Branch Spotlight: Suwanee, GA

It’s time to celebrate one of our veteran branches, located just outside of the hustle and bustle of Atlanta, Georgia. We have three branches strategically placed a few miles down the street from the iconic home of the Braves, but today, we want to celebrate the company culture and share the current wins coming from our Suwanee metal supplier.

This facility is unmistakably Kloeckner territory. The biggest reason is that the leadership at this branch is committed to our Family First and Safety Always culture. Regional GM Tommy Campbell holds quarterly all-hands meetings to discuss industry trends and company-wide wins. The open dialogue encourages transparency and helps support business operations, but this team also gathers for meals and meet-ups off the clock.

Campbell started at Kloeckner as an Operations Manager in 2014, and during his tenure, he’s been involved with eight branches in the Southeast area. When speaking about the work at Suwanee, he stated, “We put the ‘service’ in ‘service center’ at this branch.” He continued, “and that’s not just for our commercial teams or customers; the second shift treats the first shift as their customer and so on. They are committed to getting the job done because they realize any slack in the line means more work for the next crew.”

Newly promoted Operations Manager, Jessica Morris echoed this sentiment, “You can just feel that everyone here really cares about each other.” To further her point, she advised that they’re actually a three-shift operation, and “one of the first shift drivers has a summer tradition of bringing back a cooler full of cold drinks to the second shift. It might not happen every day, but it’s always appreciated.” 

Safety

Suwanee just celebrated a safety milestone of going two years without an LTA, and we have a feeling that it’s that strong sense of family behind it. Under Campbell’s watch, this team exceeds Top Dog safety KPIs, but more importantly, he makes sure they understand the value of learning from genuine close calls, so everyone goes home safe. 

Performance

This branch is part of our Distribution suite, but they’re also heavy on transactional business. Most of these orders come in around 3 pm, and about 40% of their work is value-added service, so coordinating delivery requires a great deal of cross-functional communication. They maintain transparency with customers and set expectations to get the metal on the road as promised. That takes a degree of respect we love to see!

Suwanee has two dedicated CAD Programmers lending their talents to the daily demand of all their unique orders. Each shift has highly skilled equipment operators to perform various value-added services, such as thermal plate/sheet cutting, etching, forming, punching, sawing, drilling, milling, profiling, cambering, splitting, and heat straightening.

Sales Manager, Jon Crum, speaks about the team with passion, “We’ve got an extremely seasoned and experienced team that is in tune with our market. He put a finer point on it, “The veteran knowledge and their influence in educating new generations allows us to capitalize on our in-house processing capabilities today and sets us up for greater success tomorrow.”

Capabilities

This ISO modeled quality management branch offers many long products stocked in several grades and lengths. Their portfolio includes work on beams, channels, angles, bars, pipes, mechanical/structural tubes, plates, sheets, grating, and flooring products. 

The facility houses several different types of robust equipment to ensure they can exceed expectations with all their value-added requests. Here’s a look at the machine power under their roof:

• ALLtra HPR400XD Plasma/Oxy-fuel Table – 4” x 124” x 712”
• Accurpress Press Brake – 400-ton x 168”
• Ficep Drill/Saw Line – 44” x 20” (90°); 18” x 20” (60°); 300#/LF x 65’
• HE&M Band Saw – 40” x 25” (90°)
• HE&M Miter Band Saw – 30” x 20” (90°); 13” X 20” (60°)
• Amada Band Saw – 24” x 16” (90°)
• Piranha Ironworker – 140 ton; punch/shear
• Cambco Cambering Machine – 36” x 160#/LF
• Vernon Beam Splitter – 7/8” web thickness
• Parts Tumbler

They’re also equipped with ten overhead cranes and one Gantry crane with a 15-ton max capacity.

We’re honored to have each and every member of our Suwanee branch helping set the tone for all others. Way to put your best boot forward and keep our customers coming back!