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November 12, 2007

Gases and classes | A conversation with Maine Oxy President Dan Guerin on the company's move into education

By Mindy Favreau
In 1929, Maine Oxy began selling propane to home customers under the name Maine Gas Service. Now, nearly 80 years later, the company has grown into a leading distributor of welding supplies and industrial and specialty gases in the Northeast, with eight locations in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

The company produces gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide and argon for uses in the welding and industrial fields, selling to 8,000 customers, including Lewiston-based manufacturer WahlcoMetroflex Inc. and boat builder Washburn & Doughty Associates Inc. of East Boothbay. Dirigo Technologies, an offshoot of Maine Oxy, is the only place in the Northeast that produces acetylene gas, used for welding and metal cutting. The gas is made in Auburn and shipped to Maine Oxy's other locations and to smaller distributors. And its high-purity specialty gases are used for the calibration of testing equipment in biotech labs across the country and in places like Egypt, Taiwan and China. The company handles about 2,500 cylinders of gas a day.

Its product offerings are more diverse, but not everything has changed. The company still calls Auburn home, and it is still managed by the same family that founded it almost 80 years ago. And they still sell propane, but it's now used for heating construction sites and powering forklifts.

As it has grown in size, Maine Oxy also has grown in scope. In 2000, the company opened the New England School of Metalworking in Auburn. The school, a separate nonprofit entity, offers blacksmithing and welding classes, and attracts students every year from upwards of 25 different states. The school's success prompted Maine Oxy to open a second school in Hooksett, N.H., and the company already is talking about doubling the size of its Auburn school next year. Last month, the school took its expertise on the road with its launch of the Mobile Weld Training Center, the first of its kind in the Northeast. The fully self-sufficient classroom on wheels has a generator that powers eight welding stations, designed to provide manufacturers with an easier way to get their employees necessary training.

Mainebiz recently sat down with Dan Guerin, president of Maine Oxy, to talk about the changing welding industry in Maine, and how the company has diversified over the years. The following is an edited transcript.

Mainebiz: Education has become a bigger part of Maine Oxy's strategy. What opportunities did you see there?
Dan Guerin: There's a shortage of welders out there, and that's how the school came about. Our customers needed help to train people and to get welders, and it's been very good. It's worked so well in Maine that we've opened a facility in Hooksett, N.H., also. And we also developed the mobile training school.

How long have you had the mobile training center? Is it up and running?
That's something new ˆ— we just started that [in October]. It is up and running. We have taken it to career days [at high schools] in Maine to promote training and the welding trade. We want high school students to know that if for some reason they do not want to go to college, there is nothing wrong with that. However, they should look at the trades, such as carpentry, electrician, electrical trade, and the welding trade, where there's such a shortage of welders that they could make some pretty good money by going into that trade.

Why is there this shortage of welders?
The average welder in the welding industry is about in his 50s. I just believe that because of the trade, how it used to be known, very dirty and fumeyˆ… At times, it's not a clean job. But that has been cleaned up a lot. There are new rules and regulations by OSHA with fumes and all that stuff, where a lot of companies have really cleaned up the welding arena, and put things in place to make it a safer thing to do. And I think that might be part of the reason, is that people don't consider that a first career choice. And some kids don't even know about it. They've never seen it, they don't know what it's all about, and that's what the mobile trailer's all about: Taking it to these schools so they can get a chance to get into a welding booth and try it.

Besides going to high schools, where else does the unit travel?
All over. We're going to take it to whoever needs it ˆ— northern Maine to southern Massachusetts. We will take it to wherever it is needed, wherever people want it to train their people. The sky's the limit. This is the first one in New England like this. Again, we feel that our customers would like to use the mobile training better because they still maintain control of their employees. The employee doesn't have to leave the work site and travel to Auburn, Maine, to get training. We can bring the training facility to them, and they can put more people through it. They can have four-hour courses, eight-hour courses. We'll set up a curriculum for whatever matches their needs. We have customized training in that arena, so they can put more people through the process, and hopefully get better feedback and get people right back to work.

Have you gotten any initial feedback so far?
We met with a customer that just signed up with the school not too long ago that made the comment to us that they are having to send a lot of fabrication work to Canada because they can't find the welders in Maine to do it. And that hurts everybody. That hurts us, because they're not buying as much product from us, because they're subbing it out to Canada. So we're working with this company to develop some welders, help them train some welders so they can get more welders locally.
The people who are working at the trailer for the school, it's really picking up, especially with the announcement of Cianbro putting in a new [fabrication] shop in Brewer and they're looking for hundreds of welders. We like to try to keep people doing the fab work in Maine, so we can sell them more product. The school's been a big help for that.

You seem to offer a lot of different services. Are people surprised to see this diversity?
Yeah, I think they are, because we are the only welding distributor in the country that has not only a welding school, but also a blacksmithing school. We are unique in that aspect, and people come from all over the country to that blacksmithing school and are surprised by what we do ˆ…In the old days, [blacksmiths] never used a welder, but today they will use a welder occasionally to put some pieces together, to help them in the manufacturing process. So the two go hand in hand. That's why we're kind of unique in the blacksmithing arena also, because we're the only blacksmithing school [in the country] to also have a welding school, where people can learn both. This is one way of us separating ourselves from the competition ˆ— something that we do that the competition does not.

How tough is the competition?
It's a very competitive market. In Maine, we have three to four other competitors; however, we get into New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and we have a lot more. In New Hampshire, there could be at least six, seven or eight competitors, in Massachusetts, there's a lot of small distributors out there that it's very competitive. It could be a dozen or more, easy, competitors that we compete with every day.
Our focus in this company is customer service. Anything that we can do to help [our customers] in knowledge and training, whatever it takes for them to fulfill their needs, we will do.

Besides competition, what are some other big challenges you face?
Well, the industry is always changing because of new technology. So we are not only utilizing our training facilities for our external customers, we are using it for [our] own people, to train them on the newest technology out there and so they can become familiar with it, so they can show the customers all about it.

We have a motto here that we will gain sales through knowledge, and we feel the more people know, the better they can sell the equipment to customers, and the better they can point them in the direction of what they need ˆ…There are many other challenges ˆ— fuel, getting our product to our customers with our big trucks is very tough. You try to be as efficient as you can, to keep the costs down, because as you see diesel prices and fuel prices are rising dramatically. So those are challenges we face every day. How can we serve our customers and still keep costs down?

What kinds of customers do you have?
We have many different categories. We have anywhere from the florists and the balloon people that just sell balloons, all the way to the high-tech people such as biotech labs, who we sell specialty gas to, and the semiconductor business. We've got a big project going on right now in Portland with Cianbro Corp., which is building those two [supply] ships, we supply them products. And everyone in between, from body shops to repair shops, to small fabricators that have one or two people working, to large fabricators that could have 50 to 60 people working, even more. So we cover the whole array. Many people are surprised how many people use our product. Even the hobbyist at home uses our product, when he's working on his vehicle or doing some projects around the house.

So where do you plan on taking the company from here?
We're going to be always looking for opportunities, and just continue our training, which we feel is critical, not only for our customers but also for our employees, so they can continue to get stronger in the field that's always changing. And keep growing, in any area that we feel is a good opportunity for us. As far as a specific area, I don't know if I want to get into that. I don't want to give away too many secrets. We like to keep our competition guessing.

Maine Oxy

President: Dan Guerin
Founded: 1929
Employees: 115
Services: Provides welding equipment and supplies, as well as industrial and specialty gases used in the fabricating, manufacturing, medical and biotechnology fields.
2006 revenue: $22 million
Anticipated 2007 revenue: $24 million
Contact: 784-5788
www.maineoxy.com

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