Two years ago Matt Blazer found himself wandering around Salt Lake City trying to find someone to finance his dream business without much success. The days on the option to buy an existing steel manufacturing company were running short and he was sure that it was not going to happen.
“I had already quit my job and all my options were running out,” said Blazer as he sat in a special meeting of the Pro-Carbon board on the evening of March 5. “Then Richard Tatton called me and told me to come and meet with Pro-Carbon.”
Tatton had seen Blazer at a county commission meeting making a presentation about what he wanted to do with the existing business that had been floundering. Consequently he conferred with other board members and they had decided to contact Blazer about what they could do to help.
The Pro-Carbon board met with him the next evening, looked at him and saw that they liked what they saw and loaned him the money he needed to get the business off the ground. That changed everything for the young entrepreneur. With that he was able to incorporate Intermark Steel and set up operations in Carbon County.
And so on that Monday night last week he wrote a check for $113,000 to finish paying back the loan that they had approved that evening.
Because of that loan he was also able to obtain some funding from the Revolving Loan Fund from the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments which led to a business which now employs 15 people in the Price area and with the acquisition of a new building that will soon be put up, will include more hires in the future.
“It’s been a wild ride and what has happened has surpassed everyones expectations,” said Blazer as he was about to write out the check and addressed the board. “If your remember you loaned us $170,000, and $120,000 of that went to purchase the assets of Trans America Steel. That left us $50,000 to try and make it run. Our first contract was for $42,000. We were able to deliver that contract and that just parlayed into the next which was $172,000 and then that grew to $600,000. Then we were able to secure a contract with the Salt Lake International Airport and the remodel there for $2.2 million. Today we have $14 million under contract for 2018.”
According to Blazer the company now has contracts in places around the world, many of which lie outside the borders of the United States. Presently the company has contracts with the LDS Church for installs at temples around the country and in some foreign lands. He said that Sun Devil Stadium in Mesa, Arizona is also doing a project and the shop has a full load of work from there. The company recently also provided manufactured metal products for an Amazon Distribution Center that was being built. There are also more new and upcoming contracts at the Salt Lake Airport.
“I am grateful to everyone on this board for meeting with me that first day and believing in me,” said Blazer. With that he wrote a check for $113,000 to finish paying back the loan they approved that evening two years ago.
He pointed out they just did a new hire to help with the financials at the company and he said they would continue to grow. He also said that Price was a special place, a place where he found the right building, the right company and the right workers to make the business work.
“Everybody here in Price made the difference in this success,” said Blazer. “People are constantly asking me how I did it. I don’t see that it was me that did it. I truly believe that the secret sauce in all this was Price.”
He said that is because of many factors, one of the main ones being that the crew he has working at the shop in Price are pumping out three times as much product as any group of the same size along the Wasatch Front, he is able to compete with much bigger companies. He said his costs are considerably lower, so it affects the bids he is able to place for contracts. He said all the money that is being made is being plowed right back in to the operation to continue its growth.
Blazer did say however that this kind of thing doesn’t happen every day, but it does show that it can be done when people work together.
“By my estimation the company has put over $1 million into the local economy since we began operations,” he stated.
Pro-Carbon is a private investment corporation that was created in 1968 to help bring Koret of California, a clothing manufacturer, to the Carbon County area. Since then they have loaned money on many projects which have helped the community. They continue to look for solid enterprises which can be helped with their investments.