Bob Swift This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Cascade Business News

   www.cascadebusinessnews.com/bu - [Cached]

   Published on: 12/15/2001   Last Visited: 9/11/2002

   Bob Swift can vividly remember his fa- ther, Jim, and contractor Arland Keeton of Sisters salvaging through metal scrap iron at his father's modest salvage yard in Terrebonne.
   ...
   Bob was a student at Redmond High School and his father was struggling to make a transition from the family's dairy and hay farm to the world of steel and piping.
   
   After attending Central Oregon Community College Bob helped construct the business offices on the 2 ½-acre lot along southeast Evergreen Avenue that would someday evolve into the largest steel distributor and warehouse in Central Oregon.
   
   Now celebrating its 25th year of operation, Bob Swift is the very hands-on owner of the company that includes 13 employees, a 28,000-square foot warehouse, two yards, eight forklifts, four delivery trucks and enough inventory to sell or deliver 20 to 25 tons of steel every day.
   
   "I always thought at best, this was never going to be more than a three or four-man operation," said Swift, who took over the daily operation of the company three years ago when his father retired. "It's scary how much we've grown. We have nearly 3,000 accounts on the books."
   
   Bob Swift learned the business from the ground up after attending auto mechanics classes. He drove the company's semi trucks to Portland, picking up products at specialty warehouses or from the Mill Depot. Later, he serviced the company's growing inventory of trucks and machinery and then delivered and cut steel. He finally graduated to handling, shipping and receiving in the warehouse.
   
   "Some days, we have three or four trucks delivering product to us and we've grown to the point where we make deliveries to Bend twice a day and deliveries to Madras, Prineville and Sisters twice a week," he said.