SMOKEY POINT — Central Welding Supply has expanded into Oregon for the first time, acquiring United Welding Supply Inc. in Portland.
The business will be the 21st retail location for Smokey Point-based Central Welding Supply, which has supplied products to the Portland business for years.
“It’s not completely out of the blue,” said Dale Wilton, CEO of Central Welding Supply. “We’ve had a relationship with the ownership of that company for quite a long time.”
He said the owner of United Welding, Bruce Thompson, was retiring. The new store at 2313 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Portland re-opened as the Portland branch of Central Welding Supply on Sept. 6.
All 11 employees were retained. The store does $4.5 million in revenues a year, Wilton said.
Central Welding Supply has grown greatly over the past 20 years. It was started by Wilton’s father, Mickey, in 1975 as a single store in Lynnwood. The company added an Everett location in 1980 and a Burlington location in 1983.
Since then, the company added 18 retail locations either by opening new stores or buying existing businesses.
“It’s been very steady growth,” Wilton said. “It’s has happened in little bursts every few years but most of the growth has happened since 1994.”
He said Central Welding did about $6 million worth of business a year in 1994, but the company expects to do $82 million to $83 million in revenue this year.
Central Welding Supply has 16 locations throughout Western Washington and now Portland and also owns Pacific Welding Supplies, which has five locations also around the state. The company also owns a Rental Center in Auburn and a Cylinder Distribution Center in Tacoma.
Central Welding also has an online presence, weldersdirect.com.
Wilton’s company employs 280 with 70 employees on its 6-acre headquarter site in Smokey Point. While welding supplies has always been a big part of its business, the name of the company is a bit of a misnomer, Wilton said.
Filling and leasing canisters of gas has become a main thrust for the business. And Central Welding provides canisters for all sorts of businesses throughout Western Washington. Just in the Puget Sound region alone, Central Welding Supply serves 15,000 customers.
The list of businesses that need canisters of gas includes welding shops, but also includes dental and medical offices, oil refineries, breweries and even restaurants for pop machines.
“Helium, I don’t care whether you get it at a florist or a grocery store, it’s probably coming from us,” Wilton said. “We touch a lot of different kind of businesses. We are in the top 100 privately owned companies in the state of Washington.”
Filling and leasing canisters of gas is very much a service business. Wilton said his employees roll out every day making deliveries and picking up canisters. He said that insulates the company from online competition.
“There is some pressure that’s been put on us and some business that has leaked away, but there’s a big part of our business that can’t be purchased that way and can’t be delivered that way,” Wilton said. “That’s what really makes us a very diverse business and we get to avoid kind of the cyclical nature of a lot of business.”
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