Couple founds thriving business
Centerville duo are providing custom-cut metals during crisis.
The Miami Valley is home to many diverse companies of all types and sizes. And the rise of entrepreneurism has enhanced this diversity, with business owners continuing to exemplify the creativity and ingenuity that has defined Dayton for centuries.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many small businesses, forced to close doors, have uncertain futures. But a few, deemed “essential” businesses, were able to remain open, with restrictions, over the past few months during Ohio’s stay-at-home order.
Rick Valencia and his wife, Elizabeth, of Centerville, opened one such business — Metal Supermarkets — nearly three years ago.
Why metal? Valencia said that after researching businesses in Dayton, it seemed many companies used different quantities and types of metal for their dayto-day operations.
“I’ve been in software sales for most of my career,” Valencia said. “My company was acquired by LexisNexis and we ended up moving here from Utah in 1995.”
After a few years, the couple began discussing opening a business, especially with the corporate instability and the many mergers and acquisitions going on around them. They engaged a franchise consultant and investigated several options before settling on Metal Supermarkets, a small-quantity metal distribution franchise company headquartered in Ontario, Canada.
“There are close to 100 stores in the country and in Canada and ours in Dayton is one of four in the state of Ohio,” Valencia said. “We knew this would be good for Dayton.”
Though neither Valencia nor his wife had any experience in the metal industry, they decided to learn as they went along. They started with modest but regular growth, earning more customers each year.
“The thing we like about this business model is it serves a need for larger distributors,” Valencia said. “We serve the small quantity market and we offer metals cut to size.”
When the global pandemic forced most companies in Ohio to close doors and remain closed for the past few months, Valencia said they were able to pick up projects and a few new customers and help out during the health crisis at the same time.
“We are working a lot with companies that are still open and individuals who need metal for home projects,” Valencia said. “Restaurants that are open and manufacturers have been keeping us busy.”
Though big box building center type stores also carry metal, Valencia said his business specializes in custom-cut metals like steel, bronze, copper aluminum and brass. And another special feature is the Metal Supermarkets retail storefront, a place where customers could, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, browse and choose product themselves.
“Our retail store has been closed for the past few months but will reopen soon,” Valencia said. “People love the ability to come in and look at our product, but we have still been offering phone or email orders and curbside or truck delivery.”
Valencia’s business has also continued to gain customers and orders, and, at the same time, help businesses during the health crisis. Some local retailers have turned to Metal Supermarkets for product to build stanchions and barriers to help with social-distancing requirements. Valencia said they are also selling tubing to companies building hand-sanitizing stations and small pieces of tubing used as nose pieces on protective face masks.
“We have been working with a few customers who are making plans to get to the point where they can open again,” Valencia said. “Some places like salons are working on remodels and adding additional hand washing stations so they are ordering pieces to help with those modifications.”
And like most business owners throughout Ohio, Valencia said he looks forward to returning to a more normal way of life, with businesses, stores, and companies all fully open once again. In the meantime, the Dayton Metal Supermarket, located on Edwin C. Moses Blvd., will continue to offer product and the high level of customer service for which the company is best known.
“It’s good to be part of the solution for those in need,” Valencia said. “This pandemic has definitely influenced our business, and we are certainly grateful we could remain open. We appreciate the people in Dayton who continue to choose to patronize local businesses like ours.”
For more information, log on to Metalsupermarkets.com
Contact this contributing writer at banspach@ymail. com.