Airgas Reorganizes Southwest Region
Airgas, Inc. (ARG) has announced the reorganization of its Southwest distribution region. After the reorganization, the distribution center will be divided into two separate regions – the Gulf Coast region, headquartered in Houston, and the Southwest region, headquartered in Dallas, effective Nov 1, 2013.
Jason Favre will be the president of the Gulf Coast region which includes coastal Texas and Louisiana. Favre has served as vice president of sales and marketing for Airgas’ Southwest region since 2007.
Brent Sparks will be appointed as president of the newly defined Southwest region, which includes the rest of Texas to the north, east and west of Dallas, and New Mexico. Sparks is now the presiding officer in the Southwest region.
The reorganization underscores Airgas’ commitment to an operating model made for customers’ satisfaction and fulfillment of their needs according to their choice. Formation of two separate regions will facilitate management and staff resources to focus on key growth areas.
Airgas’ Southwest region is the largest in terms of annual revenues. The region is also leading in terms of the number of production facilities, branches and associates in Airgas.
The reorganization will strengthen Airgas’ commitment to fulfill the unique needs of industries in both regions. It will also help the company to tap long-term prospects for the U.S. manufacturing and energy industries as well as non-residential construction.
Airgas is well positioned for growth on its strategic initiatives such as sales and marketing alignment with customers, SAP and the associated benefits, total access and eBusiness, as well as renewed focus on day-to-day selling and customer service.
Airgas has implemented a price increase that was effective from Jul 1, 2013. This will help the company to maintain same-store sales growth and counter higher input and energy costs. The company also remains focused on reducing its costs associated with production, cylinder maintenance and distribution logistics.
Based in Pennsylvania, Airgas, through its subsidiaries, distributes industrial, medical and specialty gases as well as hard goods in the U.S. The company also markets its products and services through e-business, catalog and telesales channels.
Airgas currently carries a short-term Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Akzo Nobel NV (AKZOY), BASF SE (BASFY) and Cabot Corp. (CBT) belong to the same industry in which Airgas operates. All three hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Read the Full Research Report on ARGRead the Full Research Report on BASFYRead the Full Research Report on CBTRead the Full Research Report on AKZOYZacks Investment Research
