DISTRIBUTOR ZONE
Focus on the customer: Inside Noble Gas Solutions
[NOBLE GAS SOLUTIONS]
With headquarters in Albany, New
York, Noble Gas Solutions specializes
in delivering industrial grade and pure
grade gases to the industrial, specialty,
and medical industries across upstate
New York’s Tech Valley region, southern
Vermont, and western Massachusetts.
gasworld spoke with Noble Gas president
Dave Mahoney about his company and
how he has managed to grow and develop
his business in a region marked by
economic decline.
Mahoney attributes Noble’s success
to the culture he has created, which is
focused on loyal customer relationships.
He built the company’s reputation
as a trusted partner for customers
by becoming the premier supplier of
gases and associated products, cylinder
management services, and technical
expertise.
When asked about some of today’s
challenges, Mahoney said its finding the
right people to help grow the business. As
is true across the country, Noble Gases
searches for talent in a world of young
people not looking at industrial-type
businesses as career opportunities. And
he is keenly aware of the aging of his own
workforce.
Finding good drivers is one key issue.
Mahoney meets the challenge head on
by seeking out hard workers, giving
them the proper training, and offering a
secure company with competitive pay and
benefits.
Mahoney also works diligently at
building the best sales team he can. He
explains, “Our industry traditionally has
not done a good job with its sales force.
Distributors often take a truck driver and
move him to the counter, then to outside
sales, because they need them. But drivers
tend to be customer service people, as they
should be. They advocate for the customer
rather than the company.”
This leads to low sales productivity and
Mahoney thinks may be one of the reasons
many independents have sold out to larger
companies. Noble Gases actively recruits
sales people and invests a great deal of
time in training them. “We work diligently
at investing in our sales department to
grow the business,” says Mahoney.
Growing is something Noble Gases
is very good at. As we go to press, the
company is renovating its new company
headquarters in Albany, which will more
than quadruple the size of its existing
facility. The company acquired a 50,000
sq. ft. building earlier this year. Mahoney
hopes to move into the new facility within
the next four months or so. gasworld will
bring you coverage of the grand opening
in 2017.
POWELL VALVES
Tripartite deal to distribute Powell Valves to Praxair
The Wm. Powell Company (Powell Valves)
and Niagara Controls LLC business
division of The Collins Companies have
entered into an exclusive agreement to
represent and distribute Powell Valves to
Praxair.
The tripartite deal, of which financial
details were not revealed, will see
the US-based businesses combine
compatible technologies in order to
“better serve [Praxair’s] global supply
objectives.”
Tim Fries, Vice-President Sales &
Marketing NA & International at Powell
Valves, said, “Powell is aggressively
seeking strategic channel partners
to represent our full product offering
to our global industrial gas companies
– the recent agreement with Niagara
undoubtedly strengthens our position in
this space.”
Fries explained the role Niagara Controls
will play in the contract, stating, “We now
have a best in class channel partner who
has the resources of talent, technical
expertize, and relationships to support
our existing installed base and grow our
maintenance, repair and operations (MRO)
and capital business globally.”
Niagara Controls’ Managing Director
Joe Clemente reinforced, “This new
relationship with Powell rounds out our
product offering for our industrial gas
original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
customers, giving us the ability to bundle
complementary products to better serve
their global supply objectives.”
Niagara Controls is a sales
representative and stocking distributor
for world-class manufacturers of
industrial valves, pressure relief devices,
and engineered products. Industrial valve
manufacturer Powell Valves offers high
quality gate, globe, check, bellow-seal
and non-return valves.
“Powell is aggressively
seeking strategic channel
partners to represent our full
product offering globaly”
November 2016 • gasworld US Edition | 21