Scranton, Cole Specialty Steel Pipe Manufacturing.
David Cole sat in his somewhat dated office, leisurely sipping a cup of coffee as he watched the bustling production lines in the factory through the glass window.
He had been running this factory for twenty years.
For a very long time, he'd had to grovel just to get by.
His main clients were the energy giants drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale Area.
The purchasing managers for those giants were incredibly arrogant. Banking on the sheer volume of their orders, they squeezed his prices down to nothing.
David could only struggle to survive on meager profit margins, constantly on guard against them using "supply chain optimization" as an excuse to shift orders to cheaper overseas contractors.
He had grown used to forcing smiles and chasing late payments.
He had assumed this would continue until his factory went bankrupt, or he got out of the business altogether.
The turning point came two years ago.
