Our people around the world are what make Special Piping Materials great! Our customers and supply chain partners often comment on our friendly, helpful and efficient staff.
Special Piping Materials’ Houston office first opened in 2008 and since then has experienced great success and has been involved with many large projects across the North American region.
The company is now known for its 60,000 sq. ft warehouse which stocks one of the largest inventories of Duplex and Super Duplex pipe, fittings and flanges in North America. The team has new high-quality stock arriving every week and is always striving to service the high expectations of the team’s expansive client base.
The future looks bright for the SPM Texas office, with expansion looking likely and new clients regularly coming on board.
Of course, no team would be complete without an excellent accountancy team, and Imelda Santos has been a key part of our accountancy team for five years. Let’s find out a little bit more about her!
- How long have you worked with SPM?
On February 18th 2024 I will have been employed here for 5 years!
- What role are you currently in?
I am the Houston office accountant
- Can you give us an overview of your career so far?
I graduated from the University of Houston Downtown with my Bachelors degree, all while working in the accounting department at Houston Truck Parts, where I was for 12 years. I then moved to Special Piping Materials and have been here in the accountancy team for the last five years.
- What’s your favourite (and least favourite) day-to-day task?
Finding discrepancies in billing or charges is my favourite day-to-day task, while my least favourite is having to do collections when customers fall behind in paying – I hate those awkward conversations!
- What made you want to work for SPM?
I was first attracted to SPM because the office is close to my house which is very convenient, and now I love the close family-style culture we have here – we’ve all got each other’s backs and it’s a fun environment to work in.
- What is your focus at the moment in your role?
No two days are ever the same here! They are full of billing jobs, collecting payments, managing banking, organising payroll, paying Suppliers, purchase invoicing and many more tasks besides.
- What does a typical ‘day in the sales office’ look like?
A typical day in our accounting office starts with billing out jobs, entering bills, and matching purchase invoices to jobs, we then usually move on to entering payments and answering customer inquiries. Then we see where the day takes us!
- What do you think the future holds for the piping world?
We had a great year in 2023, and we are all hoping for an even better 2024.
- What keeps you motivated at work each day?
The collective goal here is to grow as a company and as individuals. We all work together to help each other to achieve this.
- How do you relax after a hard day’s work in the office?
At the moment, there is not too much time for relaxing as I am a mother of two small children – a 5-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy.
When I’m not working, I like to spend as much time with my children as possible whether it be, playing, helping with homework, or reading bedtime stories.
- If you had to choose another office around the world to work in, which would it be and why?
Manchester… because that’s the main hub where it all started and it would be great to see how it operates.
Thanks for being part of Special Piping Materials Imelda!