Author: Steve Guglielmo

March 10, 2020 – The following is a letter from GAWDA President Abydee Butler Moore addressed to GAWDA Members. To read the letter in its entirety, click here.  At this point, our GAWDA Spring Management Conference is on schedule and on track. We are monitoring the COVID-19 national and international activity, working with the hotel and event facilities closely, and preparing a contingency plan in the event of worsening conditions in the weeks approaching our conference. Our SMC is still over 3 weeks out, and a lot can change in that time period. We have been assured by the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau…

Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) recently visited SafTCart’s Clarksdale, Mississippi, Headquarters. Senator Hyde-Smith was visiting the Mississippi Delta with a breakfast at the Delta Blues Museum, then came to SafTCart for a plant tour. Engineer Reid Walker and CEO Jimmy Walker, Sr. escorted her throughout the plant, including the site of the expansion to the truck and trailer fabrication facility that SafTCart recently opened. “The Senator was most impressed with the operation not realizing what came out of the Mississippi Delta,” says Vice President Jim Herring. “The Senator had an impressive knowledge of steel fabrication and asked most pertinent questions.” Other March 1 Connection…

Air Products announced that the Air Products Foundation has awarded a $100,000 grant, approximately 700,000 renminbi, to assist novel coronavirus (COVID-19) recovery efforts in China. “As the world navigates the challenges and threats from COVID-19, I want to express my full support—and the support and solidarity of all of Air Products—as many dedicated organizations and individuals continue their important work,” said Seifi Ghasemi, chairman, president and chief executive officer at Air Products. “I am very proud of our teams in China, across Asia and around the world who have been working hand in hand and supporting each other with one common…

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. announced that Vincent K. Petrella, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, will be succeeded by current Executive Vice President, Finance, Gabriel Bruno, effective April 22, 2020. Petrella will continue to serve as Executive Vice President to assist the Executive Team with the transition of the finance and corporate strategy organization until his retirement later this year. Petrella joined Lincoln Electric in 1995 and held various finance positions with the company before being appointed Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer in 2004. During his twenty-five year tenure, he has been instrumental in shaping the Company’s global…

Tim Nesser retired from Chart Industries on Feb. 14 after nearly 40 years with the company. He started as an intern in 1980 and became a full-time product engineer right out of college in 1982. He said the company employed about 150 when he started and now has 5,000 employees and does $1.5 billion in sales worldwide.  He holds 25 patents and one of his early designs for a storage system for Coke syrup is still used by McDonalds today. Other March 1 Connection News and New Products: Butler Gas Wins 2020 Ethics Excellence Award Tim Nesser Retires from Chart…

Pittsburgh Rotary named Butler Gas the winner of the 2020 Ethics Excellence Award! Butler Gas owners Jack and Elissa Butler and Abydee Butler Moore, attended the Pittsburgh Rotary Ethics Excellence Award ceremony at the Omni William Penn Hotel on February 12th, anxious with anticipation of the pending awards announcements. Butler Gas had been a finalist alongside two outstanding organizations, wealth management leader Hefren-Tillotson and entertainment giant Topgolf. The event was a remarkable all-volunteer effort by the Pittsburgh Rotary and Pittsburgh Business Exchange. Funds generated at the awards ceremony benefited the ‘City of Champions Emergency Fund’. This fund is used to eliminate barriers to success for…

In the 4th Quarter 2019 issue of Welding & Gases Today, we debuted a new feature called “Search Engine Trends for the Gases & Welding Industry.” This feature is designed to help readers understand the terms and searches that are ranking highly in Google Trends. Part 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…

By Steve Guglielmo and Brian Beaulieu ITR Economics CEO Brian Beaulieu is GAWDA’s Chief Economist. He and his team of economists produce the ITR Quarterly Report for each issue of Welding & Gases Today. Brian also gives a presentation at the GAWDA Annual Convention each year. ITR produces an annual  webinar describing how to use the data in the ITR Quarterly Report. GAWDA members can access this webinar on the GAWDA.org members section. This year, Brian was kind enough to discuss a wide-ranging of topics with Welding & Gases Today, including his expectation for the economy going forward, his take…

Despite calls for a slow first half of the year, GAWDA distributors look ahead to 2020 with confidence. Each year in the 1st Quarter Issue of Welding & Gases Today, we survey the industry to try to determine what can be expected from the economy in the coming year. To do this, we have solicited not only distributor and supplier member expectations, but also spoke with the Chief GAWDA Economists at ITR Economics to hear their perspective (page  68.) These three perspectives, combined with the in-depth ITR Quarterly Report (page 72-83), all help paint a picture of what the economy…

A roundtable discussion with GAWDA Members who find value in the ITR Report By Steve Guglielmo, Mark Raimy, Bob Ewing, Bill Visintainer, Brad Armstrong and Pete Anderson Each issue of Welding & Gases Today contains the ITR Quarterly Report. This issue’s report can be found on page 72. GAWDA members who attend the Annual Convention are very familiar with Brian and Alan Beaulieu, ITR’s CEO and President respectively, who give a presentation each year discussing the economic trends and what GAWDA members can expect going forward. So how should GAWDA members be using the information that the Beaulieus present and…