Friday, August 1, 2008
Process flow distributor Centro Inc. has signed two new distribution deals that company officials expect will add almost $2 million in revenue in the next few years.
Centro, a Memphis-based distributor of instrumentation, valves, filtration products and pumps, has finalized deals to distribute Flowserve Corp. pump seals and Gardner Denver, Inc., compressors.
"Our strategy as a company is to focus on flow control applications in a manufacturing environment," says Michael Gallagher, Centro president. "Flowserve seals and Gardner Denver compressors fit into that flow control system at two different places."
During 2009, Gallagher expects the Flowserve deal to contribute about $250,000 to Centro, with that number increasing to at least $1 million in the next few years. The Gardner Denver deal should also be a key contributor in the company's future, Gallagher says, providing about $1 million in revenue at the close of the fiscal year 2009. Centro had revenue last year of $28 million, Gallagher says.
Centro, which has locations in North Little Rock, El Dorado, Ark., Shreveport, La., and Nashville, will be the exclusive distributor of Gardner Denver compressors throughout Arkansas and will distribute Flowserve seals in north Louisiana, Arkansas and parts of Memphis exclusively.
The new distribution deals will help round out Centro's service offering to manufacturers in which the company has already had long-standing relationships.
Centro has distributed instrumentation, valves, filtration devices and pumps since the 1970s, but Gallagher says the company has been looking recently to expand its product line to meet more customers' needs.
"Almost every one of our customers uses pumps, and seals are necessary to the maintenance and proper operation of pumps in a manufacturing environment," he says. "We sell pumps, but we didn't really have a major seal relationship."
As a new Flowserve distributor, Centro will be able to meet customers' needs regardless of the issue.
"A large part of the value that we can add to a customer is by going into a manufacturing facility and doing an audit of their pump population and look for pumps consistently leaking or (that) have other maintenance issues," he says. "We will audit those pumps and look at the material that is being pumped and pressures and speeds. We can then check to see if there is an opportunity to improve that pump's performance by changing the seal."
The seal business is by no means small. Seals for large pumps used in many manufacturing facilities can cost in excess of $40,000.
Flowserve, the No. 2 seal manufacturer in the world, projects about $120 million in revenue from seal sales this year in North America alone.
And now that Centro has been added as a distributor, Flowserve hopes to increase its market share in the South thanks to Centro's established reputation, says Sam Layne, district sales manager for Flowserve.
"With the experience and customer contacts that Centro has, we feel like it will be a real positive thing for both of us," he says. "They are really coming up to speed with the technology of our product."
Centro, Inc.
Process flow products distributor
Address: 3315 Overton Crossing
President: Michael Gallagher
Phone: (901) 357-1261
Web site: www.centromemphis.com
Original article appeared in the Memphis Business Journal.