One of the newest businesses in Bingham County will hold an open house July 8 in Blackfoot.

Will Waldrip, president of United Steel Supply with headquarters in Austin, Texas, said the company opened its newest distribution facility at 523 W. 100 Road N. last October. The open house is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, July 8.

United Steel Supply primarily distributes and processes flat-rolled steel coils used for metal roofing and siding applications. Rather than smelting raw steel from scratch, the company functions as a major distributor and processor, sourcing steel from its parent company, Steel Dynamics.

“We had been servicing lots of customers in Idaho, the Rocky Mountains and Montana for several years, and we wanted to service those customers better to have supply closer to them,” Waldrip said.

The new facility in Blackfoot allows them to get material to their customers faster.

With warehouses all around the country, United Steel Supply is generally able to deliver products to most customers within 24 hours of order date, Waldrip said.

“We were selling for years in the Rocky Mountains, and obviously we couldn’t do that because of transit time,” Waldrip said.

That fact led United Steel Supply to build the facility that cost between $15 million to $17 million in Blackfoot.

According to Waldrip, it was important to do this for customers who have been loyal to the company.

“We want to invest in the service level that we could provide,” Waldrip said, “and hopefully help grow their business by being closer to them.”

While the facility opened in October, it only started taking customer orders in February.

“We had to do a lot of setup with machinery and inventory and those types of things,” Waldrip said. “It took us a few months to get inventory built, where we felt comfortable to be able to support customer needs out of that market. But pretty much by February and March we started shipping. The last couple of months the pace has picked up quite a bit.”

According to Waldrip, the Blackfoot facility that started with 12 employees and has about 18 in full operation does some light processing on orders.

“We do some slight modifications to the coils that come in, depending on what customers need,” Waldrip said. “We can slit material to different widths.”

The facility provides full width and slit steel coils tailored to specific customer needs, he said. Coils can be slit to exact customer specifications. They stock and distribute prepainted, galvanized and Galvalume products available in more than 40 colors. Galvalume products are cold-rolled steel sheets hot-dipped with an alloy of aluminum, zinc and silicon.

“We have everything there that customers would need for us to provide them,” Waldrip said.

Their customers work in metal roofing and metal siding in every single category, be it industrial, commercial, equestrian, agricultural and residential.

“We provide the products for pretty much every one of those industries,” Waldrip said.

Blackfoot is notable for the company.

“It’s our first Rocky Mountain footprint,” Waldrip said. “We have a western facility in Eugene, Ore. Then we have San Antonio, Mississippi, Indiana, Louisiville, Ken., with a couple more facilities in process right now that are hopefully to open in the next 24 months.

“We’re in six states where we distribute,” he said. “We distribute to customers in all the lower 48 plus Alaska and Hawaii.”

Teresa McKnight, CEO of Regional Economic Development for Eastern Idaho, said both the workforce and the growth in Eastern Idaho was a big attraction for United Steel Supply.

“It’s their first facility in Idaho, and they chose Blackfoot,” McKnight said. “They chose that as their location to cover multiple states.”

The site will cover Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

McKnight said this site stood out to them because of the geography.

“In addition to that it was connected to a rail spur so that gave them easy access for the trains to come in and unload the steel product rolls as well as pick up product and take it out of the site,” she said.

According to McKnight, all the representatives from Bingham County, including the commissioners, made for a very smooth process.

“Bingham County is a great county to work with for business development,” McKnight said. “It was just a matter of getting infrastructure to the site. And then for them to start the architectural design and then the construction of their new facility.”

Bret Curtis and Waldrip started the business in 2007.

“We had a great partnership, and he retired last May,” Waldrip said. “I’m hoping he attends the open house as well. He was obviously involved in the planning, the financing, everything with Blackfoot up until he retired.

“Then we had just a few more months to finish the project,” Waldrip said. “He was very influential in the project, and he and I together made the decision to open Blackfoot. It’s going to be a really, really good location for us to be able to serve customers.”

Waldrip looks forward to the open house.

“I will be there,” he said, “to let the community come in and see what we do and have some of our local customers come in, tour the facility, get a sense of confidence of the products and the processes and equipment that we have to make sure we’re there to serve their business. We’re just so excited to be there.

“It’ll be a thank you to the community for allowing us in and a thank you for our customers to let them know that we’re there to now serve and give them the service that they need and deserve.”

Curtis and Waldrip sold majority share of their business to Steel Dynamics in 2019.

“I still own part of the business,” Waldrip said. “When Bret retired he sold the balance of his shares and went into retirement. Steel Dynamics is an S&P 500 company, one of the largest steel producers in the United States and a wonderful partner.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better partner,” Waldrip said. “They actually make steel from melting scrap all the way to the finished products that we use. It couldn’t have worked out any better having a partner that actually makes the products that we use.”

Building the facility in Blackfoot has worked out equally well.

“The State of Idaho was unbelievably accommodating,” Waldrip said. “The general contractors and subcontractors we work with were fantastic. Quite frankly it was a very, very seamless easy project.”

Waldrip has no plans to follow his former partner into retirement.

“I love the business,” he said. “I love our customers. I love our employees, and I don’t see myself doing anything else.”