A large local business has just been
purchased by a multibillion-dollar publicly traded company.
Arizona-based Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. has acquired all
the outstanding equity shares of Southern Steel Supply, which is based in
Memphis and supplies customers throughout Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas,
Alabama, and Missouri.
Founded in 1961, Southern Steel is a metals service center that
offers merchant and structural steel, pipes and tubes, steel plates, ornamental
products, and laser cut and fabricated parts. In 2022, Southern Steel earned
$69.2 million in annual net sales. According to the company's CFO, Michael Wexler, Southern Steel has 69
employees, and they're all set to retain their jobs post-acquisition.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Southern Steel’s reputation for on-time delivery and superior
customer service aligns well with our business model and disciplined
methodology of acquiring high-quality companies with strong management teams
that expand Reliance’s geographic footprint and value-added processing
capabilities,” said Karla Lewis, Reliance’s president and CEO, in
a press release.
Southern Steel is now set to operate as a subsidiary of Siskin
Steel & Supply Co., which is a subsidiary of Reliance. Lewis expects the
acquisition to broaden the Memphis business’ product mix, while also providing
its customers with access to a wide range of capabilities. In addition to this,
Southern Steel could benefit from Reliance’s longstanding mill relationships,
and its significant investments in capital expenditures that promote growth and
back-office efficiencies.
The largest metals service center company in North America,
Reliance has 315 locations in 40 states and 12 countries outside the U.S. According
to its latest annual report, it earned $17.025 billion in FY 2022, and had
about 14,500 employees as of Dec. 31.