Author: Steve Guglielmo

Thompson Brothers Welding & Industrial Supply is celebrating its 75th Anniversary in 2023. To commemorate this momentous milestone, the company hosted a “75th Anniversary Open House” at its Chanute, Kansas, location on Friday, April 14, 2023. The event was well-attended and featured vendors on site for live product demos, as well as door prizes and special pricing. Congratulations to Thompson Brothers, an American family-owned company since 1948.

According to a post from the company’s LinkedIn page, MWSCO President Scott Myran celebrated his 35th anniversary with the company on April 1. Myran, who announced plans to retire in 2024, began his career at MWSCO as a Route Driver in Rochester. Although he enjoyed what he was doing, Scott was always looking for opportunities and knew within a week that he wanted to run a store. In fact, during Scott’s first performance review, he told Don Peterson that he wanted his job one day. By setting goals and targets for himself, he knew he could make his vision a reality.…

Oxygen Service Company announced on its company LinkedIn page that it will be hosting the official grand opening for its Appleton, WI, and Virginia, MN, stores. The Appleton, WI, event will take place on Thursday, May 11th, from 10: a.m. – 2:00 p.m. The Virginia, MN, event will take place on Thursday, May 25th, from 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Both events will feature vendor demonstrations from OSC vendors including: Fronius, Miller Electric, ESAB, Lincoln Electric, and Hypertherm. The events will also feature food and discounts for attendees. To learn more, visit the website by clicking here.

National Standard Company announced the addition of Steve Coker to its Sales team. As District Sales Manager for Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, Steve will manage distributors and end users for National Standard’s welding wire portfolio. Steve brings a strong background with experience in welding wire and welding product sales. Most recently, he was a territory manager for Lampton Welding Supply and has held sales positions with Fastenal Company, Cone Solvent and Praxair. Steve resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He can be contacted via email at: [email protected], or via cell phone at (405) 332-3132. National Standard is backed by the global…

Senate Bill Would Increase Maximum Fines for Hazmat Violations.  As a result of the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Congress is considering increases to the maximum civil penalties for violations of the Hazardous Materials Regulations.  This would affect all modes of transportation, including trucks. 576, the Railway Safety Act of 2023, has been introduced in the Senate.  The bill has a number of rail safety provisions, but it would also increase the maximum civil fine for HMR violations from the current $96,624 to the greater of $750,000 or 0.5% of the company’s annual income or annual operating income. …

GAWDA Media Vice President of Sales Tim Hudson recently visited two GAWDA Distributors as he drove back to New York from South Carolina. He recounts his story and visits below: Driving up I-95 from South Carolina headed back from a family vacation, I made a half-way stop in Virginia. On a whim, I stopped at Arc3 Gases to check out their Richmond, VA, location, 1 of 55 locations for Arc3. After a friendly greeting from the counter staff, I asked if Paul Dillard was there and, by chance, he was. I had a chance to sit down for a few minutes…

The Welding & Gases CFO Club hosted its third successful meeting. This round we covered a wide variety of topics within the topics: Price Increases Philosophies on how often, opportunity to differentiate from competitors, salesforce pushback and the potential to inflate the negative impact they could cause, different strategies for covering cost or also covering profit (note:  intentionally avoided specifics on pricing due to anti-trust concerns), supplier diversification impact, customer tolerance for increases, maintaining healthy margins, inventory management (dead stock, meeting customer demand vs carrying cost), supply chain loosening for certain items (cylinders, trucks and tankers not included), concept of…

GAWDA Consultants Tom Badstubner, Marilyn Dempsey and Mike Dodd conducted a Professional Compliance Seminar (PCS) on March 20-22, at Chart Industries’ Theodore, Alabama, location. In-person attendees were welcomed by Chart with good food and an extensive tour of the Theodore facility where liquid hydrogen trailers and micro-bulk containers are manufactured. Three years ago, the consultants switched the seminar from in-person to online due to COVID. The seminar is now offered as a hybrid of in-person and online, allowing even more GAWDA members to increase their knowledge of FDA, OSHA, DHS and DOT inspections. This is the 14th year the Consultants…

AWISCO announced that it had added ASCO to the AWISCO Family. The acquistition expands AWISCO’s presence into Woodbridge Township, NJ, and allows the company to enhance its product offerings and services in the area. The new branch is located at: 475 US-9 Woodbridge Township, NJ 07095 View this post on Instagram A post shared by AWISCO (@awisco_welding)

FABTECH, North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing event, has announced new event dates and locations for 2024 and 2026. The event will be held in Orlando, Florida, at the Orange County Convention Center from October 15-17, 2024, and in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Las Vegas Convention Center from October 21-23, 2026. The decision to relocate FABTECH to Orlando in 2024 was made due to the city of Las Vegas hosting the Formula 1 Grand Prix Race during the same time frame in November. This announcement deviates from FABTECH’s regular rotation of Chicago, Las Vegas, and Atlanta,…