Marine Log - December 2008 - (Page 32) CEOFORUM JACK GUIDRY, PRESIDENT & CEO W&O SUPPLY, INC. IF YOUR VESSEL IS UNDER construction in the U.S., then there is a good chance that its piping fittings or valves were supplied by W&O Supply, Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., A wholly owned subsidiary of PON Holdings B.V. of the Netherlands, W&O Supply is the largest supplier of engineered products, pipe, valves and fittings to the marine industry in the U.S. W&O Supply serves all segments of the marine industry, including commercial shipping, the U.S. Navy, Military Sealift Command, MARAD, U.S. Coast Guard, cruise lines, barge owners, offshore oil and natural-gas rigs, and shipyards that build and repair vessels of all sizes. “The relationships that W&O has with shipyards around the U.S. allow us to work at every level of the construction phase, from design and estimating through to completion,” said W&O Supply president and CEO Jack Guidry. “We are a total solutions provider, and work with the shipyard, naval architects, production and engineering folks, even purchasing. We work with our customers to identify the most efficient product and design solutions for the job, and then bring the product and experience element to the table.” Guidry cites W&O Supply’s work with Austal USA, Mobile, La., on the Littoral Combat Ship project for the U.S. Navy. “We worked with Austal USA extensively in designing the appropriate valve and piping systems for that very unique project,” he said. “Since nothing like that had been developed before, we were instrumental in working with the shipyard and contractors to optimize the internal functions of the new type of ship.” Guidry points out that W&O Supply has grown and changed substantially since it was established as an engineering firm in the early 70’s by Bill Weedon—the “W”— and Percy Oberman, the “O.” In 1975, the company was purchased by Kings Point graduate Herbert E. Goelz, who retained the name and began supply ships and shipyards with piping products. “We constantly seek out new distributorship agreements with new vendors and work to develop additional agreements with existing partners to help maintain our competitive advantage, in addition to continual organic and acquisitional growth. Our 15 locations are strategically located right where our customers are located, allowing us to be highly responsive to our customers’ needs.” Recent “aquisitional growth” by W&O Supply includes the addition of the Valco/Premier Group, which has manufacturing and distribution capabilities that “complement W&O’s maritime offerings, as it is a direct source of coppernickel products to W&O and its customers,” he says Guidry. A worldwide multi-source manufacturing approach also enables W&O Supply to quickly meet customer needs. “W&O’s products are manufactured globally from a variety of sources,” points out Guidry. “We handle some light manufacturing and fabrication at our headquarters in Jacksonville, while in San Diego and Houston we take an engineering approach to assembling automation or actuation products. Our SPACE valves are our designed and manufactured as a private-label overseas. Additionally,” he adds, “with the acquisition of Valco/Premier Group out of Portsmouth, Va., we now have the capability to manufacture copper nickel fittings, flanges and other specialty copper nickel products. The products that we distribute come from various manufacturers throughout Europe, Asia and the U.S. based on quality, cost, availability and demand.” 2009 OUTLOOK REMAINS POSITIVE “Our outlook is very positive,” says Guidry. “With the resources and the backing of PON Holdings, we’ve outlined a very specific business plan for the next five years that describes step by step how we’re going to accomplish our goals. We have shown tremendous double-digit growth in past five years, and our plan continues that growth in the next five years. And since we’re combining both organic and acquisitional growth, we feel it is achievable.” JACQUES DE CHATEAUVIEUX BORDELON continued from p. 30 Ike this past summer. “Anytime a large storm comes into the Central Gulf of Mexico,” he said, 32 MARINE LOG DECEMBER 2008 “Bollinger will be effected. During hurricane season, we typically take precautions to minimize our down time and losses. We took direct hits at our Texas City facility and our Calcasieu facility. We were very fortunate at our Texas City facility because all opera- tions were restored in less than a week. Our Calcasieu yard received a tremendous tidal surge, causing major electrical problems. Today, the yard is operating at full capacity and is undergoing major yard upgrades.” related activities. We have a smiulator in Marseille, France and we commissioned a second one in Singapore on Nov. 8. Besides these two brand new simulators for anchor handling activities, we also have ones for crew boats and dynamic positioning. “We knew this two years ago and we are now reaping the benefit of that. So far we are hiring the people we need on a fairly consistent basis. We are expecting about 40% to come from Asia, another 40-45% from the European, African and Middle Eastern countries, including a number of African countries where we are already operating. And because we are operating in Brazil, we will also increase the number of people working for us in those regions. “It has been viewed as the most challenging part of our Horizon 2012 plan. We did our homework and I hope that we will get our A grade.” www.marinelog.com http://www.marinelog.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.