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can’t sell out of an empty wagon. That expression
used to be the industry’s mantra decades ago
when distributors were apt to sink every spare dollar
into inventory. The business has since evolved more
along the lines of just-in-time thinking, and product
proliferation makes it hard for a distributor to act
otherwise.
So when you find a throwback to the bygone era, it
qualifies as a “man-bites-dog” story.
And that brings us to Robert-James Sales (RJS), a
$115 million industrial PVF distributor whose warehouses
contain an eye-popping $30 million worth of stainless
pipe, fittings and, to a lesser extent, valves.
They stock pipe up to 54 inches, fittings and flanges
as large as 36 inches, and so much Duplex 2205 pipe
and fittings they recently ventured into the master
distribution arena for that specialty grade. Shelves
upon shelves at RJS are filled with humongous reducing
tees and other hard-to-find stainless PVF products
that bring sighs of relief from customers in dire
need.
The unlikely locale of Buffalo, NY, serves as company
headquarters. Its 200,000-sq.-ft. distribution center
feeds seven other RJS stocking branches that stretch
east, south and west as far away as Minneapolis. Branches
for the most part will stock stainless staples up
to 12 inches, but rely on weekly deliveries from the
DC for the bigger items.
Founded in 1972 by James “Jim” Bokor Sr.
and Robert Glidden, the company’s identity comes
from their first names. Both founders are still very
much involved in daily operations as chairman (Bokor)
and vice chairman (Glidden), though both now reside
in Florida and are closely supervising the transition
to a new generation of management headed by a team
of youthful yet veteran executives: President Jim
Bokor Jr., Marketing Manager Jeff Parrish and Treasurer
Joseph McIntosh. They, along with Sales Manager Scott
Hughes and the eight branch managers, oversee a lean
operation that accomplishes much with some 120 employees
overall.
Bokor Jr. joined his father’s business after
graduating from college with a business degree in
1991. In traditional industry fashion, he began learning
the ropes long before with part-time glamour jobs
such as “sweeping more floors than I care to
recall.” Parrish joined the company in 1990,
McIntosh in 1988. Employment longevity typifies a
company that, brags Jim Jr., has “never had
a layoff in company history.”
“It’s
how you buy”
Odds
are good that most of you interested enough to read
this know or have at least heard of Jim Bokor Sr.
He’s been involved with the stainless PVF business
for a half-century, and has a legendary knack for
determining what to buy, how much and when. According
to Jim Jr., his dad’s influence extends beyond
RJS to the point where various brokers will follow
his lead in ratcheting purchases up or down in response
to anticipated market conditions. “My father
has an uncanny instinct,” said the son. “I’m
trying to develop it, but that will take time.”
 Said
Jim Sr.: “No matter what anyone tells you, it’s
not how you sell that matters most in our business.
It’s how you buy. We’re in a global marketplace,
and our plan is to buy as well as anyone in the world
in order to compete in the total market.” This
seems to involve more art than science.
RJS buys from factories all over the world —
including still a fair amount of domestic product.
Father and son Bokor both spend several weeks each
year traveling around the world to visit existing
and prospective suppliers. They are fussy about who
they deal with and will not buy from anyone without
first inspecting facilities and getting to know the
people in charge.
Buying isn’t everything, of course. Delivering
product where and when it’s needed is just as
important, especially to the mechanical contractors
working fast-paced jobs, which comprise RJS’
biggest customer group. They also sell to fabricators
and OEMs, and to other distributors. RJS claims the
ability to fill about 80% of orders out of stock.
A key is the company’s fixed gaze on the stainless
business. Various vendors and customers have tried
to talk them into the carbon steel marketplace over
the years, but everyone you talk to at RJS gives the
same response: “Stainless is what we know.”
Said Parrish, “When things are going well, a
lot of distributors think it’s enough to buy
it, have it shipped direct and pick up a few points
handling the paperwork. But when push comes to shove,
it comes down to who has the product on the shelf.
We’re good at stainless and have a great supporting
staff, including two inside salesmen with almost 50
years of experience. We can answer any questions that
arise from the field.”
“Plus, where would we put it?” chimed
in Bokor Jr. “We don’t have room for carbon
steel. We’d rather invest money by expanding
the size range of our stainless inventory or getting
into different versions, like we’ve done with
2205. It takes the same amount of labor and manhours
to sell a truckload of carbon steel as it does stainless,
but with not as much profit. So for us this is a no-brainer.”
Feet
on the ground
RJS has 29 salespeople on the road reaching out to
customers, and a crew of seasoned veterans on the
inside. What about the modern thinking that sees a
diminished role for outside sales due to rising costs?
“That’s not for us,” said Parrish.
“If we’re not in a territory knocking
on doors and shaking hands, it becomes out of sight,
out of mind. The outside salesperson’s job is
to get the phones to ring.”
They rely on their outside salespeople for relationship
building and market intelligence. Yet Parrish acknowledges
the growing importance of the inside sales role. RJS
managers try to arrange for the inside staff to go
out on field calls periodically just to meet the customers
and understand their business. “The outside
person may see a customer every four or five weeks,
while the inside person sometimes is in touch more
than once a day,” Parrish observed. “They
are the ones that can put out a fire and help or hurt
a relationship on a daily basis.
“Nowadays everybody needs everything yesterday,”
he said. “Sometimes I am surprised by our ability
to accommodate them. The amount of material we move
in and out of here is amazing. I’ve seen us
receive 10 overseas containers in a week and ship
out 80 trucks in a day. And we do it without a lot
of people.”
Nor do they rely on advanced warehouse automation.
This is a company that still takes a physical count
of annual inventory. I asked how they manage to move
so much bulky product in and out with relatively few
people and without handheld scanners and other electronic
marvels.
“We have no job descriptions,” explained
Jim Jr. “Everyone does whatever it takes to
get things done. I’ve seen warehouse guys making
deliveries. We’re a close group and we get to
know the families of everyone. Every single person
here takes pride in doing a great job.”
 Parrish
added; “A slogan we use around here is, ‘We
have to do it or someone else will.’ This explains
why our people hang around to get things done late
in a day and manage to get so much out the door on
any given day.”
Larry Wojno, a marketing communications consultant
who has handled RJS’ advertising and public
relations for many years, offered this outsider’s
observation: “They have a customer service ethic
in an era when customer service is dying. You can
get right through to the Robert-James people, and
I am impressed with what these folks can do just by
rolling up their sleeves and having a presence in
the field. Reliability is what differentiates Robert-James
from other suppliers.”
An example of superior customer service includes offering
“drop” pieces of pipe cut to any length
a customer desires. If a customer wants three feet
of pipe, they don’t make him buy the entire
20-foot length. Buffalo’s warehouse includes
one of the largest automated cutting saws to be found
anywhere in the U.S., capable of handling up to 36-inch
pipe. They keep careful records of the remaining pieces
and will cut from those where possible to reduce spoilage
to virtually nothing.
 Master
distribution
Almost
inevitably distributors with a large inventory in
a select range of product look to selling to other
distributors as a way to capitalize on the investment.
RJS has been doing this with its Duplex 2205 grade
of product. The specialty grade features high chromium
and molybdenum content, which leads to greater corrosion
resistance and weldability.
Bokor Sr. told me they got into this market via the
“back door” about three years ago when
a good customer doing a job overseas placed a $6 million
order for 2205. Nobody was stocking the material,
and the vendor invited RJS to become a stocking distributor
with the promise of referring other distributors to
them. RJS started out stocking 2205 up to 12 inch,
and have since moved up in size to 24 inch. “In
general, I think we have the best inventory in that
size range you’ll find anywhere — not
only in pipe, but also butt weld fittings and flanges,”
said the company founder.
“We protect our distributors in pricing,”
he was quick to add. This of course is an essential
strategy for anyone who wants to succeed in master
distribution. Violators don’t last long. RJS
has been in the master distribution field for about
a year, and they have started to make inroads beyond
their 2205 offerings. Besides 2205, RJS stocks many
stainless products not found in many supply houses,
such as large diameter fittings, oddball reducing
tees and up to double extra-heavy wall pipe. There
are not too many places a distributor can go when
a customer needs these products in a hurry.
Steady
expansion
The
company’s growth over the years has reflected
a steady expansion geographically. Typically, they
keep working a branch territory until business at
the outer reaches becomes sufficient to support a
new branch. Sales out of its Chicago branch, for instance,
led to the opening of a facility in Minneapolis. The
Chicago and Indianapolis locations have begun generating
considerable sales in St. Louis and Kansas City, so
it may be only a matter of time before RJS opens a
branch in one of those cities.
The company has a management training program to groom
future leaders. “We always try to have a management
trainee in the pipeline,” said Bokor Jr. “We
don’t want to be prevented from opening somewhere
we want to open just because we don’t have a
manager available.”
Management training at RJS is the old-fashioned “trial
by fire.” They learn product by working in the
warehouse and progress through inside sales and up
the ladder. Recruits come from both inside and outside
the company.
Jim Bokor Sr. identified the growing role of imports
as among the biggest changes he’s observed in
the stainless PVF business during his long career.
“Plus, distribution has changed, with so many
supply houses getting gobbled up,” he added.
“In the long run, that helps us, because it
narrows the competition. Instead of having five or
six suppliers to choose from, a mechanical contractor
may have only two or three to go to.”
RJS has capitalized in a big way on the ethanol boom
over the past several years. A backlash is underway
against ethanol production, but the company founder
doesn’t see that as putting more than a minor
crimp in RJS’ business. “We’re also
very much involved in wastewater treatment, in power
generation — and I’m looking forward to
more nuclear business in the not-too-distant future,”
said Bokor Sr. “There are a lot of good things
still happening in the U.S. in our markets.” |
Supply House Times
People Dedicated to Quality
