Virginia-based aluminum extrusion company and billet manufacturing plant Service Center Metals (SCM) has historically been a place where its workers, much like the company itself, can grow their careers from within to greater success. As an example of this, both Cody Lofland and Paul Yohe began at SCM as lab technicians overseeing quality control in its extrusion facility, both eventually working their way to the sales department. Continuing his upward momentum, Yohe has recently been promoted to inside sales manager.
Lofland says that the company as a whole is always expanding and staying aggressive about its goals, often juggling several projects at a time. SCM also continues to invest significant amounts of time and money in the ability to help its customers grow and expand, especially in light of customer feedback on what companies like SCM can do to benefit the extrusion industry.
In many respects, the continued success of SCM speaks for itself. Lofland says that for over two decades, the company has been an industry-leading aluminum extrusion provider as well as the largest independent supplier of billets in the North American extrusion industry, with approximately half a billion dollars in annual sales revenue. With 880,000 square feet, four separate buildings, and proudly calling Prince George, Virginia its home base, the business has managed to grow through both expanding and contracting business cycles, and shows no signs of slowing down.
SCM has kept busy since we featured the company in Manufacturing in Focus in 2024, with myriad projects completed and ongoing, including assisting on a project for Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Proudly serving as an active participant in educational efforts that focus on the manufacturing sector, SCM has provided Liberty with the materials it needs to finish projects, such as aluminum of different sizes and types as well as various extrusions. This year, LU was grateful for the donation that went toward machining parts for a Formula race car, which will compete in an international Formula competition in Michigan. SCM makes ongoing efforts to provide its materials and expertise to promote manufacturing and aluminum extrusion across educational institutions.
Much like its partnership with Liberty University, the business is mindful of being open to and giving back to its local community, as well as to its valued workers. Lofland says that the company relishes the opportunity to open its doors to the local community whenever it has a major expansion or anniversary, allowing everyone to join in the festivities. SCM is also a consistent presence at career days at local high schools, promoting the industry to younger minds on their first steps toward a career; as Lofland says, “It’s cool to see the next generation of kids interested in things like this.”
Having been in business now for around 23 years, growing from a startup with a handful of employees to now a considerably larger business of about 420 workers, SCM knows the value of the health of its people. Only a few years ago, the business celebrated its 20th anniversary with the addition of an on-site health clinic that offers healthcare to both its employees and their extended family members. Allowing workers’ families the ability to get physicals and have prescriptions filled in-house has further added to its value as an employer, Lofland says, and is still a big point of pride for the organization.
As an extrusion company, SCM prides itself on its commitment to sustainable manufacturing practices. “Our business model is about as green as you can get,” Lofland says, at least as far as how SCM functions as a business. The company takes scrap aluminum bound for a landfill, melts it, and casts it into its own raw material. It then sells that material as a billet and uses it in aluminum extrusions for critical applications like the military, building construction, transportation, consumer durables, electrical, and machining equipment markets. In some cases, the SCM product is made out of an industry-leading 90 percent recycled content.
These practices have enabled the company to introduce products like the SCM Emerald Eco-Billet, an example of its commitment to using renewable materials and maintaining environmentally friendly manufacturing methods.
Lofland says that 2025 has been a volatile year for aluminum so far, with a lot of price fluctuations that influence demand on a month-to-month basis. He also says that aluminum is a speculative commodity to a certain extent that is subject to upward or downward pressure on price given events like upsets in the supply chain, major trade negotiations, or trade talks, all of which have been evident this year. In spite of these factors, SCM has seen strong business conditions and continues to be satisfied with the demand out there in the market.
2025 has also seen that some North American businesses who rely heavily on foreign materials have been thrown into turmoil following tariff decisions at the federal level; however, SCM has found itself in a fortunate position because of such decisions. Yohe says that programs like the Build America Buy America Act, which incentivize products made in the United States, have been a boon for SCM because the company melts and manufactures its own raw materials and extrusions out of its Virginia home base.
Recent successes have promoted a mindset of positivity toward the company’s continued growth. Yohe says that North American manufacturing was previously in a long recessionary environment from 2023 to 2024, but the company is optimistic about this year and what’s in store for the future. Contrary to some other companies’ experience, the American tariffs have played a positive impact on SCM’s aluminum business because now, people are looking for high-quality, high-service suppliers in the U.S. at a much higher rate than usual.
Yohe tells us that some market analysts have been predicting contraction in North American manufacturing, but SCM thinks that this year into 2030 will see incremental increases. Lofland says that while the manufacturing market was moving into these retraction conditions, SCM was steadily fine-tuning its processes and equipment and adding to its output capacity; now, the team is poised for when the demand returns and the market continues to strengthen, as the company will have greater output capacity than ever before to service the incoming demand.
For the rest of 2025, “SCM looks forward to servicing its customers’ needs while the demand for aluminum is there,” Lofland says, as well as working on its equipment projects leading up to the end of year. The company has made investments in two very significant equipment upgrades which will increase its capacity and capabilities for customers and will be finished by Q1 2026. These upgrades will allow SCM to come out of the gates strong at the start of the year and let the aluminum flow, as Lofland says. A proven track record of customer satisfaction and weathering storms in the extrusion industry have afforded SCM an enviable place within it, allowing this team to continue to benefit both the environment at large and anyone in the market for the best in aluminum extrusion.
