Episode Overview:

In this episode of Chemical Reactions, host Alex Steakley is joined by Carl Gerken, owner of Portage Trading Company. Tune in as they discuss Carl's journey through the chemical industry, discussing his background, the intricacies of chemical trading, and the importance of networking and relationships. The conversation demystifies strategic sourcing, dealing with freight logistics, and understanding market dynamics within the chemical sector. Carl shares valuable insights into the entrepreneurial spirit necessary for success and the evolving landscape of the chemical trade.

Key Insights:

Background in Chemicals: Carl reflects on his early career in oil field chemicals and his transition to contract manufacturing, giving him a comprehensive understanding of various chemical applications and markets.

Entrepreneurial Journey: He discusses his shift from employee to business owner, emphasizing the importance of mentorship and having a clear vision for one’s career.

Roles in Chemical Trading: Carl elaborates on the unique position of Portage Trading, focusing on strategic sourcing and the ability to meet specific customer needs through a network of suppliers.

Importance of Networking: The discussion highlights how cultivating relationships can lead to opportunities for collaboration and mutual benefit in the industry.

Logistics and Transportation: Carl shares the challenges and nuances of working with freight companies, stressing the critical role of transportation in the success of a chemical trading business.

Future Outlook: The duo discusses potential shifts in the chemical industry, including emerging trends and the importance of adapting to market changes.

Notable Quotes:

“If four or five different people tell you about the same idea, there’s probably a business behind it.” - Carl Gerken

“People do business with people still. Picking up the phone, sitting down with people face to face still goes a long way.” - Carl Gerken

“There’s a lot of things out there in the world. There’s a lot of different ways to make money.” - Carl Gerken

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction to the episode and guest

00:22 - Carl Gerken’s career background in the chemical industry

02:28 - Transitioning from employee to entrepreneur

04:11 - Overview of Portage Trading Company

05:35 - The importance of supply chain relationships

12:43 - Connecting people to enhance business and trust

20:58 - Navigating logistics and transportation challenges

30:03 - Looking ahead: future of the chemical industry

40:38 - Carl’s insights on entrepreneurship and business growth

50:11 - Closing remarks and where to contact Portage Trading

Resources:

Visit Portage Trading Company's website

Follow Alex Steakley and the show on social media for updates.

Check out Matlack Leasing to learn more about leasing or purchase high-quality tank trailers, chassis, and storage solutions for your industrial, chemical, or logistics needs. Streamline your fleet today at MatlackLeasing.com!

Call to Action:

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Tune in next episode for more insights and conversations from the heart of the chemical industry!

[00:00:22] Alex Steakley: Hey, guys. Welcome back to chemical reactions where we talk about all the different facets of the chemical industry. Today I've got a long time friend Carl Gerken with Portage Trading Company. How's it going,

[00:00:34] Alex Steakley: I mean, we've we've known each other what? Seven, eight years?

[00:00:39] Alex Steakley: You were you were at Chemquest at the time.

[00:00:44] Alex Steakley: So you've kinda been in the chemical industry from the jump since you started your career. Right?

[00:01:00] Alex Steakley: Yeah. You were, that was Clariant?

[00:01:24] Alex Steakley: How'd you make your way from there to was Chemquest the next stop?

[00:02:28] Alex Steakley: Yeah. And then, I mean, now you're Porter's trading, you

[00:02:31] Alex Steakley: owner. How'd you how'd you kinda make the jump from, you know, w two employee to owning a chemical trading and distribution company?

[00:04:02] Alex Steakley: Nice. Yeah. So for the people like me that are a little ignorant when it comes to this side of the business, like, what do you do as a chemical trading company? Who are your potential customers? Who are your vendors? I mean, don't give away your secrets, but what's a what's a day in the life of a chemical trading company look like?

[00:07:12] Alex Steakley: Yeah. I mean, you're I think you're the first one that kinda told me a sales strategy that's always stuck with me is like, hey, first let's just try to connect people. Right? I mean, even if you can't help them right away, connect people that that might need each other's services and then that makes you sticky. I mean, that is that kind of your still game plan to this day? I mean, I know it's I served you well so

[00:07:40] Alex Steakley: I know, I know, I know.

[00:09:15] Alex Steakley: So No. Mean, I I know I've adopted that practice even today at MATLAK. I mean, we do a lot of tank leases to manufacturers that they'll call me and say, hey. I know you don't do trucking, but who would you recommend? We've got a trailer that we need moved in this area or this area. I mean, you've called me with that stuff.

[00:09:35] Alex Steakley: You know, it'd be easy for me to say, oh, I don't do trucking and I man, I wish I could help you, but I can't. But, I mean, how much benefit and how much really extra work is it on me to make that one extra phone call and say, oh, you should call CAG or HENIF or whoever because they've got great coverage in that area. Right? I mean and it makes you sticky with your customer.

[00:11:24] Alex Steakley: tell freight companies all the time, I'm like, hey, if it's good for you, good for me. Right? If grow your business, that usually means you're gonna add trucks and trucks gotta pull trailers.

[00:11:38] Alex Steakley: A 100%. I mean

[00:11:50] Alex Steakley: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:59] Alex Steakley: Yeah. Mean, no. I tell everybody that the best connector I know in the game is is you, you know? I mean, you're you're two degrees or one degree separated from 95% of the people that I've met. That's a testament to, like you said, how outgoing you are and how willing to help you are. That's just one one of your core values, it seems like. But you brought up freight. What is what is working with freight companies and transportation companies, how does that kind of help formulate deals that you're working on or help bring in raw materials that you're trying to import? What what does it what does that look like to you?

[00:14:00] Alex Steakley: you think is always happening. With people and machinery. Right? Something's always gonna pop

[00:15:06] Alex Steakley: Yeah. No. And I mean, I've said it from my time in the the transport side of the industry. Dealing with people like you and the the smaller to mid sized companies is such a big opportunity for people because you're not going out for RFP like with some of these giant chemical distribution companies. You know, I'm not I'm not working against 27 other carriers bidding against all of them. I've got a direct line, you know, to the owner that I can talk, hey man, with this lane, I've gotta be at this price. I know you need it to be here. Let's work on it. And it's not 27 emails back and forth. It's a phone call. Right? Which usually, even in today's technologically driven world, phone call and face to face always gets stuff done a lot quicker.

[00:16:55] Alex Steakley: Yeah. And yeah, you know, you you get in on the ground floor with somebody, I mean, you you stay sticky with them. I mean, that's that's the whole name of the game. But the other side of that is importing your raw materials. What are are you looking out for? What do you kinda see on the horizon with uncertain economic times, the tariffs, everything on the import side? What's what are you doing to mitigate risks where you What's what's that look like for you guys?

[00:18:06] Alex Steakley: from like 145% to China, now it's down.

[00:19:03] Alex Steakley: Yep.

[00:19:32] Alex Steakley: Is that just ease of working with the ports? How quick boxes are getting out and ISO tanks are getting out?

[00:20:27] Alex Steakley: Yeah. When I know from our time working a little bit closer together when we were both at, you know, the the sea level at a couple of companies, You did a lot on the import export side in in Dre. How do you think that's helped you now at at your current role?

[00:21:53] Alex Steakley: Yeah. I mean, when I was at a a transport company, the the owner always said, man, when you're selling transport, you should spend a day or two with a truck driver to see what day or day looks like. And I think for the chemical industry, like, hey. If you're a chemical sales guy, you should spend a day with your supply chain and logistics coordinator to see what really goes into getting those loads to and from customers. Yeah. You know? I mean, it's it's crazy.

[00:23:02] Alex Steakley: goes into

[00:23:43] Alex Steakley: Yeah. And then I wanna go back to, you talked about network and there's a group of guys that you've introduced me to that y'all kinda all run-in the same circles. I I don't know if I can say chemical mafia. You know, I don't know if that's trademarked or not. But Someone will be will

[00:24:04] Alex Steakley: shoot us a text and and be happy that we shouted them out. But, you know, I've always found it interesting that y'all all kinda play in in the same sandbox, but find a way to to divide it. And I've I've always thought y'all's world was a little more cutthroat than it actually seems to be. I mean, can you speak a little bit about about that and how you kind of navigate those relationships with those guys and and other guys in in the industry that you're working together with on products, but then you're competing on other products. They can be a customer. They can be a vendor. I mean, it seems like it's such an, you know, entangled web.

[00:24:55] Alex Steakley: It's a it's a little bit more click you know, point click. Yeah.

[00:28:04] Alex Steakley: Yeah.

[00:28:05] Alex Steakley: What we I mean, we talked about it, you know, somebody If anybody says the the market's saturated, they're just not not looking hard enough. Right? Yeah. I mean, there's so much out there and if you just flip over a couple of stones, you find 20 new potential customers. Right?

[00:29:14] Alex Steakley: Yeah. And then you brought up your portfolio and I don't think we touched on it earlier. How do you kind of figure out what your niche is gonna be as a trading company? Are you I know you said, you know, whatever the customer needs, but is it based on your relationship with suppliers? How are you kind of navigating where you wanna be in the space?

[00:30:16] Alex Steakley: cost Mhmm.

[00:31:50] Alex Steakley: Yeah. No. I mean, I I get it. And you talk about leaning on, you know, your vendor and supplier relationships. I mean, especially the the importance of a good carrier on the liquid bulk side. I mean, how many times has somebody said, oh, yeah. That commodity can go in a four zero seven, and then I'm like, woah. Woah. Woah. Hey. You might wanna check that again. That's gonna pit out a barrel real bad.

[00:32:41] Alex Steakley: You brought up, you know, kind future, talking in a couple years it could look way different. I mean, in a perfect scenario, what's Portage Trading Company look like in five or ten years? What are y'all doing at that point?

[00:33:28] Alex Steakley: Okay.

[00:33:51] Alex Steakley: Those centers.

[00:35:14] Alex Steakley: And are y'all are y'all staying regional or you got customers kind of all over the the country?

[00:35:43] Alex Steakley: Okay. And then when you're, let's say you're in a region Northeast or somewhere that you don't have a lot of foothold in, how are you sourcing transport when you need it? I mean, is it word-of-mouth? Is it

[00:36:00] Alex Steakley: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so it goes back to relationships.

[00:37:01] Alex Steakley: and stuff. So Yeah. So on on that front, I don't think it's gonna change too much. I mean, we do a lot with the plants on project turnarounds, plant shutdowns, things like that that that normal maintenance is gonna stay in place. But, you know, on the tariff side and and just imports, what we're seeing is and I just got an email this morning from NTTC. Trump is looking to impose aluminum and steel tariffs coming into The US, and some of our trailer manufacturers have plants in Mexico, Canada. You know? So if that if that happens, they're gonna have to use their plants in Wisconsin or California, and labor costs are higher there than they are in, at least in Mexico. Don't know the labor costs in Canada. So definitely could go back into costs of trailers are gonna rise because cost of materials is more, cost of labor is more, so it's just more expensive to make the trailer. And then two, we've been lucky after COVID we hit a good run of short lead times on trailers, but we could start seeing those lead times creep back up into the six, eight, nine month lead time instead of the the four. Like, we just we just ordered some four twelve's from a a vendor and, I mean, it was a really quick turnaround. I think it was three months. So, you know, right now, being that flexible is great, but that's, you know, when when it gets to those longer lead times, I think that's when you lean on a leasing company like us because, hey, you might have the capital and might wanna own your equipment, but if you gotta wait eleven months to get the equipment, you you lose out on that that lane or that opportunity to run the business. So Absolutely. You know, it it provides different advantages to us, but, I mean, we're we're definitely monitoring the imports on what they're gonna do for for steel and aluminum.

[00:39:13] Alex Steakley: down Yeah. We're I mean, I would say we're one of the largest leasing fleets in the nation. So we've definitely got available equipment sitting on the 407, four twelve side. So not worried there. And between Laura, our VP of operations, Keith, our our GM, and Krish, our owner. They've got long standing vendor relationships with some of the biggest trailer manufacturers. So I don't see it being an issue. It's just another hurdle to navigate. Cost of goods. Cost of goods. Yeah. So I mean, it'll definitely be an interesting time back half of the year to see what kinda shakes out on that realm. But we were talking about fleets and things like that. I wanted to see we talked about reaching out to people where those networks are, but you brought up AI. Mhmm. And I had kind of thought about talking about AI in a standpoint of what you're gonna use going forward, like how to automate some processes. But it's really interesting that you talked about AI in a sense of some opportunities to to move product into those data centers and things like that. But is there any big technological advances that you're monitoring that might be good to, you know, start those processes in your company? Or

[00:42:46] Alex Steakley: face to

[00:42:56] Alex Steakley: At least not in this industry yet. Yeah. With AI, it's it's not there.

[00:43:35] Alex Steakley: So, I mean, you're pretty plugged in with with the chemical industry. So I would ask you, what do you think the the outlook for just chemical manufacturing, chemical trading next three to five years? What's what's some issues that y'all might face or what's some some potential tailwinds that might might boost the industry?

[00:44:22] Alex Steakley: west in chemicals during COVID, man.

[00:45:41] Alex Steakley: Now is private equity playing as big a role in in that space as they are in transportation and environmental services?

[00:46:08] Alex Steakley: You're the people providing the products.

[00:46:21] Alex Steakley: Mhmm.

[00:47:39] Alex Steakley: Yeah. I mean, there was a report in bulk transporter that Jason McDaniel brought up when he was on that truck, like liquid bulk GDP is on pace to beat the national average GDP. So that's gotta come from somewhere. Right? I mean, it's gotta come in hand in hand with more people producing things and moving commodities. Right?

[00:49:19] Alex Steakley: But Yeah. I mean, but with any issues, there's always potential gains for somebody that's willing to solve them in a creative and innovative way. Yeah. I mean Maybe that's Portage.

[00:49:38] Alex Steakley: Yeah. But, you know, I wanna I wanna kinda wrap this thing up by asking anybody that that starts a business, I always say, what's something, know, and I know it's still new. It's two years into it. But what's something that you know now that you wish you would have known two years ago when you first started?

[00:52:37] Alex Steakley: Yeah, man. I would say be on the lookout for portage trading. If y'all need any type of chemical or different commodity, definitely reach out to Carl. Where can they where can they find you, Carl?

[00:53:24] Alex Steakley: Appreciate it, man. Excited, I mean, to see where Portage goes, excited to see where Matt Lack and myself fit in to to help you guys with y'all's needs and, know, here's to the next ten years. Right?

[00:53:38] Alex Steakley: So Alright, guys. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next week.

[00:53:44] Intro Narrator: Thank you for tuning in to chemical reactions presented by MATLAK Leasing. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, share with a friend, and leave us a review. Until next time. Special thanks to Matlac Leasing, presenting sponsor of our podcast. When it comes to liquid bulk trailer leasing, Matlac is your go to expert. Whether you're transporting chemicals, food grade products, or other liquids, Madlac Leasing provides the reliable trailers you need for safe and efficient delivery. Choose Madlac Leasing for unmatched quality and service. Visit madlacleasing.com today to learn more.