Month: March 2022

Welding careers play an integral role in keeping people safe and advancing the quality of life across the globe, yet participation in welding and other skilled trades continues to decrease. Since 1996, the American Welding Society has designated the month of April as National Welding Month to bring awareness to the welding industry and its available career paths. The welding community is vast, and AWS is dedicated to supporting the industry technicians and professionals that work at our shipyards, automotive and appliance assembly plants, pipelines, construction sites and other industries on which our economy depends. “National Welding Month is an…

We are at once delighted and disheartened to announce that Bruce Nuttall is retiring and his last day on the job is March 31, 2022. Bruce started as a Driver/Salesman with Mississippi Welders Supply Co. (MWSCO) 37 years ago, when the company was only 25 individuals strong, with four branch locations. Bruce quickly earned more responsibility as the company began to grow, progressing through the ranks to become the Sales Manager.  In this role, he has not only overseen industrial gas and hardgoods sales, but he has also grown and nurtured a beverage gas division, a fire service division, specialty…

Noble Gas Solutions, a family-owned distributor of high-quality compressed industrial, medical, and specialty gases and welding supplies, announced today that President Colleen Kohler was named a recipient of Albany Business Review’s 40 Under 40 award. The award highlights business professionals who have portrayed exceptional leadership and impressive accomplishments. “I would say that I have been fortunate to have many influential people in my life. After I gave birth to my daughter I had a very encouraging conversation with Air Products past President, Marie Ffolkes. She was very encouraging when she asked about my career aspirations. She told me to never…

Holston Gases is proud to announce that they have signed a letter of intent to purchase Dixie Welding Supply effective May 2nd. Dixie’s locations in Atalla, AL and Oxford, AL increase Holston’s locations in Alabama to 8, and the company totals to 42. Holston Gases President/CEO, Robert Anders, said, “ We are excited to add Dixie Welding employees, customers, and product lines to those of Holston gases. This is a perfect fit. Dixie Welding and the Williams family have an outstanding reputation in north Alabama and we look forward to partnering with them to enhance the offerings they can provide…

Koehler Welding Supply announces new staff promotions. Todd Ungru has been named President and Doug Ungru has been named Vice President effective immediately. This change punctuates the company’s growth realized during the COVID-19 pandemic. Todd Ungru and Doug Ungru have been with Koehler Welding Supply for over 11 years with expertise leading the inside and outside sales teams of KWS. “I am excited for the future of Koehler Welding with Todd and Doug at the helm”, says Dave Ungru, CEO, “the ideas and opportunities they see for the future of our business especially during this challenging time for America will…

By Jay Spielvogel, Venator Sales Group, LLC One of the most common complaints we hear from sales leadership is the challenge with driving consistent usage of the company CRM. No matter the size of the distributorship, sales managers from across the gas and welding industry share the same frustration.  “Our salespeople are treating the company CRM as a glorified rolodex.” “We have invested in expensive technology and our salespeople still aren’t using it properly!” Sound familiar?  At Venator, we have a saying, “You can’t coach what you can’t see, and you can’t manage what you don’t look at.” If we…

Digital transformation involves the strategic adoption of new technologies in the marketplace. It’s used to improve processes and productivity, deliver better customer and employee experiences, manage business risk, and control costs. Myriad tools, solutions, and processes are used in digital implementation and today, we are all unavoidably part of the transformation. With past experience in helping to grow a distributor business from $10M to $65M, I am now a consultant to small and mid-size businesses (SMBs). I find that digital transformation can seem daunting to this group. Smaller companies often feel they are at a competitive disadvantage to larger distributors, who…

By McKinnon Shisko, Indian River Consulting Group In April 2019, a large national consulting firm surveyed 1,000 executives of large firms (classified as having 500+ employees) with the intent of discovering key points about their ability to leverage data in making business decisions. Their study found that 37% of respondents considered their companies to be highly mature on the Insight-Driven Maturity Scale while 63% of respondents were “aware of analytics but lack infrastructure, are still working in silos, or are expanding ad hoc analytics capabilities beyond silos.” Interestingly, “among the 37% of companies in the survey with the strongest analytics cultures, 48%…

by Thomas J. Armitage, site-seeker, inc. Here’s a fun game. In your next meeting, ask the group how they prefer to communicate with companies. It seems like a simple question, but as you’ll find out, there are lots of answers.  Form fill? Email? Phone call? Live chat?  It will be different for everyone, since many factors come into play, like who the company is, what the needs are, and how quickly the buyer needs a reply.  Although it’s used in our personal lives daily, text messaging is so often overlooked by businesses as a method of communication and customer service.…

Making Their Customers’ Cup Runneth Over How Leonard’s Syrups has become a one-stop shop  While Leonard’s Syrups was technically founded in 1965, the origins of the company stretch back much, much further than that, to a college dorm room in Columbus, Ohio. When Leonard Bugajewski Sr. was enrolled at the Ohio State University, he got the idea to open his own soft drink bottling brand. During his junior year, Bugajewski and his roommate left Ohio State to open the Clio-Cola bottling plant. The company, however, was short-lived, and was dissolved in 1940 due to the product label and name being…