Andrew Dervin is the president of Valencia Pipe Co., which he founded in 2007 to be both a manufacturer sales-representative and a product distribution company for plastic pipes and other plumbing-related products.
His company has experienced tremendous growth in its manufacturing and distribution divisions, which Dervin says happened both organically and by adding new product lines.
Valencia Pipe grew 79% between 2020 and 2022, which puts it at No. 5 on the Business Journal’s list of Fastest Growing Companies.
Prior to founding Valencia Pipe Co., Dervin worked for PMC Global, a diversified manufacturing company in Sun Valley, starting in sales and working his way up to become president of its plastic pipe-manufacturing division.
Why has your company grown so quickly?
Customer service, supplying good quality products and being customer-centric has enabled us to grow our business by servicing our customers.
What are your particular challenges of fast growth? Recruiting enough skilled people? The drive to expand supply chains? Acquiring enough space for your expanding needs?
All of those things. And in addition, being able to fund a growing business has been one of our difficulties. Being able to have capital to be able to expand as fast as our growth.
Growing companies often relocate out of California. Do you think that trend will continue?
I believe that companies will continue to expand outside of California. California is very difficult to grow your business in by the utilities companies being 18 months out on power, on taxes, on the environmental side of the business and all the different issues you may have.
We have expanded into Arizona, where we were able to open up a facility and be up and going in under 90 days. We’re currently in Arizona, Washington, and now we’re expanding into Oklahoma.
There’s been a long-standing prediction of a recession. Do you believe one is coming soon? If so, what have you done to prepare for it? How do you project it will affect you?
In our business, we’ve always been forward thinking. So, I believe there will be a slowdown in our particular industry; however, our growth strategy is to bring in new products and new ideas to our customer base to continue to grow our business, even in the slowdown.
If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?
Nothing. The short answer is nothing. I think that we’ve had a good strategy, we have a good team, and we like to go out and service our customers and grow our business.
What’s the most important piece of advice you’d offer to another leader whose company is experiencing fast growth?
Stay loyal to your customer base. Be focused on your customer. And continue to just keep on expanding and pushing forward through different difficulties.