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GoExpedi scaling model to disrupt middleman-based supply chain in oilfield equipment

Company upending how parts, machinery being delivered in oil patch operations and growing in other manufacturing

John Kingston
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GoExpedi CEO and co-founder Tim Neal sits down with FreightWaves to discuss the company’s approach. 

This fireside chat recap is from Thursday, the third day of FreightWaves’ Global Supply Chain Week.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Disrupting the oilfield equipment supply chain 

DETAILS: Distributing oilfield parts and equipment has long been the classic structure of a manufacturer selling to a physical distributor that then sells that inventory on to the final user. GoExpedi, an e-commerce-based company, is trying to cut out that middleman and using machine learning to also better manage customer needs. CEO and co-founder Tim Neal sits down with FreightWaves to discuss the company’s approach. 

KEY QUOTES FROM NEAL:


“What GoExpedi is focused on is disruption in this brick-and-mortar world. We’re focused on the remote industrial supply chain.”

“If you look at ordering from a traditional distributor, they have a catalog that is their inventory. We took a different approach. We digitized the industry’s PDF catalog and built an e-commerce platform for our customers. So no longer are you making a phone call and somebody in the back is checking the SKUs for you. We put that in the hands of the end user. “

“We took an approach similar to Amazon. They started with books. We also started with very specific product categories and built out our product portfolio. “

“We have six locations and 97% coverage throughout the U.S. for deliveries in four days because we operate a hub-and-spoke model.”


John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.