Collins Pipe & Supply Company Acquires Burnscascade

On Thursday, March 22, 2012, Collins Pipe & Supply acquired the assets of BurnsCascade Co., Inc., for an undisclosed amount. For more than sixty years, BurnsCascade has been an industrial supplier of valves, controls and flow-control instrumentation. With the acquisition, Collins will expand their upstate New York product brand offering with the addition of Raychem (heat tracing systems), Anderson Greenwood Instrumentation (hand valves and manifolds), and Kunkle Valve (safety relief valves), primarily from Tyco Flow Control Group.

One of the largest industrial distributors of pipe, manual and automated valves, fittings, and other engineered specialties in the Northeast, Collins Pipe & Supply also supplies power plant and large construction projects across the globe. Five years ago, Collins expanded their valve automation and process control operations in upstate New York by partnering with Joseph A. Clemente, a resident of Orchard Park, NY, and opening Niagara Controls LLC in Buffalo to service the western region of the state.

While Collins will consolidate the operations of BurnsCascade, they are purchasing existing distribution space in the Syracuse area — more than 16,000 square feet in size — to house their new Syracuse headquarters. Seven specific positions will also be created to more efficiently cover the technical and management aspects of the new acquirement.

But Collins is most proud of securing the services of David C. Pollock to oversee and direct the new BurnsCascade acquisition and their current operation in Syracuse, NY.

Starting in the BurnsCascade warehouse in 1972, Pollock, a resident of Syracuse, worked his way up through the company, serving as Customer Service Representative, Field Sales Representative, Branch Manager, Vice President of Sales, and ultimately President of BurnsCascade. As President, he served from 1986 to 2006, and oversaw the growth of the company from less than $18 million to over $30 million in revenue.

For the past seven years, Pollock has been president of MBP Systems of Syracuse, NY, but is excited to be back in the industrial PVF industry where he previously served as an officer of the Industrial Piping Division of the American Supply Association from 1999 to 2002. He was also a member of professional organizations including the Automatic Switch Distributor Advisory Council, Jamesbury Valve Distributor Advisory Council, ABB Automation Representative Council, Tyco Thermal Representative Council, and was the President of the Delta Buying Group.

“No one knows this industry, this company, or the customers better than David Pollock,” said Brian P. Tuohey, President of Collins Pipe & Supply Co., Inc. “He will be instrumental in guiding this company to new heights and streamlining all operations so that we can focus 100% of our energies on exceeding our customers expectations for quality, service, and technical support.”

For more than 80 years, Collins Pipe & Supply has been a leading distributor of pipe, valves, and fittings (PVF) and engineered specialties serving the Northeast. Brian Tuohey of Longmeadow, MA, first joined Collins Pipe as a Sales Manager in 1984. In 1986 he was promoted to President and in 1989 he purchased one third of the company and then purchased the remaining two thirds in 1998. Under Tuohey s leadership, Collins has substantially grown in sales from approximately $2 million in 1983 to more than $29 million in 2011.

With each new location and acquisition, Tuohey and his experienced staff of dedicated professionals have grown the company through their technical expertise and unmatched service to their PVF customers. Most importantly, they have brought jobs and economic growth to every area in which Collins has located. The company’s collective technical ability and knowledge is in demand by customers in all corners of the world, from Mexico to South America to China.