PIPELINE NEWS August 2012
A9
MRC trying to make splash in the Energy City trust your staff,” noted Chrest. “You make a mistake, it’s not good. You need them to give you a chance, to come in and see what you’ve got. From there you got to work hard to make sure you get them the right
stuff in a timely manner. “Because the store is fairly new in town, we’re just trying to break in. We’ve had a presence in Weyburn and Carlyle for a number of years and this kind of helps fill a gap between the
two.” As Estevan is geographically in the centre of those towns, the new store gives MRC a more complete presence in the oil-rich southeast. ɸ Page A10
MRC MidĮeld sales rep Taybrey White completes an order with a customer in the warehouse.
By Jordan Baker for Pipeline News Estevan — Building a base for oilfield supply sales isn’t the easiest thing to do, even in an area of the province where the oil industry shapes the day. But MRC Midfield set up shop in Estevan and has since been building a client list at a steady pace. Blaine Chrest, branch manager of Estevan location, said the operation has been coming into its own in the past few months, getting a foot in the door of the competitive retail side of the oilfield. “Whatever business you get into, you always want to see the business grow,” said Chrest. “We had our first milliondollar month in June. It was a pretty big step for our store, and our corporate people were pretty happy to see that. I told them, ‘Now that we have one, we want our second one, and hopefully by fall we get into the $2-million month.’ That’s my goal.”
He added that the staff was very proud of the milestone. “They took ownership in it, and they were proud of being involved in it. It’s very nice to see. We have a great staff here. They do take pride in their work.” Chrest commended Mel Fitzpatrick, the manager of the MRC branch in Carlyle, who got the store together in Estevan and hired the group that is in there now. Chrest has been managing the Estevan store since April. “It’s been a pretty easy transformation in here, and I’m trying to build on what he started,” Chrest said of his first quarter at the store. In order to build, the new group still needs to win some people over, but Chrest said they are still breaking in and collecting contracts from local companies. Building relationships with the oil companies in the area is the key to what they are
doing, as they are still in the early stages of getting known to the area’s players. “The biggest part of it is to get them to
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