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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
September 2006

Vol. 11, No. 36 Week of September 03, 2006

PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Alaska customers use wide array of 3M’s 55,000 products

3M’s commitment to innovation brings constant stream of new products to worldwide markets

Q. Where are 3M’s operations located?

A: 3M is a global, diversified technology company with operations in some 200 countries. 3M Alaska is a focused element of 3M with a specific mission to serve Alaska customers.

Q. What year was the company founded, who founded it, and what was its original name?

A: 3M was founded in 1902 in Two Harbors, Minn., as a mining operation for grinding wheel abrasives. 3M was known as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing until just the last few years. 3M Alaska was established in 1971. We were first located in the Spenard area. We later moved to the corner of International and Minnesota. Our current facility is located in south Anchorage near Minnesota and C Streets (11151 Calaska Circle).

Q. Who heads up your company and who is on its senior management team?

A: The 3M corporation is led by George Buckley. Paul Sander manages the 3M Alaska operation. 3M Alaska is structured under our corporate organization as part of 3M’s international business development. 3M Alaska, 3M Hawaii and 3M Guam operate as 3M offshore operations, but as part of the 3M’s United States operations. Alaska is considered offshore because of some of the logistical challenges to servicing non-contiguous states.

Q. Describe any partnership arrangements and when they became effective.

A: We partner with and sell our many products through a large number of local and national distributors. We have products that are marketed and sold in virtually every business environment.

Q. What are the company’s primary business sectors? What services do you offer in Alaska?

A: We focus on products and customer solutions in multiple markets. Our corporate structure is organized in the following big business areas:

Consumer and office

Display and graphics

Electronic and communications

Health care

Industrial and transportation

Safety, security and protection

We offer our Alaska customers local sales, technical support, customer service as well as warehousing and delivery service.

Q. Who are the company’s main clients?

A: Our customers vary and range from large corporations and multinational manufacturers to the individual consumer.

Q. How many employees does your company have? How many in Alaska?

A: 3M has more than 69,000 employees worldwide. About half of those employees work in the United States. 3M Alaska has 14 highly motivated employees located in Anchorage to serve our Alaska customers.

Q. Does 3M have subsidiaries?

A: 3M operates a number of U.S. subsidiaries, as well as in-country subsidiary operations in more than 60 countries.

Q. Is your company expanding any of its operations?

A: Corporately, 3M is constantly expanding its operations through internal growth or through business acquisitions. One of our recent exciting acquisitions is the filtration company, CUNO. This acquisition greatly expands our product solutions for liquid filtration. We see a number of opportunities to assist our Alaska oil and gas customers with their filtration needs in both their production and refining facilities.

We are always looking for opportunities to expand our Alaska operation for 3M in such areas as logistical support to the 3M global business or some light manufacturing.

Q. What is your company’s main strength, i.e., its edge over the competition?

A: Our real strength comes in a couple ways. First, with more than 55,000 products, we offer our customers a one-company solution for many of their needs. In Alaska, we offer this along with local sales, customer service and logistical services. Secondly, 3M offers vast technical support services through our development and support labs as well as our engineering and technical service departments. Our sales and customer service people in Alaska have this solid technical support from our division and corporate groups.

Q. In what new markets did your company experience growth in the last year?

A. 3M’s most significant growth areas this past year have been in our commercial graphics, occupational safety and abrasives product areas.

Q. Has the company invested in any new technology in the last two years?

A: 3M corporately targets a large amount of income back into R&D. Last year, 3M spent over $1.2 billion in research and development. This investment is in addition to acquisition expenditures made to bolster our product depth and knowledge. The company also encourages innovation from outside sources. For instance, 44 young university researchers received 3M grants in 2006 for their research that could result in new products.

Q. What are the biggest obstacles to completing work the company undertakes?

A: Like so many Alaska companies, logistics issues are always a challenge. We work hard to stock locally the key products to support our Alaska customers. 3M’s large number of individual products adds a lot of complications to our supply chain process so that we can provide our customers with timely delivery at a reasonable cost.

Q. What do you see as your company’s biggest challenge in the next five years?

A: One of our ongoing challenges is to be able to meet a growing demand for 3M products. We have a large number of products that fit the industrial markets, particularly related to respiratory safety. Worldwide demand has been such that 3M is investing in additional manufacturing capacity to keep pace.

Q. What do you see as future trends or opportunities for your company from events such as long-term weather fluctuations, resource development, etc.?

A: I see the Alaska market as a steadily growing business environment. 3M has many products that can help our customers adjust to that changing environment as well as a changing economy. We have concentrated a lot of our future growth on the oil and gas industry. The gas pipeline will generate a number of growth opportunities in our industrial products such as abrasives, welding and personal protection products.

Q. What is the most humorous story from your company’s years in the business in Alaska?

A: When people think of duct tape, they usually think of two other things — 3M and Alaska.

A number of year ago, 3M produced a whole container of one-inch duct tape for a foreign country that then had a trade embargo placed against it. The obvious best outlet for a container load of special one-inch duct tape was Alaska. One inch is not the most popular size of duct tape, but over a rather extended period of time we moved the entire container of tape by one means or another including a sizeable donation to the Anchorage Duct Tape Ball that included completely covering a car. We joke today about one-inch duct tape and its many uses.

Q. Does your company have an anniversary or other landmark event coming up?

A: Our real key milestone was in 2002 when 3M celebrated its 100-year anniversary. 3M Alaska is proud to be an Alaska business partner, now in our 35th year in the state.

Q. What is the average length of time employees work for the company? Are you hiring for any positions?

A: We typically have very long-term employees. Our Alaska support staff averages about 15 years with 3M. Our sales force has seen more frequent change lately, but in the past we have had sales people typically with 15-20 years of service. We plan to add a sales person in the near future to focus on our growing business in dental products.

Q. Does your company or its partners or subsidiaries maintain Web sites?

A: The corporate Web site is http://3m.com/. This site provides in depth information on our organization and products. Our local Alaska Web site is http://www.3m.com/intl/alaska.jhtml.






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