Tri-State Steel

What Tri-State Steel does

Tri-State Steel is a privately held, family-owned metal service center headquartered in Reidsville, North Carolina, distributing carbon steel, aluminum, and stainless steel (including T304/T316 grades) in a broad range of forms — bars, sheets, plates, tubes, pipes, angles, channels, I-beams, wide flanges, and structural shapes. Founded by Jerry Scott in Niles, Ohio in 1982 and relocated to Reidsville in 1988, the company serves central North Carolina and southern Virginia with quote-based pricing, no minimum order size, and delivery service across the region. Customer segments span SMB and hobbyist buyers (served through a separately branded retail outlet at tri-statesteelretail.com), building contractors, metal fabricators, and large manufacturers requiring volume procurement. The go-to-market is sales-led and relationship-driven, centered on direct phone ordering (336.349.6057 / 800.228.1695), supported by a monthly email newsletter and regional SEO targeting metal-distributor search terms in the Triad market.

The company operates without proprietary technology platforms, APIs, or AI systems; backend operations appear to be conventional for an independent distributor of this scale. Leadership transitioned around 2014 from founder Jerry Scott to his son Steve, with Jerry remaining active in day-to-day operations. Headcount is in the 11-50 range and revenue is not publicly disclosed. There is no evidence of outside equity capital, institutional ownership, M&A activity, or partnerships. Marketing is grounded in long-tenured customer relationships, word-of-mouth, local search visibility, and a newsletter archive that emphasizes trust, fair pricing, and rapid turnaround as primary differentiators.

Name

Tri-State Steel

Legal name

Tri-State Steel, Inc.

Website

https://tri-statesteel.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1982

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Tri-State Steel is a privately held, family-owned regional metal service center in Reidsville, NC, distributing carbon, aluminum, and stainless steel products to contractors, fabricators, manufacturers, and small buyers across central North Carolina and southern Virginia.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Metal Distribution

NAICS

Steel Product Manufacturing from Purchased Steel (3312)

SIC

Wholesale-Metals Service Centers & Offices (5051)

akta.pro primary industry

Steel Products Trading & Service Centers (Flat, Long, Pipe & Tube, Rebar) (IMAKAJAB)

Keywords

• Metal distribution services
• Wholesale steel supply
• Stainless steel distribution
• Aluminum product supply
• Structural metal products

Headquarters

HQ city

Reidsville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Metal Distribution and Sales: Revenue generated through distribution and sale of carbon, aluminum, and stainless steel metals. Products sold in various forms including bars, sheets, plates, tubes, pipes, and structural shapes. No minimum order size, serving from single bar to truckload quantities.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Tri-State Steel is a metal service center that distributes carbon, aluminum, and stainless steel products in thousands of shapes and sizes (bars, sheets, plates, tubes, pipes, structural shapes) to customers across central North Carolina and southern Virginia. The company sells through direct phone-based ordering, offers custom cutting and special-order items, and provides regional delivery with no minimum order size, serving everyone from small shops and contractors to large manufacturers and fabricators.

Product overview

Tri-State Steel is a metal service center distributing quality carbon, aluminum, and stainless steel products across North Carolina and southern Virginia since 1982. The company offers thousands of shapes and sizes including rounds, hexagons, squares, rectangles, angles, channels, I-beams, wide flanges, pipes, tubes (round, square, rectangular), sheets, and plates in various grades. Their product portfolio consists of three core product categories (Carbon Steel, Aluminum, and Stainless Steel Products) distributed through their main wholesale/service center, plus a separate Retail Outlet brand (tri-statesteelretail.com) for individual consumers with no minimum order requirements.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Carbon Steel Products Carbon steel in various shapes (round, hex, square, rectangle, angle, channel, I-beam, wide flange, pipe, round tube, square tube, rectangular tube, sheet, plate) used for structural framing, heavy equipment, general fabrication, machined parts, truck/trailer manufacturing, maintenance, metal furniture, and concrete reinforcement.
• Aluminum Products Aluminum in various shapes (round, hex, square, rectangle, angle, pipe, square tube, rectangular tube, sheet, plate) used for maintenance, manufactured parts, trailer skins, light fabrication, and projects requiring maximum strength, low weight, and/or corrosion resistance.
• Stainless Steel Products Stainless steel (T304/T316 grades) in various shapes (round, square, rectangle, angle, pipe, round tube, square tube, rectangular tube, sheet, plate) used for light manufacturing, healthcare, meat processing, breweries, and sanitation-conscious industries requiring corrosion resistance and easy sterilization.
• Tri-State Steel Retail Outlet Retail outlet offering metal sales to individual consumers and small businesses with no minimum order size, accessible at tri-statesteelretail.com. Enables quick small-quantity purchases without wholesale ordering requirements.

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Direct peers

• Metal Supermarkets: Metal Supermarkets is the closest direct peer — a metal service center franchise specializing in small-quantity, no-minimum metal distribution to a mix of SMB, contractor, and walk-in retail customers. Like Tri-State, it sells carbon, aluminum, and stainless in cut-to-size formats and serves local/regional markets with phone-based ordering.
• OnlineMetals.com: OnlineMetals is a direct peer in small-quantity metals distribution, selling cut-to-size metals (sheet, bar, tube, plate) in carbon, aluminum, stainless, and other alloys to hobbyists, fabricators, and small businesses via e-commerce — overlapping Tri-State's retail outlet value proposition with a much broader digital reach.

Broad incumbents

• Ryerson: Ryerson is a large North American metals service center distributing carbon, aluminum, stainless, and specialty grades with value-added processing. It is a broad incumbent that competes with Tri-State for larger fabricator and manufacturer accounts across the Southeast, though it does not focus on Tri-State's no-minimum SMB/hobbyist niche.
• Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. Reliance is one of the largest metals service center operators in North America, with a portfolio of subsidiary service centers covering carbon, stainless, aluminum, and specialty metals. It is a broad incumbent that competes with Tri-State for mid-market and enterprise customers in NC/VA, but operates at substantially greater scale and geographic breadth.
• O'Neal Steel: O'Neal Steel is a full-line metals service center distributing carbon, aluminum, and stainless products with cutting, processing, and fabrication services. It is a broad incumbent serving fabricators and manufacturers nationwide, overlapping with Tri-State's core product lines and customer types but at much larger scale.
• Kloeckner Metals: Kloeckner Metals is a global metals service center distributing steel, aluminum, and stainless products with processing and supply chain services. It competes with Tri-State for regional manufacturer and fabricator accounts while also serving much larger national and industrial customers.
• McMaster-Carr: McMaster-Carr is a broad industrial supplies distributor with a deep metals catalog including aluminum, steel, and stainless in standard forms. It serves a similar mix of SMB, maintenance, and fabrication customers as Tri-State but operates at massive scale with best-in-class e-commerce fulfillment.
• EMJ (Earle M. Jorgensen): EMJ is a national metals service center distributing carbon, alloy, aluminum, and stainless steel products with value-added processing. It is a broad incumbent serving manufacturers and fabricators with similar product breadth to Tri-State but at significantly larger scale and broader geographic coverage.

Regional players

• Eaton Steel Bar Company: Eaton Steel is a Midwest- and Mid-Atlantic-based metals service center specializing in carbon and alloy steel bar products. Comparable to Tri-State in its service-center distribution model and customer mix of fabricators and OEMs, though it operates in different geographies and focuses more narrowly on bar products.
• Totten Tubes: Totten Tubes is a steel pipe and tube distributor offering carbon, stainless, and aluminum tubing across standard and mechanical sizes. It is a regional player comparable to Tri-State's pipe/tube product line, though it specializes in tubular products and serves different geographic markets.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tri-State Steel