Anyone know of or have worked at this company?

I've sold to them, bought from them, and competed against them. I know several people who've worked there. What do you want to know?

Culture of the company, is it a good company to work for?

Depends on where you are and what you're doing. Most of the people I know work at the branch level. It's hard work and you're expected to be available around the clock for your customers. It seems like there are always people leaving, getting laid off, taking early retirement, etc I guess you could say their workforce is very fluid. I'm not sure how busy they are now without the XOM contract.

Dubya2000 said:

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Culture of the company, is it a good company to work for?

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Go to glassdoor.com and check their rep on that site.

Marauder, thank you for the input. Specifically looking at the Galena Park location and Inside Sales position. Trying to get info for a friend at church who may have an opportunity there.

You're welcome. I'd imagine that branch would probably be pretty busy given their proximity to industry on the Ship Channel. It'd be a great learning experience for sure. They'll work hard and earn every penny.

I had a buddy that worked at that branch about 3-4 years ago. It was a lot of work and he kept plenty busy supporting all of the area turnarounds. He liked most of the folks out there, however, he left to pursue another career path in a different industry.

I've also worked with a few of the senior sales staff out of the downtown office and they're all good guys. The company seems to be pretty well run for a distributor.

MRC has laid off a ton of people in the past two years. They're predominately, despite their claim to diverse business sectors, midstream/upstream.

I suspect they will rebound somewhat in 2017 with oil on the rise.

They tend to be weaker in pet-chem, which you should consider since that is the heart of the ship channel.

They are one of my top suppliers in midstream. Never worked with them when I was downstream. Our rep certainly works hard and is always available.

As an OEM I often wonder why companies go through MRC/DNOW/etc type companies instead of direct to the OEM.

I wonder this myself. Especially when I get bids back and everyone quotes the same OEM but just has different markups.

Because in theory, the large stocking distributors like MRC, DNOW, Sunbelt, Wolesley, etc...get far betting pricing from the valve and PFF manufacturers that and a packager/skid MFG/EPC would get directly. They just move far more product.

Valve and PFF manufactures try as much as possible not to carry huge inventories, and try to protect their stocking distributors as much as possible. The project business, while sexy on paper, is not as lucrative for a manufacturer. They tend to chase and value regularly scheduled stock orders from distributors far more.

I don't know how it is outside the PVF world. Other industries may not be that way...

mm98 said:

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Because in theory, the large stocking distributors like MRC, DNOW, Sunbelt, Wolesley, etc...get far betting pricing from the valve and PFF manufacturers that and a packager/skid MFG/EPC would get directly. They just move far more product.

Valve and PFF manufactures try as much as possible not to carry huge inventories, and try to protect their stocking distributors as much as possible. The project business, while sexy on paper, is not as lucrative for a manufacturer. They tend to chase and value regularly scheduled stock orders from distributors far more.

I don't know how it is outside the PVF world. Other industries may not be that way...

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on commodity valves/parts I agree. I field inquiries everyday for parts that we as the OEM own the design on. Very specific parts number references, etc. I will get the same RFQ from 4-5 different houses.

Agree. Much easier in commodities. Engineered products are much more of a grey area.

While I don't know for sure, I suspect it has a lot to do with end users and EPCs prefering to have a set number of vendors with established commercial terms...and a manageable amount of relationships. In my line of work if I get an inquiry for a highly specified product (that I really bring no value in trying to quote), I normally just rwfer my customer on to that OEM. Sales managers don't care for that, but it's the right thing to do IMO.

What line of work are you in?

mm98 said:

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Agree. Much easier in commodities. Engineered products are much more of a grey area.

While I don't know for sure, I suspect it has a lot to do with end users and EPCs prefering to have a set number of vendors with established commercial terms...and a manageable amount of relationships. In my line of work if I get an inquiry for a highly specified product (that I really bring no value in trying to quote), I normally just rwfer my customer on to that OEM. Sales managers don't care for that, but it's the right thing to do IMO.

What line of work are you in?

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O&G production equipment. I lead our aftermarket parts and service/operations business. Worked in engineering design for the same company for nearly 8 years and moved into this role in September.

Core AFM business is our massive equipment install base for our dehydrating and desalting technology as well as produced water technologies.

mm98 said:

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Because in theory, the large stocking distributors like MRC, DNOW, Sunbelt, Wolesley, etc...get far betting pricing from the valve and PFF manufacturers that and a packager/skid MFG/EPC would get directly. They just move far more product.

Valve and PFF manufactures try as much as possible not to carry huge inventories, and try to protect their stocking distributors as much as possible. The project business, while sexy on paper, is not as lucrative for a manufacturer. They tend to chase and value regularly scheduled stock orders from distributors far more.

I don't know how it is outside the PVF world. Other industries may not be that way...

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Exactly. I know MRC very well. They get volume discounts that no individual company is going to get. And even if the end user has good pricing, it's largely only going to apply to mill runs.

So when it comes to one offs, end users tend to be stuck.

Plus most end users are not staffed to handle the logistics. With the industry being global for pffv, you need a fairly good logistic system to handle it all.

mm98 said:

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The project business, while sexy on paper, is not as lucrative for a manufacturer.

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This is the truth yet there are still some manufacturers who still do it anyway and have to live with the headaches as well as the busted distributor relationships. Heck, there are even distributors getting out of the project business now due to headaches with the EPCs.

All the plants in Lake Charles use McJunkin as their preferred pipe and valve vendor. They must make a killing.

The McJunkin vendor that had my plants acct a few years ago was amazing. He knew every spec and detail of everything I needed off the top of his head including remembering SAP part numbers. It was unreal.

Rusty GCS said:

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All the plants in Lake Charles use McJunkin as their preferred pipe and valve vendor.

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Not all of them.

My mistake. The ones I have been at do. I thought they all did. Now that I think about it Westlake Petro might not.

Lets say majority.

Our valve branches do very well in Louisiana.

But yes MRC, er McJumkin, does very well too.

EPC business the past 2 years sucks. Everyone is so desperate for business the bottom has dropped out of normal pricing. I hope the buyers on Sasol and other big projects right now understand when they move to new projects, they will not see these prices again.

mm98 said:

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I hope the buyers on Sasol and other big projects right now understand when they move to new projects, they will not see these prices again.

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It's a battle I fight every day. We're the largest PFF supplier on Sasol. Of the last eighteen months, the first six were a lot easier to quote than the last twelve. An overall increase in pricing, global suppliers and fabricators, and two EPCs who are seemingly integrated in name only has been quite a challenge. I suppose it's part of the reason that Edgen Murray has chosen to be less involved in projects from the EPC side of things.

nm

mm98,

Hit me up at the e-mail in my profile.

As someone who works for a ball valve manufacturer that mainly does large projects, all of what y'all are saying is true. MRC is a pretty good distributor (worked with them in my previous two jobs), they have great relationships with their end users, which is a major reason why manufacturers go through distribution for some projects. Glad I'm in the aftermarket parts and services side where margins are healthier.

This thread kinda got hijacked but some info on MRC in Galena Park, that locations is a big hub for them, they just don't do Channelview work, a lot of our parts that go to Kazakhstan go their that location.

Rusty GCS said:

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My mistake. The ones I have been at do. I thought they all did. Now that I think about it Westlake Petro might not.

Lets say majority.

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which one are you at? We are out at the P66 refinery late feb for the turnaround of 3 desalters. I had someone at calcasieu last week. At the old Oxy ethane plant near citgo earlier this week and at citgo last December.

I've been at SASOL, P66, Axiall, and Westlake. Worked with guys at most of all the others.