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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Unitech rebounds following death of major stockholder Oil producers have a choice of cutting-edge innovations to protect the environment while conducting business Amy M. Armstrong PNA Contributing Writer
Unitech of Alaska Inc. is back and better than ever as a distributor in the environmental, industrial and paper industries. With a new owner and an expanded sales staff, the Anchorage company’s presence in Alaska has “grown by leaps and bounds in the past year,” said office manager Debbie Hawley.
Don Rogahn, owner of North Star Wiper and Absorbent out of St. Paul, Minn., became the owner of Unitech last year.
“He’s been in the industry for 35 years and has holdings all across the United States,” Hawley said. “When George Lorenz, former leading shareholder, died, our doors were getting ready to be shut. But Don came in and in a matter of three days, he got us up and running again and away we went.”
Unitech is now the leading supplier of environmental cleanup and remediation products, Hawley said. Unitech’s personnel are trained in oil spill response as well as hazardous material handling and response. The company’s forte is helping firms by recommending solutions and products to resolve problems. Unitech has a large inventory of spill control products, from spill containment through packaging for proper disposal.
Company sales topped $3.8 million in 2001.
“It should have been about $4.6 million, but during that time when George was sick, it was just Curly Arndt, our inside sales manager, and myself, running things,” Hawley said. “We now have a sales force of eight. We have bounced back. We are here and we are not leaving.”
Leading the way The company’s goal is to become the only bulk-break distribution center in Alaska, Hawley said. Unitech has a good start.
The company currently is the only authorized distributor in the Pacific Northwest for the Oily Waste Bag, which handles dirty sorbents. The product is manufactured by Mohawk Plastics.
“We are the largest distributor for bulk bags that hold contaminated soil,” Hawley said.
From secondary containment berms to custom-made spill kits and liners of all sorts, Unitech has anything the oil and natural gas industry needs, Hawley said.
“We have somebody on call 24 hours a day,” she said. “Our phones get forwarded to us, not an answering service. Besides, all the major players in the oil industry already have either Curly’s or my home phone number.”
She credits the company’s ability to provide such a diverse range of products to knowledgeable sales staff and a warehouse manager with impeccable organizational skills.
Karl “Curly” Arndt, sales manager, has been with Unitech of Alaska for over 12 years, a permanent fixture within the company. “Curly’s knowledge of the industry is immense besides being our walking catalog,” Hawley said. Curly and Debbie have been the backbone of Unitech for the past several years. “Running the day-to-day operations has been exciting to say the least,” she said.
Garrett Miller, warehouse manager, keeps about three-quarters of a million dollars in stock on hand at all times, Hawley said.
“This way when the oil company needs it, we have it,” she said. “And we are so fortunate to have Curly on board,” she said. “He’s been with the company for more than 12 years now and he is like a walking part number catalog.” A quick study Hawley said she’s learned a lot from Arndt and others in the industry since she came to work for Unitech in June 1996.
“It’s been a great learning experience, to say the least,” she said. “When I first came here, I didn’t know the difference between anything. I had no idea drums came in so many different types. There is non-rated, universal, aggressive, all-purpose and the list goes on.”
She also didn’t have a clue as to the industry lingo. But that was then.
“People would call up and say they wanted a bag of diapers and I thought, ‘Huh,’” she said. “Now I know what they mean. Or they would say they need some duck ponds when what they need are containment berms. I didn’t know. But I sure do now.” What kind of spicket? Over the Fourth of July holiday in 1997, Hawley was assigned to her first on-call duty for Unitech.
“There were a lot of wildfires then and I got a call from the state forestry division saying they needed 100 spickets. I thought, ‘How tough could this be?’ Boy did I have a lot of fun looking at all the different types of spickets in the warehouse,” she said. “But now if I get a call like that, I know to ask them if they want a half closure, brass, plastic, three-quarter inch or pressure release.”
Hawley said she didn’t mind feeling like a sponge as she learned about the oil industry.
“I knew I could learn it all,” she said. “But the number one thing in sales I already knew. And that is to treat your customer like they are king or queen for that time that you are helping them.” Creative thinking That high standard of customer service is what attracted Dave Herrell, sales manager, to Unitech after he spent several years in other aspects of the oil industry.
A civil engineer by trade, Herrell spent several years on active duty with the Coast Guard before owning his own company, Spilltech, during the Exxon Valdez spill.
“My company helped to protect the fish hatcheries in Prince William Sound when that happened,” he said.
It was also when he, as a customer, ordered supplies from Unitech.
“They were having a hard time getting them out to me at Sawmill Bay,” he said. “So Unitech got a little creative and rented a little box plane with a back door on it,” Herrell said, recalling how Unitech workers delivered his supplies with waterproof packaging around them.
“They put all the supplies in the back of the plane and when they got close, they just pointed the plane’s nose to the sky and let all the supplies fall out,” he said. “The delivery was right on time, right into the bay.”
Soon after, Herrell sold Spilltech. But he was so impressed by Unitech’s ingenuity that after several years of working for various oil companies around the world, he applied to work for Unitech when personal reasons brought him back to Anchorage. Pricing is the key Now his goals as sales manager for Unitech involve keeping the cost of product delivery affordable.
“Right now pricing is everything,” he said, noting that the addition of a sister company in Tukwilla, Wash., should help defray shipping costs for customers in Alaska’s southern regions that can receive direct shipments from Washington instead of Anchorage. “We have to make our products as affordable as possible right now.”
The recent move by Unitech to a larger warehouse space in Anchorage is a big plus, Herrell said. The company more than doubled its space from its previous location.
“We can offer even more products now,” he said.
That’s good news, as far as Hawley is concerned. “With products from more than 100 companies, we are the future for Alaska,” she said. “We are and will always be on the lookout for new products that help our customers.”
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