Airgas Inc. agrees to buy P.G. Walker

In a sales contract expected to complement both parties' businesses, Airgas Inc. of Radnor, Pa., has contracted to buy P.G. Walker Inc.

The local acquisition is part of Airgas' $270 million national acquisition of the U.S. gas distribution business of Air Pro-ducts and Chemicals Inc. of Al-lentown, Pa.

Air Products, a Fortune 400 company, bought P.G. Walker in 1995 from John Wyrsch and made it a distribution division for the gas-production company.

The sale closing is expected to be announced at the end of February after regulatory re-view is completed, said Jim Ely, of the Airgas public relations department.

P.G. Walker, at 1404 W. Col-lege, supplies all gases for industrial uses, such as oxygen, acetylene, argon, helium, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, according to its Web site. It also provides welding equipment repair, custom automation, used and reconditioned equipment, and offers technical support in the welding process and associated areas.

There will be 90 local em-ployees affected, according to Beth K. Mentesana, of Air Pro-ducts. Ely, speaking for Airgas, said that the company "plans to keep all the customers and most of the employees."

The plan is to roll P.G. Walker "into our regional company structure. Springfield will be in-tegrated into the Airgas Mid-south region headquarters in Tulsa." Airgas has 12 regional offices, Ely said.

He said that the Air Products' divestiture of P.G. Walker will allow it to focus on its core bus-iness, gas production. Robert E. Gadomski, executive vice president of Air Products' Gases & Equipment Group, said "We will look to redirect resources and focus on high-growth businesses where we've built core competencies and leadership positions."

He described Air Products as a "producer of gases, chemicals and services for the global electronics industry; the world's leading supplier of hydrogen, used widely in the refining and chemical process industries; the world's leading supplier of helium, used in areas such as MRI and fiber optics; and a major supplier of products and services in the growing health care segment."

To help each other, Airgas and Air Products have signed long-term national supply agreements to expand each one's ability to market products and services. "We are playing to the strength of both organizations," Ely said.

Airgas will supply Air Products' resale packaged gas needs, while Air Products will supply bulk gases to Airgas.

Air Products will keep its electronic gases and magnetic resonance imaging-related helium operations. The sale won't involve the company's other businesses, such as tonnage/on-site, merchant liquid bulk, electronic gases, liquid helium or its non-U.S. packaged gas business.

Included in the acquisition are about 100 facilities in 30 states associated with the filling and distribution of cylinders, liquid dewars, tube trailers and other containers of industrial gases and non-electronic specialty gases.

Airgas also acquired Air Products' retail business in welding hard goods, including customer service centers, warehouses and other related assets.

The overall assets in the proposed sale generated about $233 million in revenues for Air Products in fiscal 2001 and em-ployed about 1,100 workers. Airgas expects about 76 percent of future revenues to be from gas sales and cylinder rent. The remaining income will be from welding hard goods and supplies. The added revenue would increase the overall Airgas business mix to 52 percent gas and rent.

In a separate transaction, Air Products would sell its package gas operations in the Carolinas and southern Virginia to National Welders Supply Company Inc. Those operations involve nine sites that generated $17 million in revenues in fiscal 2001 and employ about 100 people.

P.G. Walker was founded in 1933 by Phineas G. Walker in Joplin. His son, Charles, worked for the company until his death in 1979.

The company's first Springfield store, which distributed welding gases, opened in 1935.

Ludy Wyrsch and John Rice purchased the company in 1954. When Rice retired, Wyrsch and his son, John, bought Rice's stock.

In 1985, the firm expanded into a 30,000-square-foot building, adding other related businesses to the company as it grew.

In 1988, P.G. Walker expanded to West Plains and Springdale, Ark., and in 1990, to Joplin where it acquired Burnidge Welding.

That acquisition also took P.G. Walker into Oklahoma and Kansas. Under Air Products' ownership, P.G. Walker op-ened branches in Dallas and Mesquite, Texas, in 1998.