Norseman Structures

One of the many designs of Norseman Structures. — Photo courtesy Norseman Structures

Norseman Structures has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1921 as a manufacturer of outfitter and exploration tents, to its place today as one of the leading suppliers of steel-framed, fabric-covered buildings to the oil, gas and mining industries. With a long list of loyal clients that stretches around the world, one might wonder what makes Norseman successful. We got in touch with Norseman Structures vice-president of sales, Gerri Masciangelo, to find out the secret to the company’s long record of satisfied customers.

In the area of mining, I can think of a current customer that we’re working with that considers us to be a partner, not just a building vendor, and as such we’re planning for completion of 20 buildings before the end of the year. In some cases that customer solely sources us, but in many cases we are a trusted advisor to their building procurement process.
In the oil and gas sector, we’re presently working with a customer in the pipeline industry where we’re completing 17 buildings and we’re in discussion for another 25 buildings. These buildings cover pump stations and are designed to support a bridge crane that works to service their operations within the structure. That particular bridge crane application is all nicely incorporated within our final product. It’s a huge savings for the customer because they don’t have to design a foundation that supports a crane.

It really comes down to trust. We develop long-term relationships with these customers and the way we’ve done that is by doing what we say we’re going to do. Our brand promise motto is ‘Fiercely Reliable.’ We do that through a complete product and service offering that is dedicated to doing things the right way -- we produce a quality building and we deliver on time with quality service.

They put their trust in us because we operate in a trustworthy way; because we deliver on budget and on time, our customers call us back. We’re not always going to be the cheapest and our customers understand that. They also understand that if you want a building delivered on time, a quality product and quality service, it isn’t necessarily going to be the cheapest solution out there. It’s a factor of more than just price.

We provide a turnkey solution. Our crews are very aware of safety and quality issues required on site. Not all competitors have all the safety procedures and associated documents prepared and ready to allow them to get on site. Many of our customers have significant documents and requirements for both safety and quality. The secret to our success is being that trusted partner -- doing what we said we’re going to do and creating that trust.
The market is in a situation right now where the quality varies from one supplier to the next . We very much want our customers to understand issues that make a quality product versus a less-than-quality product. We’ve developed a white paper that identifies some of those factors a customer should be looking for when purchasing a building.

It comes down to how much steel is in that building. Let’s assume we put 25 percent more steel in our building than our competitor. It stands to reason that our cost is going to be higher. So look for the tonnage of steel, as well as the fit and finish. And if it’s important, what is the company’s safety record; do they have all their documentation in place for safety and quality?

We’re going to continue down this same path. We want to develop long-term relationships with our customers. The way we do that is to be a trusted advisor and provide that customer the right building solution; whether that ends up being a fabric-clad building, a metal-clad building or a combination of the two. We want to continue down this path of developing relationships with these customers who are by and large global companies.