Nucor expands steel racking business

Steel producer Nucor has acquired steel racking firm Elite Storage Solutions for $75 million, the company said this week. The deal complements Nucor’s existing steel racking business, which it acquired last year with the purchase of Hannibal Industries, now Hannibal, a Nucor company.

Elite Storage Solutions has manufacturing operations in Monroe, Ga., a distribution center in Chandler, Ariz., and employs 180 people. The company will become a division of Hannibal and will go to market as Elite, a Nucor company, according to Hannibal’s National Sales Manager Eric Andres, who will be responsible for the commercial business of both brands. Dave Olmstead, Hannibal's vice president and general manager, will have overall responsibility for both groups, Andres said.

“The Elite Storage transaction will complement the full range of services [we provide]—manufacturing, design, installation. And it will also give us a coast-to-coast manufacturing footprint,” according to Andres, adding that the deal allows Hannibal to provide a “sustainable, reliable, uninterrupted supply of racking products to the market.”

With the acquisition, Nucor’s steel racking business now has manufacturing operations in Los Angeles, Houston, and Georgia.

“We are excited to grow our steel racking capabilities with this acquisition of Elite Storage Solutions. Establishing a manufacturing presence in the southeast complements our existing steel racking business and allows us to serve our racking customers nationwide more efficiently,” Giff Daughtridge, president of Sheet and Tubular Products for Nucor, said in a press statement Tuesday. “Elite was founded and operated by the South family since the early 1980's and in partnership with the Stein family, owners of Triple-S Steel, since 2017. This acquisition provides a growth platform for the Elite team as well as for Nucor.”