Macomb Blog

Three years ago, The Macomb Group’s Akron, Ohio, facility in Richfield served customers out of a space measuring just 14,000 square feet. When that space became inadequate, Macomb moved to a 35,000-square-foot facility with cranes. Now, just two years later, we’ve outgrown that space too! We’ve just acquired a 75,000-square-foot building that we expect to house our growing inventory and personnel well into the future.

At The Macomb Group there are no dead-end projects. The DTE Energy Monroe Power Plant was pleased to discover this when it was recently faced with the potential replacement of 30 valve assemblies. With the help and innovation of The Macomb Group, DTE saved more than $2,000 per valve assembly — a potential savings of over $60,000 if all 30 valves were replaced.

“Gaskets aren't sexy,” says Dan Titus, the “Gasket Whisperer” at Flexitallic, a partner of The Macomb Group. Dan says that gaskets are often an afterthought in pipe system designs. However, selecting the right gasket for a job is critical.

In today’s economy energy is money. You can either send your money into the atmosphere or keep it in your pocket; it’s your call.

Behind the need to save energy are big-picture issues such as significant environmental concerns about air quality, the ozone layer, global climate change, and clean water. But, on a personal level, saving energy means cutting costs to increase profits.

DTE Energy is converting its water filtering system to John Deere Greentech self-cleaning filters to increase plant efficiency and reduce man-hours for maintenance.

The plant uses Detroit River water in its heat exchangers to cool the plant’s equipment. Having used traditional filters, Larry Roberts, Work Management Specialist at DTE Energy was dissatisfied with the many man-hours required to keep the heat exchanger filters clean.

In 1977, The Macomb Group operated a pipe supply business out of a single facility. Today, we are a Top 10 Industrial Pipe, Valve, and Fitting (PVF) supplier with 15 stocking locations, and a 375,000 square-foot corporate headquarters that sits on 26 acres with a rail line. When Bill McGivern, Keith Schatko, and Doug Howe bought the company in 1991, our revenue was $1 million. Today, yearly sales are nearly $150 million. Many of our vendors wonder, “How has The Macomb Group continued to grow while the others have failed or reduced their size?”

One of the main things we point to is our people. In 1991, Bill, Keith, and Doug had a plan: They wanted The Macomb Group to be known for its superior customer service. With that as a starting point, everything else fell into place.

Alma College has replaced 45 circulating pumps in its boiler heating system, saving approximately $90,000 in energy costs per year.

The turnaround was led by Alma College Energy Engineer Brandon Smith. Brandon didn’t have a background in energy when he started his position at the college, which turned out to be an enormous advantage. As he examined the college’s energy system, he broke all the rules, bringing in a fresh approach to facilities management. He started by utilizing the Macomb Energy Resource Integration Team (M.E.R.I.T.) to identify potential system savings. M.E.R.I.T. took a whole system approach to analyzing how the college could reduce energy costs — and the findings were significant.

The Macomb Group, a Michigan-based PVF distributor, recently announced it has joined national PVF buying group Delta Distributors — the only exclusive national PVF buying group that concentrates on PVF wholesalers in non-competing major areas in the United States. Macomb was recently ranked as the 12th largest national PVF wholesaler.

Chuck wants you to get to know us better!

Visit The Macomb Group’s updated website, www.macombgroup.com, to explore our company story, products, capabilities, initiatives, and services.

The Macomb Group is now able to handle your custom stainless steel flexible hose requirements.

• Welded metal hose from ½" - 6". Please call for larger diameters.
• Custom lengths to meet your metal hose specification.
• Standard and custom end connections welded to your metal hose assembly.
• Temperature range from ‐320F to 1500 F.
• Pressure range up to 5800 psi.
• Good for many applications including: Chemical metal hoses, pump connectors,
• Steam hose, high temperature hoses, natural gas hoses, etc.