This year’s Wholesaler of the Year is a considerably Larger firm than it had been the very first time Standard Plumbing Supply was honored by this magazine way back in 1975. Afterward, SUPPLY HOUSE TIMES founder Charlie Horton wrote about a Business headquartered in Salt Lake City and also seven branches located in Utah, Idaho and Oregon. Standard currently has some 70 branches located in these 3 countries and because extended into Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Wyoming.
In 1975, our Wholesaler of the Year has been a $12 Million firm with a few 106 workers. Those figures contained a pipe manufacturing company which has since been marketed. The organization’s distribution performance alone today has a bit more than three times that quantity of employees at the moment, yet over 10 times the quantity.
Our 1975 coverage comprised scant mention diamond home improvement of this Firm’s then small showroom surgeries. Currently Standard functions 50 showrooms, such as an eye-popping 14,000-sq. -ft. extravaganza during its headquarters complex in Sandy, an adjoining suburb of Salt Lake City. (See sidebar story, “Standard’s Category-Killer Showrooms”.)
Founded in 2001, business headquarters today Occupies a 16-acre website that includes over 300,000 sq. ft. crossing nine buildings. It is conveniently situated only a couple blocks from entrance to I-15, the primary interstate highway passing through Salt Lake City.
Back in 1975, the guy in charge was Dale Reese, that Founded the business in 1952 and passed a year ago. Son Richard Reese has served as president since the early’90s and has shown every bit as entrepreneurial because his dad.
Back then, standard plumbing was pretty much the title of Their match. Standard has enlarged significantly into HVAC and underfloor heating. Some places have different plumbing and HVAC stores placed in adjoining buildings.
These modifications more than three decades-plus are a Role of growth – averaging a spectacular 27 percent each year in the time Richard took over from his dad in 1992 through 2006. But, that growth was anchored into a business model whose Profession chemistry is not substantially different than the one we comprehensive in 1975. Now, as then, the Organization’s M.O. comprises:
Centralized warehousing and government (see sidebar story, “Inventory Control Minus Inventory!”)
“Cookie cutter” surgeries Resulting in high efficiency.
- Advanced computer technologies.
- Prime locations.
- Self-service pickup counters.
- A long-haul trucking subsidiary.
- A unrelated manufacturing arm.
Underlying it is a civilization of Self-sufficiency where standard plumbing employees attempt to do all possible internally to reduce costs and guarantee quality control.Standard’s top management group, from left: Dave Freeman, Richard Reese,” Blair Tucker.
Entrepreneurial Spirit
President Richard Reese presides as CEO above a Closely managed business with just two primary second-tier executives. Dave Freeman, vice president of showrooms and tactical efforts, is a pipes distribution veteran who’d worked Hajoca and Stapley Wholesale prior to joining the business a decade ago. Freeman manages all plumbing and hydronic heating surgeries.
Blair Tucker, vice president of the HVAC Division, was recruited 11 years ago to raise the organization’s presence in that industry sector. Beginning with a couple aisles in chosen department shops, he’s since built that company to a dozen standalone shops. Tucker’s HVAC division is capable of providing and helping contractors in each stage from program design to product choice, spanning both commercial and residential.
Reese is the conceptualizer, Freeman and Tucker the nuts-and-bolts implementers. People I have spoken with both inside and outside the business pay tribute to Reese as a very perceptive businessman and visionary. “I have been in this business a long period, and have not seen anybody with Richard’s ability to see new opportunities,” said Freeman. “He is not bogged down looking in how we did things in the old times.”
The trio is aided by Different capable aides, And a group of division managers that Reese explains as the actual secret to their achievement. “The main thing we can do is employ the ideal manager. It doesn’t matter how great our supply process isour service methods and showrooms. If this neighborhood branch supervisor does not have entrepreneurial spirit, we can not compete,” he said.
The organization does not have a formal recruitment And coaching program, only a knack for understanding and nurturing ability. Though they’ve hired a number from the exterior with varying levels of success, the majority of standard plumbing division supervisors were developed from inside. Many of these Gaylen Schetselaar (South Salt Lake), Eric Wahlstrom (Sandy), Sterling Hill (Orem) and Josh Kunkel (West Jordan) – began as truck drivers or warehouse employees and ended up conducting million-dollar branches within a Few years.Centralization Leads To Freedom
Standard’s management philosophy is to take Control of their administrative drudgery in order to free the men and women in its branches to concentrate on earnings and conducting their regional operations. The formulation has worked tirelessly for more than half a century.
A Vital element is advanced computer engineering That’s been a business trademark since the first days of computerization in the business. Our 1975 Wholesaler of the Year policy took notice of standard plumbing usage of Burroughs mini-computers in handling its own operations. This was pretty much innovative supply technology for the time, and gives off a whiff of nostalgia to those people who can remember a time when PCs hadn’t yet come to the film.
Standard’s IT now is anchored within an Infor Distribution management program personalized to ensure standard plumbing company methodology compels computer operations instead of the other way round. They outsource computer programming, even though they employ one IT person fulltime to purge and maintain things humming.
There’s no aspect of business management and Operations which is not automated to the nth level. Of particular note is that their Innovative purchasing and stock management capabilities, called Stock Support.