Reliance Inc Company Profile

We are the largest metals service center company in North America (U.S. and Canada). Our network of metals service centers operates more than 300 locations in 39 states in the U.S. and in 12 other countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom). Through this network, we provide metals processing services and distribute a full line of more than 100,000 metal products, including alloy, aluminum, brass, copper, carbon steel, stainless steel, titanium and specialty steel products, to more than 125,000 customers in a broad range of industries. We focus on small orders with quick turnaround and increasing levels of value-added processing.

Our primary business strategy is to provide the highest levels of quality and service to our customers in the most efficient operational manner, allowing us to maximize our financial results. Our growth strategy is based on increasing our operating results through organic growth activities and strategic acquisitions that enhance our product, customer and geographic diversification with a focus on higher margin specialty products and value-added processing services. We focus on improving the operating performance at acquired locations by integrating them into our operational model and providing them access to capital and other resources to promote growth and efficiencies. We believe our focused growth strategy of diversifying our products, customers and geographic locations makes us less vulnerable to regional or industry specific economic volatility and somewhat lessens the negative impact of volatility experienced in commodity pricing and cyclicality of our customer end markets, as well as general economic trends. We also believe that our focus on servicing customers with small order sizes and quick turnaround, along with our growth and diversification strategy have been instrumental in our ability to produce industry-leading operating results among publicly traded metals service center companies in North America.

Metals service centers acquire carbon steel, aluminum, stainless and alloy steel and other metal products from primary metals producers and then process these materials to meet customer specifications using techniques such as beam, bar, pipe and tube cutting; bending, forming and shaping; coil and flat roll processing; plate and sheet cutting; machining and various other specialized services such as laser cutting, fabricating, and mechanical polishing, among others. These processing services save our customers time, labor, and expense, reducing their overall manufacturing costs. Specialized metals processing equipment requires high-volume production to be cost effective. Many manufacturers and their suppliers are not able or willing to invest in the necessary technology, equipment, and warehousing of inventory to process the metals for their own manufacturing or processing operations. Accordingly, industry dynamics have created a niche in the market. Metals service centers purchase, process, and deliver metals to end-users in a more efficient and cost-effective manner than the end-user could achieve by dealing directly with the primary producer. Service centers comprise the largest customer group for North American mills, buying and reselling almost 50% of all the carbon, alloy, stainless and specialty steels, aluminum, copper, brass, bronze and superalloys produced in the United States.

Metals service centers are generally less susceptible to market cycles than metals producers because service centers are generally able to pass on all or a portion of increases in metal costs to their customers, unless they are selling to their customers on a fixed-price contractual basis. We believe that service center companies, like Reliance, that emphasize rapid inventory turnover and minimal contract sales, are generally less vulnerable to changing metals prices than the metals producers. However, fluctuations in metal pricing have a significant impact on our revenue and profit.

Customers purchase from service centers for a variety of reasons, including the ability to obtain value-added metals processing, readily available inventory, reliable and timely delivery, flexible minimum order size, and quality control. Many customers deal exclusively with service centers because the quantities of metal products that they purchase are smaller than the minimum orders specified by mills or because those customers require intermittent deliveries over long or irregular periods. Metals service centers respond to a niche market created because of the focus on just-in-time inventory management and materials management outsourcing in the capital goods and related industries, and because the larger metal producers have reduced in-house direct sales efforts to small sporadic purchasers to enhance their production efficiency. In general, metals service center customers have placed increased emphasis on carrying lower amounts of inventory, especially during declining price environments. Many customers have also reduced their in-house processing, sourcing processed metal from service centers like us, which has spurred some of our recent capital expenditures and also contributed to improved gross profit margins.

Our executive officers maintain a control environment that is focused on integrity and ethical behavior, establish general policies and operating guidelines and monitor adherence to proper financial controls, while our division managers and subsidiary officers have autonomy with respect to day-to-day operations. This balanced yet entrepreneurial management style has enabled us to improve the productivity and profitability of both our acquired businesses and of our existing operations. Key management personnel are eligible for incentive compensation based, in part, on the profitability of their particular division or subsidiary and, in part, on the Company’s overall profitability.