Headquartered in Wheeling, West Virginia, Esmark Incorporated (NASDAQ:ESMK) is one of the fastest growing steel services companies in the world and leading participant in the rapidly consolidating global metals marketplace.
Since its formation in 2003, the company has established and continually refined a pathfinder business model that combines the value-added provision of steel services with the economic advantages of just-in-time customer delivery, global strategic partnerships and world-class management.
Founded by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, James P. Bouchard, and his brother, Vice Chairman and President, Craig T. Bouchard, Esmark’s roots are grounded in the rich tradition and heritage of the steel industry. Combining James’ decades of experience in the global steel marketplace with Craig’s expertise in financial services and mergers and acquisitions, the Bouchard brothers set out to create a new kind of steel services company that blended the best of their respective skills and backgrounds.
Esmark’s rapid rise to prominence began with the Bouchard’s first acquisitions in 2003, East Chicago, Indiana-based Electric Coating Technologies, Inc. and Chicago Heights, Illinois-based Sun Steel, providing the company with entrees into the steel service center and converter segments of the industry. Over the course of the next four years, Esmark acquired seven other service center, painted products and steel distribution companies that quickly propelled the company into a leading provider of value-added steel products in the Midwest with more than $600 million in annual revenue by 2006. By that time the company had a market base stretching from Missouri to Illinois to Ohio and more than 2,000 customers engaged in a diverse set of industries. Esmark had also built a number of strategic partnerships and joint ventures with leading steel companies from around the world to purchase, process and distribute steel products in the U.S.
The Esmark mission to acquire and re-energize established steel companies and infuse strong operating efficiencies and management controls took on greater significance as the rapid consolidation of the global steel services sector began to materialize in 2006 and 2007.
