Ed DeStefano is owner of a new store, Metal Supermarkets, in Danbury, Conn. It is promoting itself as a one-stop shop specializing in sales and distribution of all types and ranges of metal including hot and cold rolled, aluminum, copper, brass and stainless in bars, tubes, angles, channel, sheet and plate. Monday, August 22, 2022.

DANBURY — A Sandy Hook businessman who left the corporate world during the coronavirus crisis to do something exciting until retirement has opened the state’s first Metal Supermarket in downtown Danbury.

“It’s a thing of beauty when something just works; that’s the kind of satisfaction that drives us all,” said Ed DeStefano, 56, a former technology executive with an engineering background who sees himself as a troubleshooter as much as a vendor of small-order metals. “My biggest strength is my ability to solve problems.”

DeStefano is referring to a business now in its third month that caters to everyone from the carting company needing hot rolled steel to repair trash bins to a recently opened custom car service on Danbury’s west side needing small pieces of custom metal to refurbish one-of-a-kind automobiles.

“Our model caters to everybody — so we provide solutions for the do-it-yourselfers, but 80 percent of our customers are business-to-business,” DeStefano said. “We’re developing partnerships with (municipalities) and businesses such as welding shops that do custom railings, staircases, and deck fences.”

The key to the Metals Supermarket model, which has 100 franchises in the United States, Canada and Britain, is that there is no minimum order, so contractors buy only what they need, DeStefano said.

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Square tube stock, it’s gage indicated by color on its ends, at Metal Supermarkets, in Danbury, Conn. Metal Supermarkets is promoting itself as a one-stop shop specializing in sales and distribution of all types and ranges of metal including hot and cold rolled, aluminum, copper, brass and stainless in bars, tubes, angles, channel, sheet and plate. Monday, August 22, 2022.

Ed DeStefano is owner of a new store, Metal Supermarkets, in Danbury, Conn. Metal Supermarkets is promoting itself as a one-stop shop specializing in sales and distribution of all types and ranges of metal including hot and cold rolled, aluminum, copper, brass and stainless in bars, tubes, angles, channel, sheet and plate. Monday, August 22, 2022.

A shear machine at Metal Supermarkets, in Danbury, Conn, is used to cut sheets of stainless and aluminum. Metal Supermarkets is promoting itself as a one-stop shop specializing in sales and distribution of all types and ranges of metal including hot and cold rolled, aluminum, copper, brass and stainless in bars, tubes, angles, channel, sheet and plate. Monday, August 22, 2022.

Metal stock at Metal Supermarkets, in Danbury, Conn. Metal Supermarkets is promoting itself as a one-stop shop specializing in sales and distribution of all types and ranges of metal including hot and cold rolled, aluminum, copper, brass and stainless in bars, tubes, angles, channel, sheet and plate. Monday, August 22, 2022.

Ed DeStefano is owner of a new store, Metal Supermarkets, in Danbury, Conn. Metal Supermarkets is promoting itself as a one-stop shop specializing in sales and distribution of all types and ranges of metal including hot and cold rolled, aluminum, copper, brass and stainless in bars, tubes, angles, channel, sheet and plate. Monday, August 22, 2022.

Ed DeStefano is owner of a new store, Metal Supermarkets, in Danbury, Conn. Metal Supermarkets is promoting itself as a one-stop shop specializing in sales and distribution of all types and ranges of metal including hot and cold rolled, aluminum, copper, brass and stainless in bars, tubes, angles, channel, sheet and plate. Monday, August 22, 2022.

Kyle Kmetz, right, and Jonathan Moniz, left, at Customer Service Representatives , CSR’s, at a new store, Metal Supermarkets, in Danbury, Conn. Metal Supermarkets is promoting itself as a one-stop shop specializing in sales and distribution of all types and ranges of metal including hot and cold rolled, aluminum, copper, brass and stainless in bars, tubes, angles, channel, sheet and plate. Monday, August 22, 2022.

Square tube stock, it’s gage indicated by color on its ends, at Metal Supermarkets, in Danbury, Conn. Metal Supermarkets is promoting itself as a one-stop shop specializing in sales and distribution of all types and ranges of metal including hot and cold rolled, aluminum, copper, brass and stainless in bars, tubes, angles, channel, sheet and plate. Monday, August 22, 2022.

Ed DeStefano is owner of a new store, Metal Supermarkets, in Danbury, Conn. Metal Supermarkets is promoting itself as a one-stop shop specializing in sales and distribution of all types and ranges of metal including hot and cold rolled, aluminum, copper, brass and stainless in bars, tubes, angles, channel, sheet and plate. Monday, August 22, 2022.

For DeStefano’s purposes, a “small” order is $250, which makes up the lion’s share of his business.

“A lot of customers will buy metal full length because that is all they can do — then they have to spend time cutting those parts and throwing out the pieces they don’t use,” DeStefano said. “We have no minimum order, so most of our customers are in and out in a half-hour with the custom cut they want.”

“We not only cut flat, square, round and tube metal but we cut sheet metal,” DeStefano said. “With metal prices being so high it’s not economical to by a 4 (foot) by 8 (foot) sheet and then to have to cut it down with a grinder in the hot sun. We hack them off five pieces in the sizes they need and send them right on their way.”

DeStefano said his store model makes sense in a post-COVID economy where “people are frustrated by the unavailability of metal.”

At the same time, the coronavirus crisis helped convince DeStefano to get out of the corporate world, he said.

“COVID gave me the impetus to move on and do something different,” DeStefano said. “I’m an older guy and I wanted to do some new and exciting, so I bought this territory and another one down by the coast from Norwalk to Madison.”

The small-order metals store at 4 Lee Mac Ave. is the latest venture for businessman who spent 10 years as a manufacturing engineer at Sikorsky Aircraft, and most recently as vice president of global consulting operations at the Stamford information technology firm, Gartner.

He is married to Judit DeStefano, the former Legislative Council member in Newtown.

Ed DeStefano bought a second franchise in the Norwalk-to-Madison market, with plans to open a second Metal Supermarket in Bridgeport, Milford or Stratford in two years.

The nearest Metal Supermarkets are in Albany, N.Y., and Warwick, R.I.

“This franchise has a good track record, and when we laid out our goals and determined where we wanted to be at this time, we are ahead of that, so I am pretty happy,” he said.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342

Rob Ryser is a career journalist with a rare flair for storytelling. He specializes in City Hall coverage and general assignment features.