What Goes Around: Bill Merrill on Leading International Wire
Before Bill Merrill became President of International Wire, he led Owl Wire and Cable, one of five wire and cable businesses he oversaw within the Marmon Group. In 2019, Owl Wire and Cable was acquired by International Wire.
“What goes around comes around,” Merrill says, of landing at International Wire, which is a preview of how he thinks about the Wire & Cable industry itself, which is interconnected, cyclical, and worth staying in for the long haul.
Two Decades of P&L and Manufacturing Leadership Prior to International Wire
Merrill started his career with Otis Elevator, another American industrial manufacturer where he worked his way up the corporate ladder through a series of functional leadership roles after initially starting his career in sales. Other companies he’s been with throughout his tenure are Stanley and the Marmon Group, where he ran several businesses, some of them in wire and cable.
After decades of P&L and manufacturing leadership, what attracted Merrill to International Wire was not the market opportunity; it was the culture. “Whenever you have a transparent organization, politics don’t occur,” he says. “You embrace the truth and face the facts, and then you develop the strategy. That’s the easiest way to get things done.” He describes an environment where the whole truth gets told, even when it isn’t good news because that’s the only way problems actually get solved.
An Opportunity Bigger Than the Company
Merrill sees the next several years being shaped by electrification. “It’s growing faster than global GDP for the foreseeable future.” In North America, electrification growth shows up as commercial construction, AI-driven data center buildout, and a wave of communications infrastructure upgrades touching everything from aircraft to satellites. For International Wire there is an opportunity to expand the role the company plays within the value chain.
“If we’re part of that value chain, which we are, and we expand the products and services we offer in it, given our history of our ability to serve and perform and deliver quality product, that’s the biggest opportunity for us,” Merrill says.
Manufacturing’s Biggest Constraint: People
The flip side of the infrastructure boom, is that we’re seeing demand isn’t letting up. International Wire’s backlog is at its highest level in three years, and Merrill mentioned that he is not seeing the typical seasonality of wire and cable, because we’re seeing long-term infrastructure commitments, not short-term orders.
The biggest constraint in manufacturing might surprise people; it isn’t access to raw material, and it isn’t equipment. “You can buy equipment, but if you don’t have people to run the equipment, it’s really hard to produce the quantity of wire we make,” he says. “Our biggest challenge right now is finding really good people, and more of them.”
He’s also candid about the larger economic picture, like tariffs, that help U.S. manufacturing “tariffs on countries outside the US make our market more attractive to buyers who want US-made product. That’s good for our business.” Commodity prices haven’t been stable either; both silver and copper prices have swung wildly over the past year. It’s the kind of volatility every manufacturer is having to rethink in real time, International Wire included.
What Customers Count On
We asked Merrill what customers count on International Wire for, and he doesn’t have to think long for a response. “If you order from International Wire, you know you’re going to get high quality, and we’re going to do what we say we’re going to do, when we say we’ll do it,” he says. “In a world of increasingly complex supply chains, that kind of reliability is something people really value.”
But reliability is only part of the value Merrill believes International Wire can provide. The company’s technical teams routinely work directly with customers to solve manufacturing and production challenges. That can mean going to a customer’s facility to troubleshoot an issue rather than simply supplying the conductor specified on a purchase order. “That level of commitment is not done by everybody,” he notes.
As customers’ products and supply chains become more complex, Merrill believes that a combination of manufacturing scale, technical expertise and customer support will become increasingly important.
What’s Next for International Wire?
Merrill’s ambition for International Wire is clear: to set the standard for conductor manufacturing and customer service globally.
When asked what’s next for International Wire, Merrill doesn’t hesitate, “There’s no question in my mind that we are already the best premier provider of conductor in the world, and will continue to be that,” he says. “We’re going to be the global-leader. We’re going to show people how you should do business in this world, because we’re world-class.”
For Merrill, however, being world-class isn’t simply about growth or market position. It also comes down to the value of manufacturing something tangible, and understanding where that product ultimately goes. International Wire conductors are used in applications ranging from everyday vehicles and communication systems to advanced aerospace applications. That connection between the factory floor and the technologies people rely on gives manufacturing work a larger purpose.
“A service model can be good, of course, but a better model is to actually make something, and then serve it,” he says. “When you have a purpose to your job, you feel better about what you do.” As electrification reshapes infrastructure and industry, International Wire intends to keep doing exactly that: manufacturing the conductors customers depend on while building the people, capabilities, and culture needed for what’s next.
Watch Bill Merrill discuss how International Wire benefits from being part of Pantheon Electric’s global electrical infrastructure platform.
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