A loyal following
B/G Industrial Supply, Inc. has hung tough for over 25 years despite an exodus of manufacturers in the Pittsburgh area
By Ken Brack -- Industrial Distribution, 6/1/1998
t's the only place he's ever worked. And 33-year-old Chris George wouldn't want it any other way.Few would blame George if he had chosen not to follow his father's footsteps. Twenty-five years ago Bob George began selling machine tools a few miles east of Pittsburgh in Irwin, Pa. He sold his car to start the business, B/G Industrial Supply, Inc., and scrapped and saved during the start-up phase. Then sales took off as large customers like the region's steel mills and Westinghouse Electric Corp. couldn't find tools fast enough.
But times changed. With the demise of the steel industry in Pittsburgh, the successive sell-offs of Westinghouse divisions and cutbacks to the nuclear-powered submarine industry, another key customer for machine shops, Bob George relied increasingly on smaller job shops. While medical companies and a few light manufacturers like Sony have moved in, no major industrial customers have emerged in the distributor's territory, which includes western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and parts of West Virginia.
Still, Bob George, his wife Pat, and their son managed to build a loyal customer base and $2 million-a-year business by providing prompt, honest service, and by going to great lengths to track down tools.
"I don't see anything coming around here that's going to excite our machine shop industry,'' says Bob George, who is 60 and hopes to "semi-retire" next year. "I think it's a comfortable living for a mom and pop operation.''
And despite the pressures of runing a family business -- and living up to his father's reputation and expectations -- Chris George plans to take the reigns next year.
"It's really the only thing I've ever done,'' he says. "It's something different every day, with a customer who's up against the wall saying, 'How can I get this?' ''
He agrees with his father that small to mid-sized shops will remain core customers, saying, "I think that's where we'll stay.''
Tools to succeed
Located in a modest building about 15 miles east of the city, B/G Industrial Supply's big-selling items are tools such as drills, taps and end mills. The three Georges and six employees have built a reputation for quick delivery, reasonable pricing and perseverance when it comes to finding specialty tools. Led by two salesmen who are experienced machinists, the company is also establishing a niche as a technical problem-solver.
"They are very helpful in telling us what is available in tooling if we don't know what's out there for a specific application,'' says Jack Kinsey, president of Kin-Tech Manufacturing, a small machine shop in N. Huntengdon, Pa. He has been buying from B/G for two decades. "I'll call them and say 'here's what I need to do.' They might know something that's really off the shelf when I might think it may be a special tool.
"They stand out that way a little bit primarily because they're a smaller operation and privately held,'' Kinsey says. "We know them...they will get more personally involved in our needs than a big mail order supply company.''
Joe Brennan, purchasing and material control manager at Hamill Manufacturing, a Monroville, Pa. machine shop, says B/G gives his company consistent effort and flexibility.
"We need new tooling (almost) every time we get the job in and when we get it set up we sometimes need it overnight,'' he says. In addition to improving their catalog each year, Brennan says B/G's salesmen offer "two or three of each item'' to choose from, including safety items to welding supplies. "As a purchaser you're looking for the best price and best delivery. They seem to handle that pretty good,'' he says.
Bob George knew the problems of tool buyers first hand when he started the business with his brother in their father's basement in 1973. Before that he worked 12 years at several Westinghouse divisions, starting in a generator-turbine plant that once employed 17,000 people in East Pittsburgh. Later, as a junior industrial engineer, he gained experience in metal removal (chip making) and did quality control inspections on lathes and carbide drills. He left Westinghouse and did tool purchasing at a machine shop before setting out on his own.
Bob George recalls the opportunity to sell tools was a great one.
"When we started it wasn't a matter of finding an order, it was a matter of delivering it,'' he says. "You just couldn't get the product fast enough.'' He and Pat made sacrifices as the business started, of course. Pat says that hours after returning home from the hospital with her youngest newborn, Jared, she was typing up a quote for a job. Soon she was bringing the baby to the office and mixing work there with diaper changing.
"It was just something you were expected to do,'' she says. "We were just hard workers.''
Bob George's brother sold his share of the business after three years, but it grew and remained a family affair. At age eight, Chris stamped catalogs, cleaned the office, cut the grass and later helped with stocking and shipping tools. After a former salesman was caught kiting checks, Pat took over the bookkeeping and insurance.
Although he now can relax a bit with hobbies like golf, Bob George recalls the strain of those early times -- going months without a paycheck and putting his home up as collateral for loans. "It took six years until I felt I could sleep well at night,'' he says.
Taking over
Chris George, who worked outside sales for eight years and inside sales for nearly as long, now works as a kind of operations troubleshooter. He took courses in manufacturing technology and accounting a few years ago but didn't finish college. He was forced to return to work full-time when several salespeople quit suddenly during the mid 1980s. Chris has always been a "wrench head,'' his mother says, and enjoys rebuilding trucks and cars like his '65 Chevelle.
He briefly considered opening a restaurant or nightclub, but had a hunch all along he'd stay in the business. "I have all this knowledge I grew up with, it was something I liked and something different every day,'' he says.
Comparing the market when he started out with today's, he says a lot more has changed than just the number of small shops. "Back then the big customers were the meat and potatoes,'' he says. "It wasn't cost, it was, "I need the end mills and just give it to me quickly.' Nowadays they are now more price conscious. They want it the next day but they don't want a next-day charge.''
Looking ahead, Bob George sees an increasing demand for more high-tech tools such as laser machining and water jet machining. Chris George expects to continue focusing on small job shops and looking for new prospects. The company has considered making a foray into manufacturing such as running a grinding shop, but has not made any moves so far.
Jared George, the youngest son, may also play a role in the family business some day. He works as a mechanical engineer at Parker-Hannifin Corp. and expects to do some consulting for B/G.
Pat George is cautious about the future, but believes the company will find its way.
"I think it's going to be a lot tougher for him (Chris) than it was for us,'' she says. "We're going to have to find our niche, that's the big thing. We're still foundering a little bit...We have some good people with some good technical skills, and I think that's the area we're going to have to go with.'' I
At-A-Glance
B/G Industrial Supply, Inc.
Headquarters: Irwin, Pa.
Founded: 1973
Locations: 1
1997 Sales: $2 million
Primary Products: Machine and cutting tools
Territory: Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia
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