was really part

of my dad’s transition plan, from his position of leadership to mine,” says President Brad Armstrong. “It was one that we worked on together. He wanted to recognize and honor the individuals that had had a long career with us and helped us get established. And I think he also wanted to put some stickiness in the business as we were transitioning from his leadership style to mine. And to really encourage our employees through stock gifting to hang in through the differences and the nuances. And one thing was going to stay the same, that we have our employees’ best interest in mind. The ESOP is a long-term benefit that really encourages people to stay as the stock grows in value over time. Tom Dunn, past CEO and Owner of Cee Kay Supply, who became 49% Employee Owned in July of this year, said, “The employees have always been at the center of growth and success for Cee Kay Supply. As I explored transitioning out of ownership, the ESOP model was a great solution to preserve the brand and our family ownership legacy, while allowing future employees to directly share in the benefits of their hard work and long-term dedication.” In the press release announcing the ESOP, Cee Kay cited

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As I explored transitioning out of ownership, the ESOP model was a great solution to preserve the brand and our family ownership legacy, while allowing future employees to directly share in the benefits of their hard work and long-term dedication. statistics from the National Center for Employee Ownership, including: • ESOP companies have higher productivity, profit margins and overall job satisfaction. • Employees have been found to have 2.2 times as much in their retirement plans, 20% more financial assets and 53% longer median job tenure.

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OTHER CONSIDERATIONS While there are a host of potential benefits in forming an ESOP, especially as part of a transition or succession plan, there are some potential downsides to consider. According to Douglas L. Kruse, Ph.D., of The Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, one of these is that “rewards from individual effort are shared with other workers and the direct incentive to work hard may be weak.” However, a strong company culture can help mitigate that potential issue. Says Diekow, “People want to be a part of something that is bigger than themselves. I think that’s one of the things that we see in an ESOP. They’re not working for an individual owner. They do feel, to a degree, that they’re working for themselves. They see the benefits of that, whether it’s through promotion of themselves of their career, or as a wealth-building tool. It’s been really good for us, not only with recruiting but also with employee retention.: ESOPs aren’t the right path for every company. But if you’re an owner who may be looking to transition out of the business in the near future, it may be something to consider.

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SALES & MARKETING SELLING IN THE NEW NORMAL

Sales Pipeline Forecasting Fact or Fiction? BY JAY SPIELVOGEL, VENATOR SALES GROUP, LLC

“I

believe I have a 50/50 shot of getting an order.” “They loved our pricing; I’d give this a 75% chance of closing at this point.” “My contact is reviewing our quote internally; I’d say we have a 90% chance of closing this one.” Jay Spielvogel is CEO of Venator Sales Group (GAWDA member), a sales consulting and training firm specializing in boosting Welding and Gas distribution sales performance. Contact him at: Jay@ venatorsalesgroup.com

70 • Fall 2021

SOUND FAMILIAR? How often do you hear these optimistic statements from your sales team, and then find yourself asking, “Whatever happened to all of the other deals that you forecasted at 90% chance of closure?” Only to hear the typical responses: “They are sticking with their existing supplier.” “My prospect wasn’t able to get the budget.” “Turns out they were looking at another competitor that offered a better price.” This scenario is being played out across the globe, in every distributor organization small and large, by salespeople who are feeling the pressure to show pipeline activity. When required to assign a stage and percentage chance of closure to a deal, the critical thinking for most salespeople is biased by wishful optimism and hopeful inference. On one hand, pipeline stage and forecasting are highly influenced by downward pressure from management to show opportunities that have a chance to close during the current quarter. On the other, salespeople are influenced by positive feedback and interest they receive from their main contact. When asked, most sales leaders will admit it is a numbers game and that the team is closing less than 25% of the deals that are forecasted at 50% or greater. In some cases, the deals are completely falling apart, while in others the “first order” dates keep getting moved and stretched from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year.

“Inference is an invasion of the unknown, a leap from the known” – JOHN DEWEY (American Philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer)

THE QUESTION IS “WHY IS OUR FORECASTED PIPELINE SO UNRELIABLE?” Does it point to a need for more… 1. Sales training and sales playbooks on qualifying and closing? 2. Hiring a team of inside hunters to free our outside team up to focus on closing? 3. Management involvement helping to close late-stage deals? These are all good tactical approaches that can help drive sales by applying more energy, time, and resources. Unfortunately, these solutions still do not get to the root cause of the forecasting issue.

MISALIGNMENT BETWEEN SALES PROCESS AND PIPELINE STAGES Regardless of the type of sales training and process a company has adopted, they all have several core components the sales team needs to follow: • Take the time to uncover the business drivers (Pain, Issues, Concerns and Vision). • Gain full clarity and access to all the stakeholders involved. • Clarify the budget allocation, “real” timeline, and formal approval process.

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• Address and remediate roadblocks such as competition, budget constraints and other priorities. Whether it is based-on experiential wisdom passed down informally through sales management or formalized sales training, the components listed above make up the foundation of all solid sales processes and playbooks. “With all the time, energy, and money we have invested in sales process and CRM, why is it not translating into accurate and reliable pipeline forecasting?” To answer this question, look no further than the company pipeline stages. Most companies are diligently training their salespeople to ask questions and get info from prospects, yet the pipeline stages are based on the answers and info the salespeople provide to prospects. We teach our people to maintain control of the sales process and most of all not to rush into providing demos and quotes, yet we have them staging their pipeline and percentage chance of closure based on: 1. Initial call 2. Solution presentation 3. Proposal 4. Negotiations 5. Contract Pending When companies implement stages that mirror the ones above, they are following the conventional thinking that milestones and chances of closure will improve based on info and material delivered.

ALIGNING THE PIPELINE STAGES AND PERCENTAGES WITH THE COMPANY SALES PROCESS To improve the accuracy of our team’s pipeline forecasting and the effectiveness of our sales management approach, we need to align our pipeline stages with our sales process, rather than with our prospect’s evaluation process. This does not mean that salespeople should refuse to do demos, send samples, provide ini-

tial quotes and presentations at earlier stages in the relationship cycle where it is appropriate with a prospect. It simply means that these activities do not translate into increased chances of closure or progression of the deal through the sales funnel or pipeline stages.

STAGES BASED ON OPPORTUNITY QUALIFICATION To help clarify process and pipeline alignment, I have provided below some sample milestones we use at Venator Sales Group. • Initial call scheduled and accepted as calendar invite. • Explored and uncovered issues, concerns, and vision. • Our contact is willing to review stakeholders, competitive landscape, and decision process. • Access to and/or confirmed budget and initiative approval from the final decision maker(s). • Validation of budget process, timeline and next steps and a verbal commit to move forward. • Reviewed final proposal/contract with prospect and remediated all 11th hour roadblocks.

• Signature date locked-down, and follow-up call scheduled and accepted as calendar invite. The above example is based on actual qualification stages meant to align with a sales training program and a formalized sales process. Depending on statistical data as well as size of deal and whether the prospect is a new or existing client, relevant percentages can be applied to each of the qualification stages above.

ADDED BENEFITS OF STAGING BASED ON SALES PROCESS 1. Ability to apply a validation approach by adding fields that are required to be checked off, picked, and completed at each stage in the company CRM. 2. Ability to scale the sales management team by training sales operations people to effectively perform pipeline reviews based on key performance indicators versus experiential wisdom. Besides the obvious, which is a more accurate weighted average pipeline, the above list represents just a few of the added benefits of this realignment approach. Fall 2021 • 71

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Conceive, Believe, Achieve BY ART WASKEY

M Art Waskey has over 45 years’ experience in the welding and industrial gas industry. He travels across the country consulting and giving seminars on business skills and has published 3 books of sales skills stories. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering, a Master of Ministry in Leadership Development, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry. You can subscribe to Art’s weekly sales tips and monthly articles on his website. Also, check out his Posts on LinkedIn. For services, contact Art at 720-341-9405, artwaskey@ispeakd.com, impactspeakingdynamics. com

72 • Fall 2021

y sales career has given me the opportunity to call on many successful people in different types of businesses and with varying levels of education. These associations have allowed me to learn about the ways individuals find achievement. While the variety of paths taken on the road to success is astonishing, they all share one direction — belief in oneself. To achieve success, you must not just conceive of a way forward, you must believe in it.

BANISH NEGATIVITY Napoleon Hill stated, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Hill is an example of someone who found his self-confidence later in life. He had repeated business failures, three failed marriages, was charged with fraud, and falsified his education. Yet, he was able to overcome the negativity of his early years and write the classic business-positive book, Think and Grow Rich, at age 54. He died at 87 a successful and respected man. We all must overcome some form of discouragement in our lives. No one gets a pass. So, it is important to learn how to deal with negativity. I was named after my maternal grandfather, who told me at age 12 that he was ashamed that I bore his name. He said I was lazy and wouldn’t amount to anything, words I carried with me for too many years. Now I realize it’s better to treat comments like these in the same way as the cat who reacts to his jump on a hot stove. It may burn you once, but now you know never to go near that place again. Move on. When we free ourselves from negative thoughts, we are able to go forward. Belief in

one’s-self enables you to see the needs of others and be open to serving them. As Hill wrote, “I will eliminate hatred, envy, selfishness, and cynicism, by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude towards others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and myself.” The most successful people I know all believe in themselves and have the ability to discern the needs of others.

HOW TO HANDLE SUCCESS Being successful puts you in a leadership position, where it is important that you consider and understand the needs of those you lead. Authority and responsibility – Accepting a position in sales, or any other form of leadership, is a choice you make. Such positions mark you as a representative of your company and enable you to expand your realm of influence. This is a large responsibility and one you must treat with respect. In Israel, I was fascinated by the ancient fortification of Masada. According to the historian Josephus, between 37 and 31 BCE, Herod the Great built a large fortress on the plateau as a refuge for himself in the event of revolt. From this high plateau, Herod could see an enemy approaching from miles. Similarly, a person in a leadership role is in a position of authority and responsibility. Find your high ground and use it to serve and protect the needs of your internal and external customers. Build a Masada to support your company. Develop power wisely – We have all been endowed with enormous potential and capacity, but sometimes it’s hard to recognize. I’m reminded of the farmer’s son who was afraid that the bulls would charge him when he was on their side of

SALES & MARKETING

SELLING IN THE NEW NORMAL

the fence. He lost his fear when he learned to drive his father’s tractor. Now, he could chase the bulls. Find and master the tools you need to succeed. As you progress in your sales and leadership roles, you will develop additional gifts and talents through “hardwired capacities.” Learn from others in your company and from your manufacturers reps. Let “iron sharpen iron.” The more education you gain through books and training, the greater your power. Subordinate what you want now for what you want later. Expand your choices and capacities. Your mind is like a muscle. Use it, and it will grow stronger. Neglect it, and it weakens. As a leader, you have increased freedom and power to solve your customers’ greatest challenges and serve their needs. Harness this power by setting goals to manage your success. Never measure your selling strength by how many customers you have. Look toward how many new clients are out there. Do this through weekly account reviews and planning at the start of every week. With today’s computers and software there is no excuse for not setting calendar appointments with each customer by way of virtual or in-person calls. Let your client know what you plan to accomplish before you arrive.

Permission – When I proved to my parents that I was a safe driver, I was given the keys to the family car. Likewise, as I climbed the sales management ladder, I was given the keys to the businesses I was managing. If you believe in yourself and

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work hard, there will come a time when you are trusted with permission to lead. That permission comes with an understanding that you no longer have to ask what to do but are expected to know what to do and to report on it. You have been entrusted with the responsibility to set pricing, sign contracts, commit assets, etc. Most critically, as a leader you are obligated to make decisions that protect and enhance the company’s bottom line. Life-satisfying privilege – In his book, See You at The Top, Zig Ziglar wrote: “The real opportunity for success lies within the person and not in the job. Success is not a destination, it is the journey, it’s the direction in which you are traveling. The privilege of leading people is that you can get what you want, instead of having to want what you get. When you set a limit on what you are going to give and do, you set a ceiling on how high you are going and what you will have when you get there.” No one taught me more about the life-satisfying privilege I had in sales management and leadership than Zig Ziglar. Ziglar was born in 1926 in Coffee County, Alabama, into a family of humble means. He died at age 86 as a top author, salesman, and motivational speaker.

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Helping people make decisions on products and services that will improve their lives, their company, and their futures is a life-satisfying privilege. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do. Reach out and take hold of your opportunity to lead.

DESIGNED FOR ACCOMPLISHMENT Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stated, “The greatest tragedy of the average man is that he goes to his grave with his music still in him.” I’m so glad that along the way, I realized that I didn’t need to consider myself average. I always believed that God had a great and unique purpose for me. By using our freedom to act responsibly in the world, we uncover meaning in our life and can play our music at top volume. Carefully consider your position of authority, responsibility, and power. The permission you have been given to lead is a life-satisfying privilege. As Ziglar would say, “You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.” Plan to go as hard as you can, for as long as you can — conceive, believe, achieve.

SALES & MARKETING SELLING IN THE NEW NORMAL

WHATEVER IT TAKES Lessons on motivating toward success BY JOHN TAPLEY

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John Tapley is a Business Development Manager at Chart Industries with expertise in new business startup, innovative business growth and marketing strategies and digital/social media marketing. He has significant experience in all facets of the industrial gas industry, both domestic and global and can be reached at john. tapley@chartindustries. com and 470-332-4686.

76 • Fall 2021

ause I love the adrenaline in my veins, I do whatever it takes.” I know, you’re asking, what is he talking about? It’s from a song by Imagine Dragons, and it’s that song that I go to when I’m stuck. And it’s not exactly about the lyrics, I don’t think I could recite more than a couple of lines. It’s more about the beat, the bounce, and the title. It gets me going. I just love the thought that you can do whatever it takes to find your way through it, to finish, to go all out for the W, to solve the problem and declare victory over the challenge. An ode to ambition. Whether it be professional or personal challenges, with the right mindset, you can find success. And we’re in that place again where we need all the positivity we can muster to find our way through “Pandemic, Part Two.” All the lessons we learned on how to adapt in a virtual world, all the new tactics in virtual selling, new technology, alternate learning methods and on and on. And there are new challenges the world didn’t face to this extent in the last go around. A variant, logistics interruptions, supply chain and raw material shortages. It’s understandable that so many are suffering from mental fatigue. In a sales role, you’re always on. You can’t let negatives show through and influence your attitude. And to understand and tolerate rejection, you can never take it personally (I know, that seems impossible.) Be a student of the game. Learn new skills and find ways to keep the optimist on the podium.

I want to share a few examples from people in my life that have influenced my positive outlook. Along with whatever it takes, there is a lot be said for surrounding yourself with optimistic people and searching out mentors who live that mantra, the glass is always full (forget half full, go all the way.)

FAKE IT ‘TIL YOU MAKE IT Yes, there is power in that statement. Keep believing and working it until you break through. This, from the football coach at my daughter’s high school. He was fairly new and up on stage at the first PTA meeting of the school year with a theater full of parents. He was full of energy and positivity all the time, radiant with belief in everyone around him. Along with coaching, he taught a class for seniors, “Current Events.” It was a first period class, and his goal was to give every student a bright and positive message to start their day. He told us that someone asked him, “Coach how do you keep such a high level of enthusiasm all the time? Don’t you ever get down?” His answer, with a bright smile on his face, was, “Yes, I do have moments when, inwardly, I don’t feel at the top of my game, but I fake it ‘til I make it.” Bingo. And I got to know him that year and confirmed that mindset was authentic. He never let down on the positivity.

YASNY This is an acronym from one of my all-time mentors. I’ll leave you hanging for minute while

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I give you a story about his power to motivate. Early in my career, I was attending my first regional sales meeting and his first as leader of our team. We all gathered for an early start on the first day, not quite awake yet. And as he stood at the podium looking out over our dull early morning demeanor, and he was full on. He got started with the welcoming comments and then paused, turned, and opened the double doors behind the podium and in comes a full high school marching band. Drums, symbols, horns, the works, and marched a couple circles around the conference hall blasting band music just as they would at a high school football half-time performance. Wow, we were his from that point on. He had us at the band. Now, let me explain the acronym. He would use this when reporting a big win, a milestone, a success, etc. Always promoting the successes of his team, he would add on, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet! We were all destined for greatness, all our successes would be followed by more successes. And, I also have a couple of routines that have helped me through difficult challenges:

ONE SMALL STEP Sometimes, it’s all about a small victory, a small step forward. Then, that builds on to the next step forward and the next. Keep going in that direction one step at a time, pile on the small wins until you get to the big prize, whatever it takes!

NOT GONNA DO ANYTHING UNTIL I FINISH THIS THING When multiple challenges are piling on and stacking up, it’s easy to procrastinate on all of them, moving back and forth amongst them and getting nothing done. Sort and prioritize, then focus on the highest priority, finish it, and move to the next. Make no exceptions, finish one before you move to the next. In conclusion, when you’re feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to turn next or how to keep moving in the right direction, find yourself a catalyst to motivate back to where you can work your absolute hardest. For me, it’s off to the playlist. Thank you Imagine Dragons. I’m ready for whatever it takes…

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Rebuilding Relationships Post COVID BY RANDY SQUIBB

I Randy Squibb is available for Customer Relations presentations and can be reached by email at crsquibb@aol.com.

78 • Fall 2021

’ve been in the welding and gas business for more than 50 years. I truly thought I had seen it all. But this past year and a half has truly been both the best of times and the worst of times in this industry. And, I promise, when I include the best of times in that sentence, I’m not going crazy! But before I get into how it has been the best of times, I think we can all agree that the past year and a half has been pretty bad. We all went through some tough times. But those who know me best know that I don’t like to dwell on the negatives. I like to concentrate on the positives and look around the corner to see that we’re headed to bluer skies. Now that we’ve seemingly moved beyond the worst that COVID has to offer and begun to return to a sense of normalcy, it’s time to start rebuilding our relationships. If you’ve read my previous articles, you know that I value strong relationships above just about anything. And you also know that there is a huge difference between customer service and customer relations. Customers can get good customer service just about anywhere. But they buy from and return to people they have relationships with. And when COVID shut a huge part of our world down, those relationships suffered. But the good news is that even if our relationships with our customers and prospects changed, so did our competitors’. And now we have the opportunity to go out and build those relationships back stronger than they ever were before. Here are a few simple but effective tips to build new relationships and deepen existing ones.

INTERNAL CUSTOMERS When we say customers, we tend to focus on our outside customers. But I believe our employees are our internal customers. And, due to work from home orders or forced social distancing, we need to make sure we rebuild our relationships with our internal customers as well. At the height of the pandemic, many “non-essential” employees were forced to work from home, spending all day behind the computer desk or on the phone. But, as we know, our industry is an essential industry, which meant that even if some of our people couldn’t be in the office, our operations had to continue to function business as usual. Which means that while we as salespeople were tucked behind our computers in our underwear all day (don’t pretend you didn’t have days like that!), our drivers, our pumpers and our counter people continued to show up day after day to make things happen. We were still working hard, but these frontline employees were making things happen and we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. Make sure they know how much you noticed and appreciated their effort. Even if it’s a $25 gift card to Walmart. Just go up to them and say, “It’s been a tough year and a half, and I know that you were here every day, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you guys doing the things that made a difference. Thank you.” You really need to go out of your way to thank these people. And particularly those of you who are in outside sales. Most people in the organization aspire to be in outside sales and look at the outside sales-

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people as leaders in the company. You get to drive a company car, you wear nice clothes, you’ve got an expense account. So, as a leader, those little things that you do make a huge difference. And a gesture of gratitude will be noticed and will be remembered. People want to know that they’re appreciated and valued. And if they don’t feel appreciated and valued, I promise you, they’ll remember that too.

EXTERNAL CUSTOMERS It’s important to take care of our internal customers and ensure that morale remains high, especially coming out of a pretty dark time. But what about those customers who pay the bills? I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I can share some things that I’ve seen work well in my half century in this “bidness.” Back 30 or 40 years ago, Welders Supply had 13 competitors within a sixmile radius of where we were in Dallas. And the reason people bought from us is not because our equipment was any better. We all had top of the line Lincoln, Hobart and Miller products. Our oxygen was the same. They bought from us because we

had relationships with those customers. And that’s why we need to concentrate on trying to rebuild that relationship. We used to have safety meetings on a regular basis, both internal and with some of our customers. Now, I would never tell you to go around the purchasing manager, but in this case, I would talk to the safety director at your customer’s company and ask if they hold regular safety meetings. And I would say, “As part of our way of saying thank you, we would like to come in at one of your safety meetings and bring our safety people in for 15-20 minutes and do a refresher on the basics of safety procedures of welding and cutting.” Anything like that. Eye protection. Hearing protection. Just anything that you can do to go in and differentiate yourself from your competitor. They all have these meetings and every safety director I’ve ever met is always looking for somebody to come in to do a safety meeting with them. It’s a great way to ease yourself back in there. When I was at Welders, we had a huge barbeque that I would take around to our customers’ site every so often. And when we wanted to show a customer just

A gesture of gratitude will be noticed and will be remembered. People want to know that they’re appreciated and valued. how much we appreciated them, I would bring the barbeque to their shop, and I would cook up burgers and hot dogs for all of their people. Just as a way of saying thank you. And you could tell that resonated with them, seeing the president of the company come out and make lunch for 30 or 40 people. It’s a way that you can show your appreciation for the people who really made it happen during the pandemic and it’s also kind of a way of returning to normalcy. What’s more normal than gathering together for burgers and dogs? continued on next page

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But maybe you don’t have a barbeque like we did. Well, in that case, get with the powers that be and bring pizza for the people in the shop. Or sandwiches. And it may cost you a couple of hundred dollars, but that’s a couple of hundred dollars that I promise you will be well spent. The last thing I would suggest might be the easiest. We’re all proud of our facilities. We keep them looking good and we’re all in compliance with all of the alphabet soup agencies. So, bring in your customers for a plant tour or an open house. Roll out the red carpet for them and show them around. Make them feel like VIPs. We got away from doing things that we did for years and years. And our world got turned upside down during COVID. And I would like to think that we’re going to do some

of the little things that would make a difference to get us all back on the same track again. Those are three very simple things I would suggest. It’s not brain surgery. It’s things that you can do very easily that will make a difference that will hopefully start building those relationships back to what we had prior to COVID.

GET OFF THE MERRY GO ROUND Finally, I said at the beginning of this article that the last year and a half has also had some of the best of times. And when you read that, I bet you thought I had lost it. But think about your life before COVID. I bet you were running around doing a thousand different things and you felt like there weren’t enough hours in the day to get

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them all done. We all get so wrapped up in what I call the Merry Go Round of life. And then COVID hit, and the merry go round didn’t slow down. It stopped. The good news about the merry go round stopping is that it forced us to really reevaluate what we were doing with our lives. Both personally and professionally. I don’t know how many of you had relatives in nursing homes or friends that had parents in nursing homes. Do you remember how you felt when you couldn’t go see grandma? You couldn’t see your best friend. All you could do was go up to the window and put your hand on the window. That’s a terrible way to live your life. I don’t want to go back to those times again. So, I would ask our readers today, now that we’re coming out of COVID, are you going to go back to your old ways of doing things? Where you were too busy to go to the nursing home or to your kid’s baseball games? You were too busy to go to the Boy Scout meeting? Don’t do that. Please, take the time to do the little things that make a difference. We had what I call a mulligan. A do-over. I think we need to really examine what we were doing prior to COVID and let’s try to do everything that we can to make sure that we don’t get so busy in our life that we forget about doing the little things that make a difference. 2020 was a year to remember. We have a chance to not wipe 2020 and 2021 from our memory, because I think we learn from our mistakes and our history, but I want to wipe out as much of that negative as we can and I want us to really concentrate on making sure that what we have left of 2021 and what we’re going to be looking forward to in 2022 are the best years that we’ve ever had in this thing called the welding and gas bidness. Will you do your part to make sure that that happens?

Keeping the Gas & Welding Distributors Association connected, one video at a time. New videos expected to be released the 1st and 15th of every month.

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EPISODE GUIDE Episode 1 – COVID19 Episode 2 – DIGITAL STRATEGY Episode 3 – CANNABIS Episode 4 – CONSULTANTS Episode 5 – FAMILY BUSINESS Episode 6 – ITR Episode 7 – SMC PREVIEW Episode 8 – GAWDA PRESIDENTS Episode 9 – BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP Episode 10 – SMC RECAP Episode 11 – MADE IN THE USA

Have an interesting story to tell? Contact Steve Guglielmo about being interviewed for an upcoming episode.

Episode 12 – SUMMER OF GAWDA EVENTS Episode 13 – S EVEN SPRINGS REGIONAL AND CONVENTION UPDATE Episode 14 – RETURN TO LIVE EVENTS

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Episode 15 – LABOR DAY EPISODE Episode 16 – GAWDA GIVES BACK

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Analytics that Quantify Value & Grow Profits Get control of your results RANDY MACLEAN, PRESIDENT OF WAYPOINT ANALYTICS

I Randy MacLean is the founder of WayPoint Analytics, the inventor of LIPA, and best-selling author of a series of profit practices books. For more than a decade he’s been analyzing company results, thinking about, writing about and advising on profit issues in distribution and manufacturing. WayPoint software is used by hundreds of companies to control their profits, and their destinies.

82 • Fall 2021

n this article, I’ll share the most effective analytics used PRODUCTIVITY • Profit Opportunity ÷ Count by companies to actually con• Directly Controllable trol their results. If you have financial or performance respon• OCR = OpCash ÷ Expenditures sibility, you’ll likely be using the EFFICIENCY • ROX = NBC ÷ Expenditures new measures that follow to get • Controlled by Productivity control of your results. Managers at or near the top • ROI / EBITDA / NBT of every company have certainly RESULTS • Controlled by Efficiency experienced failures in attempts to control the financial measures that please the owners and stakeholdProductivity metrics affect Efficiency ers. Traditional financial metrics metrics which affect Results metrics. (like ROI, GMROI, EBITDA, inventory and receivables turns) In other words, you get control of final results seem to have a pernicious immunity to our inby increasing efficiency, by implementing and tentions and actions. managing productivity metrics. There’s simply no The reason for this is that they’re trailing avother way to change financial performance, and erages, two steps behind the productivity metrics this basic principle puts real control in your hands. that actually control them. As averages, they’re also nearly useless for actual activity management “BUT CUTTING COSTS WILL INCREASE because they only accurately describe a tiny sliver of the real activity that’s actually near the averPROFITS, NO?” Well, certainly, but where and how do you age. Those averages do not accurately describe cut costs to produce the biggest impact while the rest of what’s going on, and decisions based minimizing unintended consequences? on them can be flat wrong for the bulk of the The question is a good one, because the cost-toactivity in question. serve (CTS) is the true determinant of profitability. It’s important to realize there’s a natural Measuring, understanding and managing expencascade of effects in the things you can measure. ditures in individual sales and customer accounts At the beginning are productivity metrics that is really the whole game in controlling profit. directly monitor the effectiveness of resource To fully understand what we’re looking at, let utilization. These directly affect the efficiency me introduce Line-Item Profit Analytics (LIPA). of operations which, in turn, influence the fiLIPA is what we do at WayPoint, where our nancial averages of intense interest to investors clients use our online system to see the actual costs and the banks.

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and profits for every invoice line, product, customer, sales territory, or other identifiable element of their businesses. With this information, clients can see why a 22% margin is a gold mine in one account (where costs are 8.7%) and complete catastrophe in another (where costs are 28%). LIPA has opened an entire new field of analysis, with its own vernacular to describe the dynamics that confer direct control of cash-flow and profits. Before LIPA, all you could do is use rule-of-thumb concepts (increase inventory turns), or blunt actions (cut headcount by 8%), and hope you got positive results (or any results at all). Unfortunately for many, rule-of-thumb cost-cutting has driven some of the dumbest decisions in business. Remember “New Coke?” Or IBM putting themselves out of the computer business? LIPA shows where cuts are going to be productive, or be predicably catastrophic for an important account. You make better decisions, and your initiatives tend to produce greater and more positive results.

THE CONVERSION CHAIN The lynchpin for understanding the financial function of a company is recognition that the company’s very purpose is to

convert revenue derived from products and services into profit. Although this seems obvious, people forget all about it while focused on moving more product and trying to raise margins.

REVENUE CoGS: 76%

100%

OP CASH Ops: 45.8%

24%

NBC

Sales Comp: 31.7%

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Conversion chains, showing how much of original revenue remains at each step (black), and what portion of remaining value is diverted to pay company costs at each stage (red). continued on next page

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The company’s overall conversion chain is the sum of individual conversion chains in all customer relationships. What a customer buys, and at what price, determines the OpCash (operating cash or our term for Gross Profit) which is the ceiling for profit opportunity. The way the customer buys determines the expenses incurred in serving the account (CTS), and these two factors determine the profit (or loss) of the relationship.

Profit= OpCash (GP)-CTS (expenses) Margin is nearly irrelevant – it’s only a minor contributor to OpCash. (This is heresy, I know.) The core reason for the failure of most profit-improvement initiatives is that they’re almost exclusively focused on margin, so are unresponsive to the critical factor predictive of profit – cost-to-serve. You cannot effectively influence financial results if you do little or nothing that effectively manages the efficiency driven by the costs of the relationship

EFFICIENCY METRICS Efficiency metrics are the quantification of the effectiveness of activities in your logistics chain. Increasing operational efficiency directly impacts the efficiency in all of your customer conversion chains. (If you move more product value for less cost, a larger proportion of your customer relationships will be profitable.) This magnifies the effectiveness of the sales team, because you’re doing your part to increase customer value, rather than just relying on them to negotiate higher prices to fund operational inefficiencies. OpCash ratios are the first important type of efficiency metrics because they quantify profit opportunity. That is, they divide OpCash value (the ceiling for potential profit) by expenditures in each step of the logistics chain. Increasing OpCash ratios increases the likelihood of profit being produced by the activity in any particular area.

OpCash Ratio=

$OpCash value (GP) $expenses (CTS)

An example is using OpCash Ratio to evaluate how well money is spent in the distribution centers. One DC has an OpCash Ratio of 13.7:1, meaning it moves $13.70 in product value for each dollar it spends on space and personnel, while another DC’s metric is 15.1:1 – clearly better. Where OpCash ratios indicate opportunity, ROX (Return on Expenses) quantifies the actual results. For instance, Warehouse ROX is the result of dividing NBC (the LIPA term for operating profit) by the warehouse expenses. It indicates the profit return produced by the expenditures made to support the warehouse. 84 • Fall 2021

ROX=

$NBC profit $expenses (CTS)

ROX metrics are the best way to compare the relative effectiveness of various operations (and their managers) between each other. They’re also the best way to quantify improvements made over time. For instance, a delivery territory that produces a ROX of 2.21 is more valuable and a better profit contributor, than one where ROX is only 1.45. (The first produces $2.21 for every dollar spent, where the latter returns only $1.45.) Incentives for operational areas tied to ROX will keep managers focused on resource utilization and cost-control at the local level so you don’t have to do it all yourself. Promoting managers based on ROX comparisons will put those with the best track records into positions to mentor others, leveraging their talent in positively influencing company results. These are great measures to see how important things are being managed and improved, but they’re still not directly manageable. So, how do you get results?

PRODUCTIVITY METRICS Quantifying the activity-related processes that drive efficiency are the productivity metrics. These marry value to resource utilization, where you get direct control of the entire results chain. Good productivity measures will divide profit opportunity (OpCash value) into something you can count: like hours, headcount, deliveries, warehouse picks, square footage, etc. This is where sustained management action controls eventual profits and cash-flow. The need for on-going control and continuous improvement means that managers of operational areas need to be trained on the nature and use of productivity measures, so they can invent and monitor metrics that help them see the impact of good and bad practices, then act to make and measure new improvements on their own. Productivity measures are mostly used to compare productive performances of individuals, groups of people, infrastructure, delivery vehicles, etc. For instance, increasing OpCash handled per manpower hour directly suggests that changes (like adding conveyors, optimizing warehouse layout, etc.) which help people handle more value per day will increase efficiency and results.

Hourly OpCash Value=

$OpCash manhours

They’re used throughout operations to evaluate the contribution (or the change in contribution) in each area of the company. Department heads can be evaluated and incentivized using

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productivity measures. Since one of the purposes of a management role is to improve performance, productivity measures are the best way of ensuring that improvements are occurring. For example, you may have one warehouse manager that has delivered a 9.2% increase in OpCash/manhour, as compared to another where the value is unchanged. It’s clear which is more likely to make the company’s profit performance better if promoted to Head of Operations, where the skill is leveraged in mentoring other managers. At the end, you get control of financial results by widely implementing and managing upstream productivity metrics, then cutting provably unproductive activities and resources. You’ll de-emphasize products and services that serve no strategic purpose and cannot possibly make money. You then either shed costs or re-purpose resources to where they increase profit.

WHAT’S THE TAKE-AWAY? The direct path to control and improvement of company results is managing the conversion chain from revenue to profits. The conversion chains for all customers, and for the company as a whole, are directly impacted by operational

GAWDA

efficiency, which is controlled by productivity. Ditch margin programs (except for pricing, where they matter), and implement efficiency measures throughout your logistics chain. Develop productivity metrics and train your people on their importance and use. Add targeted incentives so people become relentless in improving of productivity and, therefore, efficiency. Your financial results will improve automatically. Very importantly, customer experience and customer loyalty are directly impacted by efficiency – customers are more likely to get the right stuff, at the right time, through a more efficient operation. This drives customer loyalty and, therefore, market-share. Productivity and efficiency metrics are the direct (and pretty-much, only) path to increased cash-flow and market position, and it improves customer experience and customer success, as well. Start using these techniques and measures to get in control of your results right now. This month’s financials can be better, and so will those of future periods. This article is adapted from a section in Profit-Driven Analysis & Practices: The CEO’s Guide to Record Profits by Randy MacLean (ISBN: 979-8589295375).

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5 Best Practices to Guide Your Sales Compensation Redesign BY MIKE EMERSON, INDIAN RIVER CONSULTING GROUP

F Mike Emerson has been a IRCG partner since 2004. Mike joined Indian River in 1998 and has worked with hundreds of distributors and manufacturers of all sizes and within many lines of trade. Mike writes extensively on distributor and marketing channel topics and is frequently quoted on contemporary issues. He has authored four books, published by NAW.

or salespeople, the top predictor of income should be performance, not tenure. But, all too often, it’s the other way around. The truth is traditional sales compensation plans that are tied to territory and tenure no longer work. If you haven’t already updated your sales compensation plan to meet pandemic-induced changes in how sales teams interact with customers, it’s time to act. As we examine in NAW’s What’s Your Plan? Smart Salesforce Compensation in Wholesale Distribution, the key is to make sure your updated sales compensation plan is the right one. The role of sales reps has changed. They are no longer just transaction-facilitators and product guides, but highly specialized professionals focused on market-making activities. Companies restructuring their sales compensation plans to meet the moment should take note of these best practices:

1. USE THE PAY PLAN TO INCENTIVIZE SALES TEAMS A major mistake management teams make when it comes to sales compensation is using the pay plan to manage salespeople. No plan or program can replace the responsibility of quality leadership. Let people manage people. Let incentives reward and motivate them to achieve objectives. Companies that hit their marks consistently encourage their sales teams to think innovatively in defining sales goals.

2. DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABLE HEALTH Formulas for new sales compensation plans, complicated though they may be, are the easy part. 86 • Fall 2021

Be aware that companies that self-diagnose are prone to focusing on the wrong problems. This is a holistic process that favors long-term health over short-term fixes. Instead, clarify specific goals that will align with a new sales compensation program that is built to last. Imagine three years into the future and ask: • How will it make costs more consistent and lower? • How will it grow business by either expanding the customer base or earning a larger share of wallet? • How will it generate profitability around gross margin and costs to serve? Then, analyze the criteria to determine what is most relevant to your company’s success to guide the next steps.

3. DETERMINE THE BEST PERFORMANCE PROGRAM FOR YOU There are two main types of performance programs: relative performance programs and absolute performance programs. Some companies blend the two. Determining whether a change in sales roles needs to happen immediately or develop over the next three to five years will affect which program is best for you. • Relative performance programs measure results by expectations, tying compensation to specific objectives, quotas or targets. These provide flexibility to move accounts around and position different salespeople for different targets. • Absolute performance programs are traditional commission programs where set goals have little influence. Instead, commission is

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If you haven’t already updated your sales compensation plan to meet pandemic-induced changes in how sales teams interact with customers, it’s time to act. primarily driven by how many Gross Profit (GP) dollars a territory or customer assignment generated, regardless of growth or how margins increased or decreased in a set time period. Often, the flexibility of a strong relative performance model provides companies with alignment opportunities without giving up the motivational efforts of absolute programs.

4. PAY PEOPLE ACCORDING TO THEIR WORK Beware of assuming discretionary energy — the idea that a change in the pay plan means that sales teams need to work harder to sell more. Formulaic strategizing like this can squelch results.

Sales management processes cannot be designed entirely around the fear of teams settling into “comfort zones.” Instead, sophisticated designs will capture the actual value of your team’s work. Let “A” performers get paid like the “A” team, and “C” performers get paid like the “C” team.

5. INCREASE RISK AND REWARD It’s essential to increase both risk and reward in the right proportions, making your new model more effective than your previous model. Human psychology perceives losses as more motivational than potential benefits, so increasing risk is necessary to ensure adoption of the new plan instead of maintaining the same production level as years prior. However, keep company culture and an appropriate reward balance in mind when determining the most useful level transformation. Effective sales compensation redesign demands meticulous analysis and supportive implementation. When done correctly, it’s one of the most effective ways to realign your sales team around specific goals, attract and maintain quality salespeople, and cultivate a powerful collective culture.

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SALES & MARKETING SELLING IN THE NEW NORMAL

Where Businesses Should Focus This Year to Recapture Sales With suggested tools that will make the biggest impact BY THOMAS J. ARMITAGE, SITE-SEEKER, INC.

W Tom Armitage is part of the sales team at Site-Seeker, a boutique digital marketing agency based in Upstate NY. He earned his master’s in integrated marketing communication from West Virginia University and bachelor’s in public relations from Utica College of Syracuse University. After holding marketing/PR roles at Sovena and Overit, Tom joined the Site-Seeker team in 2013.

88 • Fall 2021

ith COVID behind us, it’s time to re-focus on our pre-pandemic priorities. For most of us, that’s back to the old grind: finding ways to generate more sales and more revenue for our companies. The past 18 months were tough on many companies. Sales and marketing is the best place to start when looking to make the most significant impact on your bottom line. Here are five areas to focus on to generate more sales this year.

LOCAL OPTIMIZATION Featured Tool: Yext For local companies or multi-unit operations with storefronts, local optimization is extremely important. With so many businesses closing down, pausing efforts, changing hours of operations, requiring new protocols, the online listing world (i.e., websites that give out business information) was an absolute mess. Business owners neglected to update their listing pages, so when consumers Googled, they found outdated misinformation. Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, Bing Places, and TripAdvisor are some of the more prominent names, but there are actually dozens of directory sites that consumers use. As a business owner, it’s important to have full control over these listings and keep them up-to-date at all times. A tool like Yext can help. And local optimization doesn’t stop with just listings management. Information on your website and ensuring your site is applicable for relevant Google searches is equally important.

Google can contribute to more than 50% of a business’s traﬃc (and ultimately sales!). Build out location pages on your website and improve your website so customers in each of your local markets can easily ﬁnd you and buy from you.

SOCIAL SELLING Featured Tool: LinkedIn Sales Navigator Venues are open. Events are being held. But not everything will go completely back to normal. Knowing some folks will be forever skittish with in-person events, you may need to expect lower turnouts at trade shows and accept that you won’t get as many leads from those outings. You should also be mindful of the many companies that have gone partially or fully remote and have reduced travel budgets as a result. One way to compensate is through social selling or, using social media to support your sales efforts. Look at it as an extension of your company’s ongoing marketing and sales efforts. The only difference is: it’s you. It’s your proﬁle, it’s your comments, it’s your content, it’s your personal brand, it’s your direct messages, it’s your responsibility. Use a prospecting tool like LinkedIn Sales Navigator. From there, ﬁnd appropriate folks in your target audience and connect. Give them a reason to accept. Create content and educate your users. Talk about what you know and keep it relevant based on what you sell, what your company stands for, and what you stand for. Comment and interact. It’s important to be

SALES & MARKETING

SELLING IN THE NEW NORMAL

an active part of the social community. Develop real relationships. And ﬁnally, when the time is right, go into sales mode. Keep your eyes on the prize. You are investing time in order to sell. But you need to avoid being a 1970s used car salesman. Be a resource for the online community, and the leads will follow.

DIGITAL CUSTOMER SERVICE Featured Tool: Smith.ai Today, customers expect responses from businesses much faster than they had in years past. As a matter of fact, more and more folks expect answers within the hour! “Customer Service 101” tells us that the faster and better you respond to customer needs, the more likely you are to get that sale and keep them coming

back to buy again and again. If you want to increase sales and increase the average lifetime value of a customer - you have to give proper attention to customer service. Today, that’s mostly

done through digital communication. Look beyond the phone and consider the many ways that customers engage online: • Google My Business chat • Facebook Direct Message

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SALES & MARKETING SELLING IN THE NEW NORMAL

• Instagram Direct Message • Direct email • Forms on your websites • Live chat on your website • SMS (text) to a dedicated number The more channels you open up for customers to engage, the better, considering everyone has different digital preferences. Remember though. With that comes increased complexities in directing all those lines of communication to staff members, and increased labor demands in how you will manage all those interactions successfully. There’s software out there that can help aggregate all chats and requests into one place for easier management. Smith.ai is an example. Some tools can even incorporate bots (i.e. auto responses via technology) and virtual live assistants to help manage the inquiries until they’re viable enough for a human salesperson or customer service representative to get involved. That makes for a much more eﬃcient system and allows you to offer better customer service.

90 • Fall 2021

ALIGNING SALES AND MARKETING Featured Tool: Hubspot There’s one thing that almost every business - regardless of size or industry - has in common. They don’t use their CRM correctly. CRM, which stands for “customer relationship management,” is software used by most companies to unify, organize and manage their marketing, sales and customer service efforts. They come in many shapes and sizes. And have all sorts of features from contact or lead management to live chats to ticketing systems to email marketing to digital quoting. Some well-known names include Salesforce, Hubspot, and Active Campaign. If a business can’t ﬁnd success with these tools, it’s rare that the tool itself is the problem, but rather the business itself is typically not using the tool the way it’s intended to be used. The best place to begin is to make sure sales and marketing teams are aligned. Both teams have the same overall

company goal but at the same time, both sales and marketing also have different goals and responsibilities of their own. Sharing this one single tool, it’s imperative they agree on how to use it. Select the right tool, the one that makes the most sense for your business. Upon purchase, make sure the software provider offers onboarding and training. Set up the account fully and customize it to ﬁt your needs. Make sure marketing has a role. This can include data capture via forms and live chats on the website. It can include list segmentation. It can include social media scheduling. It can include email marketing and automation. And it can include campaign tracking. Make sure sales have a role. This can include lead qualiﬁcation. It can include tasks and prospect management. It can include outreach and follow-ups. It can include quoting and closing. It can include pipeline measurement, forecasting and other reporting. Make sure each team understands the other team’s role. Operate off a standard operating procedure (SOP)

SALES & MARKETING

SELLING IN THE NEW NORMAL

and keep the data clean. Marketing and sales needing to work more closely together isn’t a response to the pandemic. But as many businesses suffered from dry pipelines last year, it emphasized the need for better alignment among the two departments. Start with better-shared use of your CRM and use the tool to help bind the two teams together.

LEAD INTELLIGENCE Featured Tool: Site-Insight What if I told you there’s a way to see the companies coming to your website BEFORE they contact you... Even really great websites of really great companies still see conversion rates at only 3%. In other words, only 3% get in touch with you. That means you have no idea who the other 97% of visitors are. A lead intelligence tool helps ﬁll in that gap and provide that data. There’s a few software that do it. Site-Insights is one. It works by identifying the IP address of a company who is visiting your site and

runs it against its database of company information. In doing so, it provides rich information on who that company is and whether they are worthwhile to you and your sales team. Google Analytics (the most popular website analytics tracking tool in the world) provides really good data. But it’s all anonymous data, due to privacy concerns. So a lead intelligence tool is a great complement to the analytics tools you’re already using. You’ll be able to see a whole bunch of information beyond what Google Analytics provides: • Company name • Company location • Company size • Company description • Company website • # of pages visited • # of total visits • Pages visited • Source If integrated with your CRM, this solution can help you better understand the makeup of your audience, can allow for better and more regular contact with

prospects, and can ultimately ﬁll your sales pipeline faster to help you close more deals. Big name companies are using tools like this to help glean better insight into the visitors of their site and be more active in their outreach efforts. For sales teams that are hungry, this tool can work wonders.

GETTING STARTED Like anything in sales and marketing, it’s always best to start with a plan. What are your goals? Who is your target customer? What data do you have on hand? What are you going to do with that data? How many are on your team? And how much time can you devote to sales and marketing support? For any company, make sure you build a plan ﬁrst. In doing so, you’ll be able to better ﬁt new technology into the mix and properly allocate the right time, resources, and budget towards activities that will affect the bottom line.

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Fall 2021 • 91

TRENDS & TECHNOLOGY

SEARCH ENGINE TRENDS

art of developing a comprehensive digital marketing campaign is understanding how customers and potential customers are using the Internet to find your products and your website. The graphs and information below all come from Google Trends, which analyzes the popularity of search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The graphs scale “Interest Over Time” which represent search interest relative to the highest point in the chart for the given region and time-period. So, a value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. Another alternative is “Google Keyword Planner.” To use

for the Gases & Welding Industry BY STEVE GUGLIELMO

this tool, you must have a Google Ads account. The Keyword Planner lets you search keywords and suggests other words or phrases related to your products and services. It lets you research the trend information for how often certain words are searched and how those searches have changed over time and also gives you suggested bid estimates for each keyword so you can determine your advertising budget. In today’s digital environment, we strongly encourage members to capitalize on this growing trend and ensure that your company is visible in the place where people search the most.

MADE IN AMERICA

TOP RELATED SEARCH QUERIES • Average Search Volume has increased 6.7% YoY • Average Search Volume has increased 30% over the past 5 years

92 • Fall 2021

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What is made in America? Made in America 2021 Made in America Products Made in America lineup Made in America store

TRENDS & TECHNOLOGY TELEMETRY

• Average Search Volume has increased 20% YoY • Average Search Volume has increased 51.1% over the past 5 years

TOP RELATED SEARCH QUERIES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

hat is telemetry? W Telemetry unit Telemetry medical Telemetry monitor Monitoring

MEDICAL OXYGEN

• Average Search Volume has increased 16.7% YoY • Average Search Volume has increased 146.9% over the past 5 years

TOP RELATED SEARCH QUERIES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Oxygen concentrator Medical Oxygen Tank Oxygen Tank Medical Oxygen Near Me Medical Oxygen Supplies

FABRICATING

• Average Search Volume has increased 45.5% YoY • Average Search Volume has increased 22.9% over the past 5 years

TOP RELATED SEARCH QUERIES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Medical Fabrication Welding Metal Agriculture Farming, fixing and fabricating Fall 2021 • 93

TRENDS & TECHNOLOGY

Selling Hard Goods & Gases In A Digitized World BY KEN THOMPSON & J. R. (BUZZ) CAMPBELL

he customer has a NEED, the salesperson desires the ORDER, and the marketing department provides the salesperson with the TOOLS to promote the product and services and survey the results. Rather simple and routine until the world of Digitization raised its head. In today’s scenario, the customer’s Purchasing Agent likely won’t see the salesperson, and, if he or she could get an appointment, and showed up with a paper product promotional piece, a specification sheet, or a ‘show & tell’ item, he/she would probably be dismissed as a “dinosaur.” While there is no single way to approach the Sales & Marketing proposition in our industry space today, there sure is a significant tilt toward digitized syndicated content, fully automated transactional processes, and a variety of efficient logistic solutions. The uniqueness of our industry’s ‘package’ of gases and hard goods requires some different approaches to sales and marketing strategies. We will begin with hard goods. Comparisons with other distribution product verticals are more easily understood when gas products are removed from our mix. It also is in these other channels where we find our least understood, sometimes vague, and less obvious competitors – the newly digitized MROs, (e.g., Grainger, MSC, Amazon Business), Safety, and Electronic Marketplaces. Hard goods products are owned by 94 • Fall 2021

the manufacturer; so that is where the content must also reside. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the manufacturer to see that the product content represents them in the best possible manner. Images must be crisp, configurable if appropriate, and ‘features, functions & benefits’ clearly stated. At the same time, content must be appropriate to a particular customer segment and manipulated by talented digital process professionals to accommodate a particularly important and focused emphasis. These images must be customer focused, as well as available for inclusion in a distribution partner’s representation of his supplier’s product. Quality in processes for displaying content vary considerably. Due diligence prior to making a choice for PIM (Product Information Management) would be critical as it represents a strategic decision for long term. The transactional processes between trading partners are carried out through collaborating ERP platforms. Where software platforms are identical, or nearly identical, exchange of data is relatively simple. Otherwise, APIs will have to be initiated and coordinated between respective systems. The level of data to be exchanged will be decided upon between trading partners. Today’s website buyers expect to see up-to-the-minute inventory and their customer specific pricing as they browse for products. They also expect to login

and see order status, view order and invoice history, and potentially pay down invoices directly from the website. As comfort between trading partners grows, VMI, AI predictive analytics, and finally Procurement Punch Out systems can be added to where ERP software is literally talking directly between trading partners. The logistics solutions come in many choices with endless options. All need to match up with the customer’s needs. A user deploying Kanban manufacturing strategies has logistics needs that differ from a user with established min/max stocking levels. Logistics managers must have their finger on the pulse constantly. Supply chain interruptions of all descriptions must be anticipated and then managed. Any choke point anywhere in the chain will be felt throughout the entire chain. As suggested earlier, hard goods with specific SKU identifiers, are ‘figuratively’ all shipped in brown boxes from the manufacturer’s or distributor’s dock with distribution to the customer performed by a separate common or contract carrier. That separation of manufacturing from delivery is quite different from the integration of distribution with production and operations in the industrial gas business. Industrial, medical and specialty gases are shipped to the customer by the producer/distributor as cryogenic liquids or high-pressure gases in very specialized containers by specialized transports, both of which are owned and operated by the

TRENDS & TECHNOLOGY supplier. The ownership-operation of the containers and vehicles have significant capital, labor and support costs, which vary significantly depending on the product and the mode of containment and transport. That mode of containment and transport is determined by the product and the volume per time period (usually by month), the optimum volume per delivery, the roundtrip distance for a delivery, and other required services. The total cost of this service system, including the product cost itself and some profit, varies greatly between customers and is therefore difficult to standardize. However, most astute suppliers have a customer P&L system which provides an efficient tool for determining what all these costs are and thereby by what the price should be. The result of this is that pricing of gases is quite different from the pricing of hard goods. Another result is that the marketing and selling of gases requires a different kind of ‘consultative and engineered systems approach.’ In that selling process, the salesperson needs to listen carefully to the customer and what he needs. Another requirement is for the selling process to creatively develop the best product and application solution together with an attractive economic package. That degree of creative systems selling usually requires significant training and experience. Duplicating that application of systems and selling experience and competence with an effective digitized web-based marketing and selling program from the internet will be a challenge to achieve. We firmly believe that accelerating improved operating efficiencies and cost reductions in gas operations which improve serving customer needs can be communicated via digitized web-based marketing. An example of this is the extension of the hard goods VMI concept to the control and management of the W & C distributor’s cylinder ‘pool’ inventory.

This practice is well established and already an important part of the distributor’s ERP platform and management processes. It has certainly improved the distributor’s asset security, cash flow and gases profitability. It has not yet been a practice and customer advantage that has been weaved into a digital web-based marketing program. That idea has, in turn, led to better bulk gas inventory control at the bulk tank. While that process has yet to be widely integrated in distributor ERP systems it is leading to programs to improve dispatch and routing of bulk gases transport to further reduce those costs and increase customer service levels. These innovations are also stimulating similar systems to better manage the utilization, control and management of liquid and gas cylinders.

This systems improvement approach in gas operations, when communicated to a large number of customers digitally, can be the backbone of more creative marketing of higher gas supply service levels achieved from improvements in operating practices. And this can be accomplished while reaching a large audience as is now happening with hardgoods. Collaboration among those in our industry with experience in the total scope of gases management, software design, and ERP facilitators, along with their partners are building beta sites as this publication goes to press. We suggest that GAWDA can play a significant role in furthering these developing digital solutions by using its resources to inform its membership through both its written and visual presentations.

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dependable • versatile • recyclable Fall 2021 • 95

Norlab GAWDA Journal ad 2018 v2.indd 1

7/23/2018 2:18:21 PM

THE GAWDA INDUSTRY ANALYSIS REPORT Provided by ITR Economics™

ITR FOURTH QUARTER OUTLOOK

Indicator Consensus Building for 2022 Softening

What the shift in leading indicators means BY BRIAN BEAULIEU

eading indicator analysis is pointing toward a business cycle peak for the US industrial sector early next year, followed by slowing growth. The next page is an example of what the increased warning signs for 2022 could mean for many firms. Like overall business-to-business New Orders, your firm may still be in cyclical ascent. The U.S. Nondefense Capital Goods New Orders (excluding aircraft) ratesof-change are climbing higher (in Phase B, Accelerating Growth, of the business cycle), and the 12MMT data trend is setting records. The leading indicators tell us that the rates-of-change will be moving lower in the future. We are projecting that the New Orders 3/12 will start moving lower in the immediate future, and the 12/12 rate-ofchange will reach a high in February 2022. If you move through cycles in concert with Nondefense Capital Goods New Orders, you may very well experience a similar shift in your rates-of-change. Descent in the rates-of-change does not always mean the New Orders data trend will contract. Note how the 12/12 descent ends with a low in 2023 that is above zero. That is a classic example of a “soft landing.” The data trend chart above illustrates that the rate-of-change descent will be indicative of slowing growth – but

growth nonetheless – in actual New Orders (12MMT), with no contraction over the forecast horizon. Decelerating ascent in this case means ongoing record highs for New Orders. However, the projected 13.0% growth rate for 2021 will diminish to 6.4% for 2022. That is still very respectable growth, since the average year-over-year percentage change for this highly cyclical measure of activity is 0.9% thus far this century. Knowing how you relate to an external series like Nondefense Capital Goods (as well as other series included in this GAWDA Industry Analysis Report) can really amp up your awareness of what cyclical shifts mean to you. Knowing where you are headed and when you are headed there makes for much more precise and effective budgeting and planning as we get nearer and nearer to 2022. With higher costs being an ongoing factor, effectively matching resources to the right demand levels becomes even more important.

sustaining the current rising trend. b) The rate-of-change decline is associated with the 2022–23 “soft landing” in the general economy. c) It is not likely that what we are heading toward is the major downturn that will realign prices with profits. The S&P 500 Index set a record high in July. It was the sixth consecutive record-breaking month. The flip in the 1/12 from rise to decline is statistically significant. The 1/12 rate-of-change trend provides us with an 80% probability that the stock market is heading toward a correction. The median timing estimate based on the 1/12 trend reversal puts the monthly Index high in November 2021. It clearly could come sooner than that based on how quickly other leading indicators have flipped and the overpriced nature of the market (unless the 20% probability occurs and there is no decline in the Index). We mention the likelihood of a correction/cyclical decline so that: (1) you will not be surprised by its occurrence; (2) you will know that we are not surprised; and (3) you know that such an event will not change our outlook for 2022–23. A correction should be viewed as a welcome occurrence given current lofty valuations, with a probable buying opportunity when it is over.

This content is exclusive to GAWDA Members. For more information on GAWDA and association membership, contact Andrea Levy: (844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org

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ANOTHER WARNING SIGN FOR 2022 The S&P 500 1/12 and 3/12 rates-ofchange have joined the list of indicators to show signs of a cyclical reversal. The bottom line is: a) Don’t be surprised if the market corrects downward or exhibits difficulty

ITR FOR GAWDA

&MPW SJ

U.S. Nondefense Capital Goods New9 7 2SRHIJIRWI 'ETMXEP +SSHW Orders (excluding aircraft) Data Trend

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118 *SVIGEWX 118 118

&MPW SJ

This content is exclusive to GAWDA Members.

For more information on GAWDA and association membership, contact Andrea Levy: U.S. Nondefense Capital Goods (844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org

New Orders (excluding aircraft) 9 7 2SRHIJIRWI 'ETMXEP +SSHW Rate of Change 2I[ 3VHIVW I\GPYHMRK EMVGVEJX 6EXI SJ 'LERKI

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Fall 2021 • 97

THE GAWDA INDUSTRY ANALYSIS REPORT Provided by ITR Economics™

High Quit Levels signal confidence in the labor market. The Employment 12MMA will rise through at least 2023. CORE DASHBOARD 12/12

U.S. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION

U.S. NONDEFENSE CAPITAL GOODS NEW ORDERS

12MMT/A

CURRENT 12/12 0.0

11.0

2021

5.3

13.0

2022

2.8

6.4

2023

HIGHLIGHTS

1.6

We adjusted the forecast slightly. We still expect 12MMA rise through at least 2023; the timing of the cyclical turning points is unchanged.

2.8

Leading indicators point to a first-half-of-2022 transition to Phase C, Slowing Growth, for New Orders.

This content is exclusive to GAWDA Members.

U.S. PRIVATE SECTOR EMPLOYMENT

U.S. TOTAL RETAIL SALES

U.S. WHOLESALE TRADE OF DURABLE GOODS

U.S. WHOLESALE TRADE OF NONDURABLE GOODS

U.S. REAL GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (3/12)

For more information on GAWDA and association High Quit Levels signal confidence in the labor market. -2.7 2.9 2.8 1.5 membership, contact Andrea Levy: The Employment 12MMA will rise through at least 2023. (844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org 12.9

9.8

5.0

12.2

18.1

14.4

17.1

4.1

Note: Forecast color represents what Phase the market will be in at the end of the year.

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4.3

2.8

3.3

2.2

2.8

High levels of disposable income and high savings rates bode well for the consumer’s ability to drive Retail Sales growth in the future.

2.4

All components of Wholesale Trade are in accelerating growth trends. Expect slowing growth in Durable Goods for most of 2022-23.

1.6

Wholesale Trade tentatively transitioned to Phase B, Accelerating Growth. The 12MMT reached a record high of $3.213 trillion.

2.0

GDP reached a record high in 2Q21. We lifted the forecast by 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.3% for year-end 2021, 2022, and 2023, respectively.

ITR FOR GAWDA LEADING INDICATORS ITR Leading Indicator™

ITR LEADING INDICATOR™ TENTATIVE INDICATOR HIGH SIGNALS EARLY-2022 CYCLICAL PEAK FOR INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION The ITR Leading Indicator™ ticked down in July, forming a tentative June peak. Our analysis indicates the tentative peak is likely to hold. A June 2021 peak in the Indicator suggests an early-2022 business cycle peak for U.S. Industrial Production, in line with our outlook.

Production

Rates-of-Change

Leading Indicator

21 16.6

10 5

0.0

-5 -10

0 -7

U.S. Industrial Production - 12/12

-14

ITR Leading Indicator

-15

'09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 '21 '22 '23

-21

This content is exclusive to GAWDA Members. For more information on GAWDA and association

U.S. TOTAL INDUSTRY U.S. Total Industry Capacity Utilization Rate membership, contact Andrea Levy: CAPACITY UTILIZATION Rates-of-Change Production RATE 15

(844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org RATE 1/12 MOVEMENT SIGNALS LATE-2021 BUSINESS CYCLE HIGH FOR INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION

The U.S. Total Industry Capacity Utilization Rate 1/12 rate-of-change moved lower in June. Downward movement in the Rate 1/12 suggests that U.S. Industrial Production will transition to Phase C, Slowing Growth, around year-end 2021. Please note that the late-2021 business cycle peak suggested by the Rate 1/12 is slightly sooner than the early-2022 cyclical high that the preponderance of leading indicator evidence suggests and that we are forecasting.

12.8

5 0.0

-5

-15

21 14 7

-10

Rate

0 -7 -14

U.S. Industrial Production - 12/12 U.S. Total Capacity Utilization Rate - 1/12

'09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 '21 '22 '23

-21

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THE GAWDA INDUSTRY ANALYSIS REPORT Provided by ITR Economics™

THE OECD U.S. LEADING INDICATOR

U.S. Conference Board Leading Indicator

INDICATOR 1/12 PEAK HOLDS, SIGNALING EARLY-2022 CYCLICAL PEAK FOR INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION

Production

Rates-of-Change

Leading Indicator

The U.S. OECD Leading Indicator 1/12 rate-of-change moved lower in June. An April 2021 peak for the Indicator 1/12 signals an early-2022 business cycle peak for U.S. Industrial Production, in line with our outlook.

5.5

0.0

-5 -10 -15

5 0 -5

U.S. Industrial Production - 12/12 U.S. Leading Indicator - 1/12

'09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 '21 '22 '23

-10 -15

This content is exclusive to GAWDA Members. U.S. ISM PMI For more information on GAWDA and association U.S. ISM PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) (PURCHASING Rates-of-ChangeLevy: membership, contact Andrea MANAGERS INDEX) Production PMI 1/12 PEAK INDICATES CYCLICAL PEAK FOR INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION IN FIRST HALF OF 2022

(844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org

The U.S. ISM PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) 1/12 rate-of-change moved downward for the third consecutive month. The April 2021 peak in the PMI 1/12, given normal lead times to U.S. Industrial Production, suggests a first-half-of-2022 business cycle peak for Production.

10 10.8 0.0

-5 -10

75 50

5 0

Index

25 0 -25

U.S. Industrial Production - 12/12

-50

U.S. Purchasing Managers Index - 1/12

-15

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'09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 '21 '22 '23

-75

ITR FOR GAWDA GAWDA EXECUTIVE SUMMARY/DASHBOARD GAWDA INDUSTRY INDICATORS

INDICATORS

HIGHLIGHTS

CURRENT GROWTH PHASE RATE (12/12)

U.S. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION INDEX

Rising domestic and global demand for manufactured goods, energy, and mined commodities, such as oil and metals, will boost U.S. Industrial Production this year.

0.0%

U.S. PROCESSED GOODS FOR INTERMEDIATE DEMAND PRODUCER PRICE INDEX

Rising labor, transportation, and commodities prices will likely put upward pressure on prices for intermediate goods in the coming quarters.

1.6%

U.S. CRUDE OIL FUTURES PRICES

Demand is outstripping supply as the global economy heats back up, pushing up on Prices. Further rise likely in the coming four quarters.

20.1%

Leading Indicators unanimously point to further Phase B, Accelerating Growth, in the coming quarters.

11.0%

U.S. NONDEFENSE CAPITAL GOODS NEW ORDERS WITHOUT AIRCRAFT

This content Robust is activity exclusive to GAWDA Members. in the U.S. residential construction and industrial

U.S. ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT NEW ORDERS

-10.5%

sectors will contribute to risingGAWDA demand for Newand Orders this year. For more information on association membership, contact Andrea Levy: Industrial sector expansion will increase demand for New Orders U.S. FABRICATED METAL 10.2% this year; rising commodities prices will likely contribute to rise (844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org PRODUCTS NEW ORDERS

in dollar-denominated New Orders.

U.S. DURABLE GOODS NEW ORDERS WITHOUT AIRCRAFT

ITR LEADING INDICATOR (MONTHLY)

Low interest rates and labor shortages will likely encourage businesses to invest in new durable equipment. Stimulus will contribute to consumer demand for durables. Ongoing rise in the ITR Leading Indicator™ portends rising activity for the U.S. industrial sector through at least 2021.

The tide of the U.S. economy is rising. U.S. Nondefense Capital Goods New Orders are at record levels and U.S. Industrial Production has transitioned to Phase B, Accelerating Growth. Demand is strong, but supply has been hampered by logistics issues and labor shortages, which are putting upward pressure on prices. Mounting inflationary pressures can be unsettling, especially given the decade of relatively low inflation that preceded. However, the present high levels of inflation are transitory, and inflation will be more moderate by next year.

11.1%

16.6 (Monthly)

We are already seeing signs of softening prices in some commodities, including lumber, copper, and corn. As supply chain problems abate and production ramps up, further stabilization of commodity prices is likely. In the near term, protect your margins with price escalators and communicate your competitive advantages to customers so they are not focusing solely on price. Leading indicators signal that the demand side will likely soften, and we will see lower growth rates (but still growth) in most markets in 2022 relative to 2021.

Fall 2021 • 101

THE GAWDA INDUSTRY ANALYSIS REPORT Provided by ITR Economics™

U.S. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION

U.S. Industrial Production Index Data Trend Index 110

Index

ACCELERATING GROWTH 2021

5.3%

100.0*

2022

2.8%

102.7*

2023

1.6%

104.4*

* Index based to 2017 = 100.

110

12MMA Forecast 12MMA 3MMA 97.8

100

HIGHLIGHTS: ◼ Production transitioned to Phase B, Accelerating Growth ◼ The forecast was adjusted by less than a percentage point

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◼ We still expect 12MMA rise through at least 2023, with slowing growth in much of 2022 and 2023

This content is exclusive to GAWDA Members.

The U.S. Industrial Production 12MMA in June was virtually even with the year-ago level, tentatively transitioning to Phase B, Accelerating Growth. Leading indicators and ITR Checking Points™ signal that Phase B is likely to extend into the first half of next year. The Federal Reserve Board revised and rebased historical Production data. We refreshed our forecast for Production. The changes to the outlook through 2023 were very minor. The timing of the peaks and troughs is unchanged, and growth-rate expectations were adjusted downward by less than a percentage point for 2021 and 2022 and were unchanged for 2023. Expect the Production 12MMA to rise through at least the end of 2023, though the rate of growth will slow in much of 2022 and 2023. Production will end 2023 roughly 1% above the prior record high, set in March of 2019.

U.S. Industrial Production Index Rate-of-Change

For more information on GAWDA and association 15 membership, contact Andrea Levy: 10 (844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org

102 • Fall 2021

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Management Note: Invest in workforce development in this time of growth. The labor market is tightening, and retention is often less costly than acquiring new talent.

ITR FOR GAWDA U.S. NONDEFENSE CAPITAL GOODS NEW ORDERS (EXCLUDING AIRCRAFT)

U.S. Nondefense Capital Goods New Orders (excluding aircraft) Data Trend Bils of $

Bils of $

300

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13.0%

$898.4 billion

2022

6.4%

$955.5 billion

2023

2.8%

$981.7 billion

HIGHLIGHTS: ◼ The New Orders 12MMT was 11.0% above the year-ago level ◼ Leading indicators point to a first-halfof-2022 transition to slowing growth

250

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400

This content is exclusive to GAWDA Members.

U.S. Nondefense Capital Goods New Orders (excluding aircraft) in the 12 months through June totaled $859.6 billion, coming in 11.0% above the same 12 months one year ago. We revised our New Orders outlook upward on higher inflation expectations and a strong consumer. The 12MMT will rise through at least 2023. We expect the favorable tailwinds from the fiscal and monetary stimulus will likely weaken in the coming years, contributing to lower growth rates in this market. However, we do not expect the pullback in stimulus will result in the bottom falling out of New Orders. The U.S. consumer is well-positioned to drive economic growth in the coming years, and companies will look to build out capacity accordingly. Inflation and automation, the latter incentivized by a tight labor market, will also contribute to the ascent. Following an early-2022 peak, expect the New Orders 12/12 to decline into late 2023, avoiding Phase D, Recession. To make the best business decisions, avoid straight-line projections.

U.S. Nondefense Capital Goods

For more information onOrders GAWDA and aircraft) association New (excluding Rate-of-Change membership, contact Andrea Levy: 30 12/12 Forecast Range (844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org 20

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Management Note: Utilize the current low-interest-rate environment to make the investments that will position your business to beat the cyclical declining trend expected for much of 2022–23.

Fall 2021 • 103

THE GAWDA INDUSTRY ANALYSIS REPORT Provided by ITR Economics™

U.S. CRUDE OIL SPOT PRICES

ACCELERATING GROWTH Sep 2021 Dec 2021 Mar 2022 Jun 2022

$69.34 per barrel $73.99 per barrel $77.93 per barrel $77.13 per barrel

HIGHLIGHTS: ◼ Prices rose further during July, averaging $72.49 per barrel for the month ◼ We expect mild upward movement in the Prices 3MMA in the near term before Prices flatten in the first half of 2022

U.S. Oil Futures Commodity Prices Data Trend

$/bbl.

$/bbl. 120

120 3MMA Forecast 3MMA Actual

100 80

69.68

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This content is exclusive to GAWDA Members.

U.S. Crude Oil Spot Prices in July reflected the anticipation and announcement of OPEC+ supply increases, which resulted in volatility and increased the probability that actual results will track the lower end of the forecast range moving forward. Average Prices in July, at $72.49 per barrel, came in $1.11 higher than June’s average. We expect mild upward movement in the Prices 3MMA in the near term before Prices plateau in the mid $70s in the first half of next year. Oil production has been slow to recover relative to demand, leading to tightening inventories and higher Prices. Inventories in Cushing, Okla., in July averaged 37.0 million barrels, down a sharper-than-normal 12.4% from June. However, future OPEC+ supply increases, recovering domestic production, and declining macroeconomic leading indicators make significant upward movement in Prices unlikely despite low inventories.

U.S. Oil Futures Commodity Prices on GAWDA and association Rate-of-Change

For more information 200 membership, contact Andrea Levy: 12/12 Forecast Range (844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org 150

104 • Fall 2021

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Management Note: Consider investing in power-saving technologies to save money, as Prices are likely to stay in the upper $60s to upper $70s during the next four quarters.

ITR FOR GAWDA U.S. STEEL SCRAP PRODUCER PRICE INDEX

ACCELERATING GROWTH Sep 2021 Dec 2021 Mar 2022 Jun 2022

638.47* 624.50* 654.03* 627.86*

$/GT

U.S. Steel Scrap Futures Commodity Prices Data Trend

900

3MMA Forecast 3MMA Actual

700

$/GT

700

669.9

500

300

* Index based to 1982 = 100.

HIGHLIGHTS: ◼ Prices rose in June ◼ Rising supply will temper upward pressure on Prices rise in the coming months

100

◼ Raw Steel Capacity Utilization is above the five-year average Monthly U.S. Steel Scrap Producer Prices rose in June, coming within 10% of the record high set in July 2008. Expect Prices to track the upper end of our forecast range. The Prices 3MMA will oscillate around the current level in the near term, but expect some downward pressure on Prices as we move farther out. Demand for steel will continue to climb, but June U.S. Raw Steel Capacity Utilization, a measure of in-use capacity for domestic steel production, was 8.1 percentage points above the five-year average. Utilization is rising as domestic production ramps up. Additionally, production is rising in China and Europe. Increased global production will temper upward pressure on Prices during the next four quarters.

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This content is exclusive to GAWDA Members.

U.S. Steel Scrap Futures Commodity Prices on GAWDA Rate-of-Change and association

For more information 100 contact Andrea Levy: membership, 12/12 Forecast Range (844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org 12/12

Management Note: If you are purchasing steel, avoid locking in long-term contracts at the crest of the rising cycle.

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Fall 2021 • 105

THE GAWDA INDUSTRY ANALYSIS REPORT Provided by ITR Economics™

U.S. FABRICATED METAL PRODUCTS NEW ORDERS

U.S. Fabricated Metal Products New Orders Data Trend Bils of $ 150

125

12MMT Forecast 12MMT 3MMT

21.0% 4.2% 1.5%

$434.9 billion $453.2 billion $460.0 billion

HIGHLIGHTS: ◼ The forecast was revised to account for a data revision by the U.S. Census Bureau and upgrades to our macroeconomic and inflationary outlooks

500 400.0

ACCELERATING GROWTH 2021 2022 2023

Bils of $ 600

100

400

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◼ Annual New Orders will generally rise through at least 2023 ◼ Leading indicator evidence suggests annual New Orders will transition to Phase C, Slowing Growth, in early 2022

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This content is exclusive to GAWDA Members. U.S. Fabricated Metal Products

For more information on New GAWDA association Ordersand Rate-of-Change The U.S. Census Bureau revised New Orders historical data. We revised the membership, contact Andrea Levy: 45 forecast upward due to the data revision, (844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org as well as upgrades to our macroeconomic

and inflationary outlooks. Annual New Orders will generally rise through at least 2023 but will be relatively flat in mid-2023. Inflationary pressure will keep New Orders from declining through the next 12 quarters. The pace of rise will slow between early 2022 and mid-2023. Accelerating rise in U.S. business-to-business activity will drive Phase B, Accelerating Growth, in New Orders in the near term. Rise in input costs such as materials and labor will contribute to upside pressure in dollar-denominated New Orders. A number of leading indicators, including the U.S. OECD Leading Indicator and the U.S. ISM PMI (Purchasing Managers Index), suggest that Phase C, Slowing Growth, will take hold around the first quarter of 2022.

106 • Fall 2021

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Management Note: As your business grows with rising New Orders, it will become more complex. Consider taking steps to improve your corporate governance ahead of this increased complexity.

ITR FOR GAWDA AUTPRNA: NORTH AMERICA LIGHT VEHICLE PRODUCTION

North America Light Vehicle Production Data Trend

Mils of Units 8

Mils of Units

12MMT Forecast 12MMT 3MMT

ACCELERATING GROWTH

HIGHLIGHTS: ◼ Production had an abnormally weak second quarter due to supply chain limitations ◼ We do not expect annual Production to breach 15 million units until mid-2022 ◼ The lack of new inventory is boosting the used vehicle market, likely benefiting the auto industry’s parts and repair segments

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America LightMembers. Vehicle This content is exclusive North to GAWDA Production Rate-of-Change

Although in Phase B, Accelerating Growth, North America Light Vehicle Production exhibited weakness during the second quarter, which came in 10.3% lower than the first quarter of 2021. Semiconductor shortages continue to hamper this industry as production lines idle. Due to supply chain limitations, we expect annual Production will vacillate around 14 million units for the remainder of 2021 before rising above 15 million for 2022 and 2023. Producers have been prioritizing light trucks, in line with consumer preferences. Despite higher gas prices, consumers are gobbling up the limited inventory of light trucks. Ultimately, supply is insufficient to satisfy demand, so consumers are turning to used vehicles, likely benefiting the parts and repair segments of the auto industry in the near term.

180 For more information on GAWDA and association 12/12 Forecast Range 135 membership, contact Andrea Levy: 12/12 (844) 251-3219 / alevy@gawda.org 90

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Fall 2021 • 107

upcoming

industry events

Here are some of the events scheduled for 2021 and beyond. Check the EVENTS tab on the GAWDA website at www.gawda.org for more information.

OCTOBER 2021 IWDC Owners Meeting Greensboro, GA OCTOBER 26-29, 2021

NOVEMBER 2021 IOMA Annual Meeting Washington, D.C. NOVEMBER 3-7, 2021

MARCH 2022 University of Innovative Distribution (UID) Indianapolis, IN MARCH 21-24, 2022

APRIL 2022

CGA Annual Meeting Naples, FL APRIL 10-14, 2022 AIWD Convention Washington, D.C. APRIL 22-25, 2022

MAY 2022 GAWDA Northeast Regional Meeting Galloway, NJ MAY 10-12, 2022 IWDC Sales & Purchasing Convention Minneapolis, MN MAY 24-26, 2022

GAWDA Spring Management Conference Indianapolis, IN APRIL 3-5, 2022

JULY 2022 GAWDA Northwest Regional Meeting Stevenson, WA JULY 27-29, 2022

OCTOBER 2022 GAWDA Annual Convention San Diego, CA OCTOBER 5-8, 2022

NOVEMBER 2022 IWDC Owners Meeting Park City, UT NOVEMBER 1-4, 2022 FABTECH Atlanta, GA NOVEMBER 8-10, 2022

SERVICE OFFERINGS: • Industrial & Beverage Cylinder Restoration • Cryogenic Tank Repair FOR SALE: • Micro-Bulk Tanks • Industrial/Beverage Cylinders • Complete Refurbished Used Cylinders

www. u st a n kc r yo.co m | 93 1 -359- 0741 108 • Fall 2021

INDUSTRY NEWS meals. Our fund raising remains open for another six months, so we look forward to adding to this achievement.”

Encore Gas & Supply Opens New Inland Empire Branch Store and Distribution Hub Long Beach, California based Encore Gas & Supply has opened its first Inland Empire branch store and distribution hub in Ontario, California. Located at 1631 S. Marigold Place, the branch is conveniently located for customer will-call pickups, gas cylinder exchanges and retail sales. The new location also facilitates product and service delivery to customers east of Los Angeles, throughout California’s Inland Empire.

IWDC Achieves Charity Goal and Sets New All-Time June Sales Record IWDC set an all-time June monthly record with $26.6 million in Member’s spend. “Our prior June record was $22.6 million, so we are excited to raise the bar again,” stated Frank Kasnick, President & CEO. “This is a testament to the strength and resilience of the independents in our welding & gas industry and reflects the strong support from our vendor partners.” “We are thrilled to announce that our staff, Member Owners and Vendor partners accomplished our goal to raise $21,000 for Feeding America during our June 22-24, 2021, Sales & Purchasing annual convention,” reported Keith Werkley, IWDC Director of Sales & Vendor Management. “We would like to thank our Members, Vendors and employees for their generous donations to this worthy cause.” commented Vic Wilson, Director of Marketing & Gas Programs. “Over our three-day meeting we raised enough funds to provide 230,000 110 • Fall 2021

Cee Kay Supply, Inc. Announces Employee Stock Ownership Plan Cee Kay Supply, Inc. is proud to announce the formation of its new Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) designed to provide 49% stock benefits to the 135 employees. Cee Kay Supply now joins a group of over 6,500+ U.S. companies that are currently operating as ESOPs including the 171 in Missouri & 137 in Illinois. The transaction has also included additional operating companies Gateway Cylinder Technologies, ArchView Carbonic and CryoGas CO 2 to create the newly formed employee-owned entity CK Supply, Inc. Tom Dunn, past CEO and Owner stated, “The employees have always been at the center of growth & success for Cee Kay Supply. As I explored transitioning out of ownership, the ESOP model was a great solution to preserve the brand and our family ownership legacy, while allowing future employees to directly share in the benefits of their hard work and longterm dedication.” Current President & CEO Ned Lane also stated, “I am excited for our new employee owners. Normally when someone retires, they receive a gift from the company. With Tom’s retirement, he has given us the gift of independence & ownership by selling to the ESOP.”

Direct Wire Achieves ISO 9001:2015 Certification Direct Wire announced it is now certified to ISO 9001:2015, which validates the company’s two Denver facilities operate a quality management system (QMS) in compliance with requirements developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). “This certification is a significant achievement that precisely

INDUSTRY NEWS aligns with our Direct Difference values of service, technology, and people,” said David Witmer, Direct Wire’s Chief Executive Officer. “ISO 9001:2015 requires our processes and employees’ actions to be focused on continuous quality improvement, and demonstrates our commitment to meeting and exceeding customer needs and expectations.”

Hypertherm Announces Founder Dick Couch Retires from Board of Directors Hypertherm announced the transition of Board Chair from founder Dick Couch to long-time board member and current lead director Richard Lettieri. This change is part of a thoughtful leadership and governance succession plan built by Dick and Barbara Couch and the board of directors over the past twenty years. The succession plan, which has included the intentional appointments of executive leadership, ensures the continuation of the values-based company culture and industry leadership established by Mr. Couch. Dick Couch

IWDC Makes Several Appointments and Promotions

The IWDC appointed Ashley Bivins as its Director of its PurityPlus Specialty Gas Program. In this role, Ashley will be responsible for driving profitable growth of IWDC’s PurityPlus program in terms of brand equity and value to participating IWDC members. The IWDC also announced that in its accounting department, Meghan Baker was promoted to Senior Accounting Analyst and Kevin Kofoed has been promoted to Senior Accounting Manager. In its operations department, Jeffrey Kinder was promoted to Warehouse Manager and Adam Moore was promoted to purchasing manager.

Weldcoa Announces the Hire of Jacob Honza

Weldcoa announced that Jacob Honza joined the company’s technical sales/business development team. Jacob worked for Taylor Warton previously as a Manufacturing Intern doing time studies

Jacob Honza

E7018-1 H4R electrode with ABS and LR approvals Excepponal strike and restrike capabilipes High strength welds with excellent bead appearance Smooth arc transfer with minimal spaaer Easy slag release for quick and easy clean-up Providing high quality filler metals in North America since 1997 BUFFALO, NY

888.317.2209

EXOCOR.COM

Fall 2021 • 111

INDUSTRY NEWS on cryo pad processes. He then worked for Conroe Welding Supply Company as a filler for their Oxygen and CO2 filling stations. Now he is at Weldcoa, going through extensive training in several departments learning from the ground up.

Mississippi Welders Supply Company Unveils New Logo Mississippi Welders Supply unveiled its new logo. The new logo is a recognition of the fact that the company is more than a welding supply company and in fact services the automation/robotics, beverage CO2, cryogenic gas, fire protection, machine repair service, medical gas, plasma cutting, power tools, specialty gas, value engineering, vending solutions and welding supply markets.

Leader in Gas Transportation, Storage, Vaporizers and Services FIBA Technologies, Inc. 53 Ayer Rd, Littleton, MA, USA 01460 508.887.7100 info@fibatech.com

www.FIBATECH.com 112 • Fall 2021

Messer Announces Plans to Build New Air Separation Plant in Central Texas USA Messer announced plans to build a large-scale air separation unit (ASU) to manufacture liquid atmospheric products in Central Texas. The new air separation plant will produce medical and industrial gases which are essential to hospitals, food processors, metals manufacturing, oil and gas producers, aerospace industries, electronics fabricators and independent welding and gases distributors. “Messer will extend our strong southwestern merchant gases supply network to meet growing customer demand in the region,” said Jens Luehring, President and CEO of Messer Americas. “Our expansion in this market has been on an upward trajectory for several years and we have been supplying customers from our plants in La Porte and Terrell, Texas, as well as Lewisville, Arkansas. Not only will the new plant expand our service capabilities to support the mediumand long-term growth of key accounts and industries around Central Texas, but it further supports our mission to become the premier supplier of choice for industrial, medical and specialty products in the Americas.”

SHARE YOUR NEWS If you’ve hired new people, moved your facility, acquired a company, added a product line, have new offerings or anything else newsworthy is happening at your business, please let us know. We’d like to share those updates with your fellow GAWDA members. GAWDA publishes a twice-monthly e-newsletter (The GAWDA Connection) and a quarterly magazine for its membership audience. Simply forward your information to GAWDA Media at: editorial@gawdamedia.com or call us at 315-445-2347, x120.

INDUSTRY NEWS Butler Gas Products Appears on Television Show “World’s Greatest…” Butler Gas Products appeared on the television show “World’s Greatest…” on Bloomberg TV. The episode aired in July and can be seen in its entirety on the show’s website. Visit worldsgreatesttelevision.com/episodes and click on episode 304 to view the episode that features Butler Gas Products. When it comes to industrial, specialty, and medical gases and dry ice, it takes a certain level of expertise to be considered the best regional manufacturer and distributor in the business. Butler Gas Products has been meeting and exceeding that level of expertise for three generations and they’ve never been more important than they are right now. “We think their story will be meaningful as well as educational to our viewers” said Gordon Freeman, Executive Producer of the show.

Haun Welding Supply Adds Two New Stores Haun Welding Supply has opened two new stores in Connecticut and New Hampshire. In Danbury, CT the new location is in conjunction with an acquisition of Perfect Solutions, LLC. The Derry, NH location will help Haun’s

customers get better service in Southeast NH. Please visit the new locations at: 50 Mill Plain Road, Danbury, CT 06811 8 Tinkham Ave., Unit D, Derry, NH 03038

Weldship Corporation Announces Mike Arcieri as the VP Sales and Marketing Weldship Industries is pleased to announce that Mike Arcieri has been promoted to the position of VP Sales and Marketing. Mike is now responsible for the overall management of sales and marketing activities for Weldship as well as Texas Trailer Corporation, a subsidiary of Weldship.

Mike Arcieri

Texas Trailer Corporation Announces Scott Greisen as VP and General Manager Texas Trailer Corporation, a subsidiary of Weldship Industries is pleased to announce that Scott Greisen has been promoted to the position of VP and General Manager.

Proudly serving the industry seamlessly since 1897 412-664-6604 tom.kairys@cp-industries.com www.cp-industries.com R

2214 Walnut Street, McKeesport, PA 15132

High pressure gaseous ground storage and transportation engineered solutions available Type 1 steel and type 4 composite high pressure cylinders available for various pressures and applications. Industrial gas including H2 storage cylinders up to 15,000 psi Single vessels or assembly units, also equipped with manifolds and valves

Proudly made in USA

Fall 2021 • 113

INDUSTRY NEWS

Scott Greisen

Scott is now responsible for the overall operational management of Texas Trailer Corporation, a leading manufacturer of quality CO 2 trailers which offers testing and reconditioning services for compressed gas tube trailers and ISO containers.

Angie Signorile Joins Vendor Managed Gas VMG is excited to announce the addition of Angie Signorile to the Technical Sales & Support team. Angie will further ensure excellent service to all VMG customers and help develop and enhance the VMG product in the field. Angie has over 20 years’ experience in the gas Angie Signorile industry and has worked extensively with global companies and the end user. She has extensive background in specialty gas, life science & healthcare, as well as electronics/semiconductors. Angie is coming to VMG after relocating to her hometown of Cincinnati from California where she resided for over 25 years. Angie explains, “I have sold VMG to end user customers in my former roles and I am excited to fully engage with the sales and marketing of such an innovative product.”

a single press in Huntington Beach to multiple facilities on both coasts with a footprint of over 240,000 sq.ft. “Working for Catalina has been the experience of a lifetime. The Keeler family and the entire Catalina team has made my career very rewarding. The good news is the selection of David Silva as my replacement will ensure Catalina’s continued success. He is a very talented individual and I wish him all the best going forward.” said Rick. Upon Rick’s retirement, Catalina Cylinders will be appointing David Silva in the role of President and Chief Executive Officer. David will be responsible for growing the business through its next chapter as a market leader. David’s career with Catalina and its sister company (Aluminum Precision Products) spans over 19 years. His roles at Catalina included Sales Manager, VP of Sales & Marketing and then prior to this new appointment, two years as VP of Strategy & Operations.

Catalina Cylinders President and CEO Richard Hill to Retire in Q1 2022

Richard (Rick) Hill

David Silva

114 • Fall 2021

Richard (Rick) Hill, President and CEO of Catalina Cylinders, has announced plans for commencing retirement in Q1 2022. Rick joined Catalina over 31 years ago as Plant Manager, and over the span of his career was promoted to General Manager, Vice President and General Manager, and has been President and CEO since 2016. Rick is on Catalina’s Board of Directors and will remain a board member after his retirement. He is also the Chairman of the Catalina ESOP Committee. Over the years, Rick has been instrumental in growing the business from 12 to more than 200 employees, and from

Absolute Air Expects to be Online in First Quarter 2022 Absolute Air expects to come online in the first quarter of 2022. Absolute Air is a consortium of independent welding supply and gas companies. The new state-of-the-art Air Separation Plant will assure an ongoing source of supply for customers’ nitrogen, oxygen and argon requirements. Once the plant goes online, Absolute Air will host a facility tour during IWDC’s Sales & Purchasing Convention, which will take place from May 24-26, 2022, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

INDUSTRY NEWS

IN MEMORIAM BOB DOAN

Robert L. Doan, husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather, brother, brother-in-law, friend and also known as “the Wizard,” was born on June 5, 1937, in Springfield, Illinois, to Margaret and George Doan. Bob was preceded in death by a brother, George, and sister, Rosemary. He is survived by his younger brother Jon Doan (Debbie) of Orlando, Florida. Bob was a success out of St. James Trade School in Springfield. It was also in Springfield where he met the love of his life Margaret “Bobbie” Doan. They married October 18, 1958, and eventually settled in Garden Grove, California, to raise their five children who all survive him: Jeanine Hurst (Brad), Rob Doan, Mary McGee (Pat), Mike Doan (Susan), John Doan (Holly). He is also survived by seven grandchildren: Stefani Morgan, Erin McGee, Cameron and Brad Doan, Austin and Olivia Doan. He leaves behind brothers and sister in laws, 35 nieces and nephews, numerous great nieces and nephews, all who adored him as the life of the party at all family functions. He was the first to visit the hospital when new family members arrived! He was a father figure to many over the years and took every opportunity to mentor as a family man and businessman. His legacy includes owning Flange Wizard for 40 years (a leader in welding equipment) and earned him the nickname of “the Wizard” based on the fact he patented over fifty tools for the welding industry. More so than his passion for his business he loved his family, Catholic faith, friends from all over the world and all sports but especially the Mater Dei Monarchs where all 5 of his children attended as well as 5 of his grandchildren.

Bob Doan was a larger-than-life personality. If you knew him, you knew this to be true. At his core he lived the American dream, a man who came from a humble background, built a successful business but never lost sight of the important things in life: family and friends. He was generous to a fault and downright unassuming and funny. He battled prostate cancer for a year and never complained. He died peacefully at home with his bride of 62 years, Bobbie or “Mother” as he affectionately called her. His legacy will live on by all the lives he touched. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Bob Doan Memorial Scholarship Fund at the American Welding Society Foundation. Donations may be made online at www.aws.org/donate (Please mention Bob Doan’s name in the comment section) or mailed to the American Welding Society (issue check to: AWS Foundation) AWS, Attn: Bob Doan Scholarship Fund, 8669 NW 36th Street, Suite #130, Miami, FL 33166.

MILDRED “MIM” DUNN GAWDA extends its condolences to the friends and family of Mildred “Mim” Dunn, who passed away on July 20, 2021, at the age of 99. Mim and her husband, Paul Dunn, were the

first-generation owners of Cee Kay Supply from 19551979. Mim was considered the matriarch for the Cee Kay Supply family and officially retired in December 2020 after 66 years. She will be greatly missed not only by her family at Cee Kay Supply, but the entire Gas and Welding Industry.

Fall 2021 • 115

INDUSTRY NEWS

MA SCORECARD

Lincoln Electric Acquires Overstreet-Hughes Company, Inc. and Shoals Tubular, Inc.

Chart Industries Announces the Formation of ChartWater Division Within Specialty Products

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. announced that it has acquired OverstreetHughes Company, Inc. and Shoals Tubular, Inc. FTP and Shoals manufacture copper and aluminum headers, distributor assemblies and manifolds in the United States and Mexico for the HVAC sector and have combined annual sales of approximately $50 million. The addition of FTP and Shoals further differentiates The Harris Products Group’s competitive position serving HVAC OEMs with a comprehensive portfolio of solutions for the fabrication of HVAC coils, and the acquisition accelerates their growth in this attractive market. “We are excited to welcome FTP and Shoals to Lincoln Electric and integrate their industry-leading offering and expertise into our Harris Products Group business,” said Christopher L. Mapes, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our combined portfolio now offers HVAC OEMs with the broadest portfolio of solutions and application expertise for high-quality and efficient HVAC coil fabrication,” Mapes continued, “The acquisition also positions HPG to better capitalize on the attractive HVAC growth opportunity as part of our Higher Standard 2025 Strategy.”

Chart Industries, Inc. announced the formation of ChartWater™, a division of Chart Industries within the Specialty Products segment, focused on leveraging its core engineering and manufacturing expertise along with its global footprint, to bring additional innovative water treatment solutions to market. ChartWater™ further solidifies Chart’s position in the growing water treatment space while establishing the framework for organic and inorganic expansion as it continues to invest in growth platforms focused on providing sustainable solutions for a wide variety of industries and applications. “We recognize the importance and magnitude of the challenges at the nexus of society’s clean energy and clean water needs globally,” said Chart Industries CEO and President Jill Evanko. “ChartWater™ was born out of Chart and BlueInGreen’s (“BIG”) shared commitment to providing solutions to these challenges.” BlueInGreen was acquired by Chart in November 2020, and continues to be based out of Fayetteville, Arkansas. BIG was named one of the fastest-growing private companies in America by Inc. Magazine in August 2020 and continues to thrive as one of the Centers of Excellence under the ChartWater™ umbrella, with

116 • Fall 2021

BlueInGreen CEO and President Chris Milligan, P.E. leading the business. “ChartWater™ is more than just a name,” said Milligan. “It is an investment in Chart’s ongoing commitment to develop, acquire, and provide a portfolio of premier solutions and world-class expertise to help our customers meet their ESG goals. And water is a BIG (pun intended) part of that.” “Energy production consumes a tremendous amount of fresh water, and the production of clean water consumes a tremendous amount of energy. You can’t ignore the energy-water nexus if a core element of your growth platform is enabling society’s transition to a low-carbon economy,” Evanko said. “We see a tremendous opportunity to not only continue to grow existing markets for these water treatment solutions, but to also leverage our work in other areas – like LNG, hydrogen, biogas, and carbon capture – to provide an even more integrated solution for our customers.”

Datacor Strengthens Industrial Gas Offerings with Acquisition of INFONETICS Datacor, Inc. announced the acquisition of INFONETICS, a leading provider of software solutions to the welding supply and industrial gas industry. Datacor has established a strong presence in this market through its industry-specific ERP, CRM, and container tracking software solutions

INDUSTRY NEWS with the purchase of TrackAbout in 2019. The acquisition of INFONETICS will expand Datacor’s offerings and is aligned with Datacor’s strategy to become the leader in business software for the industrial gas and welding supply industry. D a v i d J . F re a , p r e s i d e n t o f INFONETICS, and his entire management team, will continue to manage the operation. “David and his experienced team have been highly successful and active in the industrial gas and welding supply industry for more than 30 years,” said Tom Jackson, president of Datacor. “We are very pleased that David will continue to guide his talented team towards excellence and growth. We look forward to working together to provide cutting edge ERP and integrated asset management solutions to this specialized industry.” According to Mr. Frea, it was a logical decision to join Datacor. “Joining the Datacor family expands the resources and product platforms available to our customers, including state-of-the-art Software-as-a-Service, integrated mobile applications, asset tracking, e-commerce, credit-card payment features, and more. We look forward to working together as a leading provider of ERP and integrated asset management solutions to the packaged gas and chemical distribution markets,” he remarked.

F&M MAFCO Partners with OptiCrib F&M MAFCO announced a strategic partnership with OptiCrib, LLC to provide high-tech inventory management solutions to its NextSTEP and StrikeForce tool management programs. OptiCrib is a completely automated inventory management system for a company’s storeroom, warehouse, outdoor trailer, or supply closet that uses machine learning algorithms, computer vision cameras, and other proprietary

sensors to track every item taken from its shelves. This transformative technology allows employees to “grab and go.” There is no scanning, no entering item numbers, no written forms, no RFID tags, and no direct interface with other personnel. According to Tim Fries, CEO of F&M MAFCO, “This amazing technology will allow us to further improve the efficiencies we deliver to our customers through our turnkey tool management programs. In addition, it simplifies one’s entire inventory management processes, whether in the shop or on a job site.” F&M MAFCO will begin testing this innovative technology with a few key customers over the coming months. Dave Decker, VP of Sales for F&M MAFCO commented, “Customers are looking for new ways

to improve their operational efficiencies. This tool is the ideal solution to control a company’s tool inventory with several benefits, including reduced labor expense, improved accuracy, and reduction in tool loss. We can’t wait to see OptiCrib at work in our NextSTEP and StrikeForce programs as we begin rolling it out with a few key customers.” Michael J. DeVoney, executive vice president at OptiCrib, commented, “Our team is equally as excited about our partnership with F&M MAFCO. We look for like-minded entrepreneurial organizations to partner with and are confident that our technology will transform the inventory management processes of F&M’s customers. It is a perfect solution to integrate into their existing tool management programs to further drive operational efficiencies.”

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NEW OFFERINGS

PRODUCTS | SERVICES | TECHNOLOGIES

1. Fizz Industrial FN Series Nitrogen Generators

Fizz Dispenseʼs Industrial division has launched a line of compact nitrogen generators that provide three purity and flow settings. Included with these new designs are an auto-changeover to create a seamless hybrid solution for any nitrogen application. The FN series allows customers to lease part of their gas supply and utilize liquid or high-pressure nitrogen for those peak demand situations. The FN series purities are 99, 99.9 or 99.999, so you can use a single unit in any industrial, beverage or lab situation. The FN series can be field set to any of the three flow options. If you are looking for a partner to create a unique value proposition for your customers considering a nitrogen generator, our team looks forward to discussing it with you.

2. Harris DataSMART Harris Products Group has introduced DataSMART™, a fully automatic switchover manifold system with monitoring, tracking and reporting capabilities that can control and maximize gas use and expenses. DataSMART’s proprietary software and advanced technology provide users with valuable data and analytical insights to improve efficiencies and reduce costs. 118 • Fall 2021

Sound business strategies are centered around data, and DataSMART is designed for a wide range of gas and pressures to suit a wide range of businesses. Whether working with low-pressure applications in analytical labs, or with high pressure applications such as laser cutting in metal fabricators, welding job shops or manufacturing, DataSMART helps companies better utilize their gas investments. The system works with atmospheric gases and some flammable gases, sourced from bulk, cylinder or liquid dewars. DataSMART’s integrated telemetry system enables pre-set trigger points to be set that send real-time alerts and alarm notifications to avoid downtimes. The telemetry box connects to pressure transducers. Through network or GSM/SMS connectivity, the system sends alerts directly through email or text. Beyond the real-time readings of the volume of gas in each source container, DataSMART collects historical data so gas consumption trends can be identified over time. It will monitor gas flow and usage, as well as collect and store data. The system records the dates and times of every switchover and can be utilized to schedule deliveries precisely when they are needed and for exactly the amount that is needed to optimize efficiency.

NEW OFFERINGS

3. ESAB Launches 600- and 800-Amp

Options for I Series of High-Precision Automated Plasma Systems

For increased productivity when automated plasma cutting, ESAB Welding & Cutting Products has launched enhanced versions of its 200-, 300- and 400-amp versions iSeries high-precision plasma power sources to double cutting output to 400, 600 or 800 amps, respectively. The new capability, standard on iSeries systems, requires using matching consumables, a connection kit with cabling and associated software for the controller. “The concept is similar to paralleling two welding power sources to use larger diameter electrodes for increased productivity,” explains Dirk Ott, VP – Global Plasma Automation. “This new capability features some modest software and hardware enhancements, but the challenge was developing the new 600- and 800-amp consumables for stainless steel and aluminum.” Ott notes that consumables are the most highly engineered components in an automated plasma cutting system, and that achieving optimal cut quality and speed requires changing consumables to match the application. ESAB now offers consumables for automated plasma cutting outputs from 15 to 800 amps.

4. Computers Unlimited Releases TIMS Plant  Computers Unlimited, developers of TIMS Software, has updated yet another smartphone and tablet ready application, TIMS Plant, to their ongoing suite of TIMS mobile tools. Leading the paradigm shift taking place with digitization within the gases and welding industry, CU’s TIMS Plant is one of over a dozen agile apps created to give users the ability to manage all aspects of gas and welding supply distribution, including fill-plant operations. Computers Unlimited’s objective is to consistently develop the tools needed by its distributor users to compete in today’s marketplace. Modernizing our mobile suite from traditional ruggedized devices to take advantage of smartphone and tablet technologies, allows us to maintain our leadership role in bringing the latest tech to the Industrial Gas marketplace. Streamlining operations and simplifying processes using digitization gives our users the means to provide excellent service to their customers with on-site ordering, quick delivery, and immediate answers on pricing and availability. Mobile apps expedite productivity through integration and real-time reporting and mobile users stay connected no matter where they need to be. continued on next page

Fall 2021 • 119

NEW OFFERINGS 6 5

5. TOMCO’s New Hybrid Urethane Insulated Tanks

TOMCO’s new hybrid urethane insulated tank features the innovative stainless-steel design of its classic bulk tanks, but now insulated with urethane for improved efficiency, with virtually no maintenance. The tank comes in 6- and 14-ton vessels and feature a sealed outer jacket, stainless steel inner vessel and piping, insulated with urethane for improved efficiency, no refrigeration required for most applications and a 10-year maintenance free system.

6. Harris Offers Compact Single-Stage

Regulators for Specialty Gases

Harris Products Group’s compact single-stage diaphragm gas regulators are for portable calibration and analyzer applications involving complex gases. Harris Model MR5 and MR6 regulators have a small internal volume of 2.6 cubic centimeters, a compact footprint, and are lightweight. They are typically used for applications involving lecture bottle use, EPA protocol standards, low-level volatile organic compound (VOC) gases and high purity gases. The regulator’s low internal volume provides ease of purging with minimal gas waste and reduces the potential of contaminants entering into the gas stream. Their stainless-steel diaphragms minimize the diffusion 120 • Fall 2021

of air into the regulator and eliminate “off-gassing” associated with elastomeric diaphragms. The MR5 is brass constructed, and is suitable for non-corrosive gas service, while the MR6 is stainless steel, and can be used with mildly corrosive gases. All Harris compact regulators are manufactured and tested in the U.S.A., at their Gainesville, GA facility.

7. Norton BlueFire Abrasives Saint-Gobain Abrasives has introduced newly upgraded Norton BlueFire Abrasives including Belts, Cloth QuickChange and Flap Discs, and Mini Flap Discs. Featuring a new, proprietary self-sharpening zirconia alumina grain shape and chemistry, and an upgraded resin bond for faster cut rates and durability, the new BlueFire R860 and R887D abrasive products provide exceptional performance on a wide range of materials in light to heavy-pressure applications. An improved, heavy-duty polyester backing is designed for long life and will withstand challenging applications. In addition to metal fabrication and welding, new Norton BlueFire abrasive products are well-suited for key industries such as foundry, aerospace, automotive, oil/gas, wind turbines and general metalworking. “We are very pleased to offer our customers the enhanced Norton BlueFire abrasives in our Better Tier of products,”

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9 said Patrick Carroll, Sr. Product Manager for BlueFire R860, Norton | Saint-Gobain Abrasives. “Users have experienced over 50% performance improvement and faster cut rate in the newly upgraded Norton BlueFire Line compared with other zirconia alumina products.” “For applications in stainless steel and other hard-to-grind materials, BlueFire 887D Discs and Belts offer long abrasives life due to a supersized grinding aid,” said John Benkoczy, Sr. Product Manager for BlueFire R887D, Norton | Saint-Gobain Abrasives. “Also, heavy grinding can be performed without worry of delamination, because the strong polyester quickchange disc backing stands up to extreme pressure.”

8. Perma-Cyl® 7000 VHP MicroBulk Storage

System from Chart

The innovative Perma-Cyl® 7000 VHP MicroBulk Storage System is the latest addition to the Perma-Cyl product line of fast-fill onsite MicroBulk storage vessels. Designed for configuration to any LIN, LAR or LOX gas or liquid application, the Perma-Cyl 7000 MicroBulk tank is available with a standard VHP maximum allowable working pressure. It is engineered to supply up to 10,000 SCFH for short periods of time to satisfy the most demanding gas applications. With our industry-exclusive configure to order plumbing (offered in LP, MP, HP and VHP operating pressures), you can build your own

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9. CTR, Inc. CO2 Water XBath Vaporizer

CTR, Inc.’s CO2 Water Bath Vaporizer increases productivity compared to conventional CO2 heaters. If you have twenty-four 300 cubic feet Argon/CO2 75/25 cylinders, the typical fill time for the CO2 part of the cylinder averages between 3-5 minutes. The CO2 Water Bath Vaporizer has RTD monitoring product outlet temperature, a control enclosure, a bypass valve, a water temperature gauge and adjustable water temperature switch, a water inlet solenoid, a tank drain valve and is all stainless steel double wall insulated.

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helmets. Available as both digital and analog, these helmets Viewing Size: 3.94" x definition 2.36" provide advanced true color technology and high optics, allowing welders to weld with improved clarity. Weldcote 9.3 square inches helmets come in a variety of viewing sizes, depending on your application, and are Variable powered byType solar and CR2450 batteries. Cartridge Shade: Switching time from light to dark takes only .08ms. Visit weld4of auto-darkening Light State: cotemetals.com to learn more about our line helmets. Dark State: 9-13

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Fall 2021 • 121

ADVERTISERS INDEX Acme Cryogenics............................................ 40

Lincoln Electric................................................. 7

Allcryo............................................................. 69

McDantim..................................................... 111

American Cap Company................................. 59 American Welding Society.............................. 61 AmWins Program Underwriters....................... 34 ANOVA............................................................ 75

Meritus Gas Partners.................................24-25 Metal Man Work Gear..................................... 91 NorLab Calibration Gases

Anthony Welded Products.............................. 57

Division of Norco...................................... 95

Arcos Industries............................................ IBC

Norton Abrasives............................................ 77

ASM/American Standard Manufacturing.......... 8

ORS Nasco..................................................... 38

Astaras............................................................ 67 Black Stallion/Revco Industries...................... 27 BTIC America Corporation.............................. 48

PDC Machines................................................ 15 Prism Visual Software..................................... 68

California Cylinder Corp.................................. 68

RegO Cryo-Flow Products.............................. 73

Carbide Industries.......................................... 87

Rotarex........................................................... 54

Catalina Cylinders........................................... 90 Champion Tool................................................ 55 Chart Inc........................................................... 5

SafTCart........................................................... 9 Select-Arc...................................................... BC

Clean Cylinder.............................................. 109

Sherwood Valve.............................................. 21

Computers Unlimited...................................... 85

Solution Source.............................................. 13

Controlled Efficiencies.................................... 47

Superflash Compressed Gas Equipment........ 63

CP Industries................................................ 113 Cryogenic Industrial Solutions........................ 79 Cryoworks...................................................... 80

Thermco Instrument Corporation.................... 19 Tier 5 Labs...................................................... 89

Cyl-Tec............................................................ 17

TomCO2 Systems............................................. 3

Dynabrade...................................................... 64

US Tank & Cryogenic Equipment.................. 108

Eleet Cryogenics............................................. 37

Veite Cryogenic Equipment............................... 1

ESAB Welding & Cutting Products.................. 39 Exocor.......................................................... 111 FIBA Technologies........................................ 112

Voestalpine Bohler.......................................... 33 Watson Coatings.......................................... 117

Flexovit USA................................................... 31

Weldcoa.......................................................... 49

Generant Company......................................... 74

Weldcote......................................................... 83

Genstar Technologies Company..................... 11 H & H Sales..................................................... 87 Harris Products Group...................................IFC

Weldship Corporation..................................... 16 Winton Products............................................. 74

Hypertherm..................................................... 35

Wire Wizard (ElCo Enterprises)..................... 113

Kaplan Industries............................................ 23

Witt Gas Controls........................................... 22

122 • Fall 2021

The following businesses recently joined the Gases and Welding Distributors Association. For more information about the benefits and services available to members, please contact GAWDA at 844-251-3219 or visit www.gawda.org.

DISTRIBUTOR MEMBERS: SPEED INDUSTRIAL GAS, LLC.

GULF GASES & TECHNOLOGY

1003 Brussels Street San Antonio, TX 78219 www.speedindustrialgas.com Michael Crambes, President michael@speedindustrialgas.com 210-775-5538

10434 Mammoth Ave Baton Rouge, LA 70814 www.gulfgastech.com Clayton Bowman, President clayton.bowman@gulfgastech.com 225-367-4097

SUPPLIER MEMBERS: BAYOTECH

RATERMANN CRYOGENICS

902 Vista Del Lago Drive Huffman, TX 77336 http://bayotech.us Scott Koonce, Vice President of Sales skoonce@bayotech.us 832-992-6460

601 Pinnacle Place Livermore, CA 94550 cryoorder.com Brent Lockhart, President brent@rmimfg.com 844-341-3433

PAULSON MANUFACTURING CORP. 46752 Rainbow Canyon Rd. Temecula, CA 92592 www.paulsonmfg.com Patrick McCoy, National Sales Manager pmccoy@paulsonmfg.com 951-764-0709

Fall 2021 • 123

@esabweldingcutting Monday Motivation

AWDA members shared the below posts and pictures using Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We encourage GAWDA members to keep the conversation going all year long by using #GAWDA next time you post.

@phxdryrod Day 1 at the @gawaorg Seven Springs Regional Meeting was a success!

@bakersgas

@keengas Some #KeenGas Legends got together recently to do some catching up! Will Keen, former VP of Sales & Marketing. Tim Scott, Tech Welding Specialist. Ed Cassidy, former Account Manager. And Dave current Account Manager. Keen would not be what it is today if it wasn’t for the unmeasurable contributions of these men. We are forever thankful.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAKERS! Celebrating 85 years in business. Same family, same values & same priorities… getting you what you need when you need it! Since 1936 thank you! We appreciate you all!

@mississippiwelderssupply @encoresupply Hopefully it’s that simple! 124 • Fall 2021

Here’s the MWSCO formula: business booming + product dislocations + CDL driver hour limitations= the boss pitches in and drives a truck! MWSCO will always find a way to keep the customer going.

Arcos Delivers Solutions to Stainless Steel Alloy Welding Challenges.

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2/7/2019 10:31:41 AM

Welding & Gases Today | Q4 2021

Articles inside

Selling Hard Goods Gases In A Digitized World

Search Engine Trends for the Gases and Welding Industry

Where Businesses Should Focus This Year to Recapture Sales

Rebuilding Relationships Post COVID

5 Best Practices to Guide Your Sales Compensation Redesign

Analytics That Quantify Value & Grow Profits

Whatever it Takes

Conceive, Believe, Achieve

Made in the USA

The Potential Benefits of ESOPs as a Succession Plan

2021 GAWDA Regional Meeting Recaps

Sales Pipeline Forecasting Fact or Fiction?

HUBER SUPPLY COMPANY

The GAWDA/CGA Safety & Training Playbook

ASK YOUR BOARD

Entry Level Driving Training

COMMITTEE CORNER

PRESIDENT’S VIEW

Medical Oxygen Suppliers Respond to Surging Demand from COVID-19 Hospitalizations

Sample Safety Practices

DIRECTOR’S DESK

EDITOR’S NOTE