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Article: Living on the edge: this Chicago-area service center has found a comfortable niche specializing in the edging of narrow slit coils.(CASE STUDY)(Clingan Steel Inc.)(Company overview)
- Article from:
- Metal Center News
- Article date:
- October 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Sackett Business Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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STEVE CLINGAN IS SOMETHING OF A CONTRARIAN. The 76-year-old steel industry veteran readily admits his company is not the typical bundle-breaker. He carries far too much inventory, he says, and he's more interested in making a profit than just making a sale. "Our specialty is value-added processing. Almost every pound we ship has something done to it," he says.
Clingan believes many service centers fall victim to a high-volume mentality and sacrifice profitability unnecessarily. "There is a lot more price flexibility in steel than most merchants want to acknowledge. We have made it seem inflexible by commoditizing everything. If ...