Enco Rebar Reaps Return

The Springdale office of Enco Materials Inc. is raising the “bar,” so to speak, in the concrete materials supply business.

Buddy Metcalf, Arkansas sales manager for Enco, said sales in the Springdale office have doubled over the last two years.

The 18-person office has also doubled its outside sales staff to four since 2003.

The company, which is based in Nashville, Tenn., is a distributor of concrete construction supplies such as reinforced steel bars (rebar), sealants, patches and stains, as well as different stucco and stone products.

However, rebar and rebar forming are the company’s bread and butter sales products, Metcalf said.

Richard Starkey, inside sales associate for Enco, said the company has seen a 45 percent increase in rebar sales when compared to the same sales period in 2004. He estimated Enco has sold about 1,250 tons of pre-fabricated rebar in 2005.

Enco would not disclose sales figures, but based on its current average price of rebar at 40 cents per pound, that would bring its prefabricated rebar sales to at least $1 million for the year.

In addition to Little Rock, Enco has three offices in Tennessee — in Knoxville, Johnson City and Memphis — as well as Jackson, Miss., and Albany, Ga.

Metcalf said the company found its foothold in service.

“After the price is met, relationship and service lends itself to consideration for the next project,” said Jim Minor, senior project manager for Baldwin & Shell Construction Co. of Rogers.

Minor said although Baldwin might use larger rebar supplier such as Lofland Co. of Dallas for substantial construction projects, the smaller distributors have advantages.

Clients

“Outfits like Enco and Darragh [Co.] are really service oriented,” Minor said.

He said he could call Enco and Darragh and be able to get a material right away, if a smaller amount is needed. Larger companies like Lofland might not be able to stop and get the supplies over to the job as fast as a smaller outfit like Enco, he said.

“We might be able to get a little bit better pricing from someone else, but service is a big factor in this area,” said Mike Baker, co-owner of Double Eagle Construction Inc. in Bentonville. Double Eagle is a commercial concrete contracting firm.

Enco has its own fabricating equipment, so Double Eagle can call Enco and Enco will “jump through hoops” to get it to them.

A larger supplier will take 24 to 48 hours to get it to Double Eagle.

If Double Eagle has to wait for rebar, it could be a nightmare if most of the rebar is laid down and crews are waiting for missing pieces, Baker said.

“If we have to leave those footings open and we have a rainstorm come through, we can spend a couple of hours cleaning before we can pour concrete,” Baker said. “It can cost us labor hours.”

Baker estimates that could be a half days work for 8 to 10 guys at cost of $38 per hour per person.

Baker said it doesn’t happen a lot, but in one out of every three jobs something is missing. He said a typical job would take about 50,000 pounds of rebar.

He said Enco just bid a job that needs 98,000 pounds of rebar.

Right now Double Eagle is working on the Pinnacle Hills Promenade in Rogers, Fountain Plaza in Bentonville and the Veteran’s Administration hospital addition in Fayetteville.

The Job

Minor said Enco is becoming a more competitive bidder.

In most scenarios, Enco will submit a materials bid against three or four other distributors. The firm with the lowest price usually wins the bid. Sometimes Enco might get the order simply because it has all the material in stock.

However, Metcalf said Enco makes specific calls to architecture firms to inform the architect about different products that Enco distributes.

“The architect will look at it [the product], and if it is going to suit his job he puts it in his [building] specifications,” Metcalf said.

Metcalf said Enco turns its inventory about six to seven times per year. Lately, the company has beefed up its inventory to anticipate rising steel prices, he said.