Peter McCausland, Executive Chairman of Airgas, discusses the structural change in the US gases business over the last 25 years — something in which the company has blazed a trail en route to its position today as a major industry player.
When CryoGas International began in earnest in 1990, Airgas, Inc. was a relatively new entrant to the US gases business. The company was established as a “nest egg” investment by ex-Messer employee Peter McCausland in 1982 via the acquisition of Connecticut Oxygen Corporation (Connox). It was a fitting start for US Airgas, as it was originally known.
Realizing that the distribution side of the industrial gas business in the US was ripe for consolidation, McCausland led Airgas along a path of smaller acquisitions and rapid revenue growth. By the 1990s, the company had absorbed nearly one hundred acquisitions and had generated both the cash flow and borrowing capacity to continue the aggressive development strategy that CryoGas would go on to document throughout its news pages.
It’s a journey that has served Airgas well. When viewed alongside many of its industrial gas contemporaries, it is still a youthful company — but Airgas is today the largest distributor of packaged industrial, medical and specialty gases, as well as welding and cutting equipment, and one of the largest distributors of safety supplies in the US. As the leading consolidator in the last 25 years, Airgas also exemplifies the evolution in the US gases market over this timeframe, shifting toward a more vertically integrated marketplace.
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