Below is an excerpt from a recent interview published by ICIS featuring our president, Amanda Bagley
NACD: A Minute with Amanda Bagley
Amanda Bagley is president of Bedford Specialty Sales, Inc., a Massachusetts-based distributor of specialty chemicals. Founded 16 years ago, its six employees serve all the New England states and upstate New York.
What have been among the most significant changes in the industry since Bedford was founded?
I think the biggest change we’ve seen is the consolidation among chemical producers and as they merge, their distribution plans normally change. It’s become a trend in our industry to increase your footprint. A lot of distributors have also merged in recent years so we’ve seen a lot of these super regionals and mega-sized multinationals appear. However, we’ve found the larger distributors can’t provide the same levels of personalized service, particularly for the specialty chemicals side of the industry. We’ve found this has actually been an opportunity for Bedford as this is where we excel. We’ve built our business around personalized technical service. As a smaller company, we’ve found our niche.