C & L Metal Sales

C & L Metal Sales is the first women owned and operated Steel Supply Company. It has been a challenge to be able to grow the business to what it is today.

The company opened on 10/01/2001 by owner, Cindy Scott, with just a Ford Ranger and 100.00. Thanks to a few suppliers that had faith in what she was trying to do they helped her in getting the material that she had orders for. Cindy knew that there was a need for a company to be able to supply material to customers within 2 hours. As a FULL Service Supplier I would do what it took to get the job done. This is what she decided that she would base her company on, even taking on a few challenges of buying lunch if the material was not delivered within set time. The closest to the set time was 2 mins normally the material arrived 5 min before the delivery time. So all lunch bets were paid for by the customer.

Within a few months she had to purchase a ladder rack to go on the pickup so that the material could now be delivered to the customers direct. Around 9 months later she was given a small 4x5 utility trailer which she was able to have modified to 4 x 10 flat trailer to be able to haul sheets and plate.

In 2003 the company had grown enough that Cindy traded a ¾ ton Suburban for a 1 ton Chevy Pickup and an 18’ car trailer. The first thing to do was to modify the bigger pickup and trailer to be able to haul steel to the growing numbers of customers. Because of the pickup now being able to haul more we offered Sat deliveries. This also opened up to late delivers/custom shipments, not the normal 8-5 anymore. With the help of suppliers we were able to get loaded up after hours and be able to make the special deadline, if we were not able to make it before they closed.

By 2005 it was apparent that the pickup and trailer setup was not going to work much longer. So the hunt for something bigger started. With the help of a few people ended up with a 1987 Ford 7000 with an 18’ft flat bed. This flatbed truck would now allow C & L Metal Sales to really grow. Now the loads got bigger and heavier. This also put a demand on having to meet all delivery times. To the point of driving to Seattle on a Friday night, arriving back in Portland around midnight. Then to get up early to get the material delivered to Cascade Locks by 8:00 am the next morning.

Since then the company has purchased a 1993 International Flat Bed, 2003 Ford F250 having to retire the ¾ ton pickup and the 1987 Ford. After much thought Cindy decided it was time to add on fabrication ability to the company. So in 2010 she hired a welder, which in turn also become another driver to deliver material. With having now 2 drivers the orders could get delivered in a faster timely matter.

C & L Metal Sales can now offer fabrication such as welding, cutting to size, drilling holes, and deliveries to job site or small shop.