38•
PVF Hall of Fame
An evolving tradition at Paramount Supply
(Continued from page 36.)
me to know I did everything possible to make the relationship work,” he said. “When I joined Paramount Sup- ply we were a Jenkins Valve distrib- utor and remained one longer than we should have, but in the end I knew Paramount Supply had honored their end of the bargain. I can tell you when Paramount Supply was a strug- gling company in the 50s and 60s, the only other wholesaler that would re- ally sell to Paramount was Grinnell. John Hagen never forgot that and often reminded me of this and to this day it has been a large part of our loy- alty to Anvil and Johnny Martin.” As a wholesaler that is 100% de-
voted to pipe, valves and fittings, Paramount Supply stocks some of most highly respected lines in the in- dustry, including: • AC Valve • Apollo
• Anvil • Asco
• Ashcroft
• Chesterton • Crane • Durabla • Flexitalli • Gore
• Spears
•B & G • Durco
• Garlock • Numatics • Strahman
• Trueline •Watson McDaniel
•Worcester They also indent stainless steel
valves and fittings as well as carbon steel weld fittings. With Paramount operating in multi-
ple regions of the country, they sell to a diverse customer base. In the Pacific Northwest, their largest customers are pulp and paper mills, food processing plants, semiconductor facilities, re- fineries as well as contractors in all parts of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Meanwhile, their Houston fa- cility has a strong focus on chemical plants and refineries, and in Phoenix semiconductor and mines are a heavy influence. Paramount’s Alaska busi- ness centers on refineries as well as military bases. Grothe said that the biggest
changes in customer expectations in recent years have been the time frame in which they want their ex- pectations met. “Customers expect and demand an-
swers to their questions and solutions for their problems much faster than in the days of no e-mail or Internet,” he described. “Paramount Supply under
A look inside Paramount Supply Continually building upon its humble beginnings in 1954,
Paramount Supply now has 23 locations including Mt. Hood Fastener and Bonneville Industrial Supply. The main headquarters remains in Portland, Ore., with multiple branch locations in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and singular branch locations in Anchorage, Alaska; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Houston, Texas. The company employs approximately 220 associates, with each location having a branch manager and an inside and outside sales staff. The company is fortunate to employ a group of very talented
branch managers, who have spent many years with the company, and are all extremely experienced in the PVF industry. Following are Paramount Supply’s branch managers, and their years of service:
• Lavar Thacker – 47 • George Conner – 35 • Ed Orton – 34 • Stu Laird – 32
• Melanie Jones – 27 • Jay Goold – 22
• Mitch Diteman – 17 • David Kloefkorn – 13 • Heather Thornton – 10 • Jeff Grothe –5
• Riley Henderson –3
• Craig Dale – 37 • Paul Steiling – 35 • Bob Toporke – 34 • Craig Erickson – 29 • Lance Dillon – 22, • Dave McClung – 22 • Bruce Sudano – 14 • James Grothe – 12 • Jim Duby –7 • Steve Sjolie –5
“These branch managers and I manage the business in a way that
has allowed Paramount to grow and remain flexible in an ever- changing competitive environment,” Grothe described. “Paramount Supply’s business is strategically aligned with products that service many key industries such as pulp and paper, food processing, chem- ical and refinery business, semiconductor and key mining accounts. Our inventory is reflective of the heavy-duty products of most indus- trial plants, including manufacturers such as Asco, Anvil, Ashcroft, Chesterton, Crane, Flowserve and Watson McDaniel.”
• Be sure to visit
www.thewholesaler.com for web exclusive articles and videos! •
•THE WHOLESALER® —MAY 2011
Paramount Supply is 100% devoted to industrial PVF, and stocks inventory from some of the most well-respected manufacturers.
the direction of James Grothe and his technology leadership has been able to offer a very advanced website, on- line customer ordering, direct links to manufacturers’ sites and all of the things technology-wise you’d better have to compete today. We engage in electronic commerce with both our suppliers and customers, and in fact I believe it has helped us bring solu- tions to our customers much more ex- peditiously. The biggest challenge has been all of the different software programs our customers are using and making each of our computer systems compatible. Being able to go the Asco website, for instance, and looking at their manufacturing sched- ule for any valve certainly gives you a leg up with the competition. “Our approach to the market is as
a problem solver. With engineers on staff in most of our locations and concentrating on their expert knowl- edge of steam as well as gasketing, we are a great source of immediate help for our customers. In most cases we are able to solve a cus- tomer’s problem quickly, offering so- lutions that are in the customer’s best interest long term without waiting for the manufacturers’ representative to go on site. In the generation of Facebook and Twitter, being able to solve issues for a customer quickly has been a great advantage.” In addition, Paramount Supply of-
fers a good deal of value-added serv- ices for customers, including such traditional services as pipe cutting, actuation assembly, gauge repair and special dimension air filters. “Beyond that, our in-plant surveys
also extend to steam traps, expansion joints, control valves and gasketing,” Grothe noted. “We have three, and soon to be four, locations offering soft and metal gasket fabrication. We have invested in one, and soon to be three, flash cutters which, with the aid of a computer, cut intricate gas- kets without any dies. The quality and
the accuracy of the gaskets have been overwhelmingly appreciated by all of our customers. It has been a large fi- nancial investment — but definitely worth it.” With such a wide range of cus-
tomers, Paramount Supply is regu- larly involved in projects of major
As a wholesaler that is 100% devoted to pipe, valves and fittings, Paramount Supply
stocks some of most highly respected lines in the industry.
scope. One of the more interesting projects the company was involved with recently was with the Coolidge Acquisition Group and Western Emulsions. “They took a small refinery in southeast Arizona that was closed in early 1970 and completely rebuilt it to be a major unloading and loading facility for winter fill asphalt prod- ucts,” described Grothe. “A new rail line had to be installed to handle 50 cars unloading one at a time, then eleven one-million-gallon tanks had to be refurbished. The facility has its own steam, fire and water treatment systems that had to be able to transfer the product from rail and trucks to the tanks, then blended and reshipped back out via rail and trucks. This was a design built project so we had to be able to supply material the following day or shortly thereafter as the engi- neers produced drawings nightly. This project took eight months, work- ing seven days a week with 50 full- time welders. We furnished the PVF package, along with instrumentation, steam tracing and specialty products on a very fast-track basis that allowed the plant to open on time. (Turn to Paramount... page 40.)
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