Service Specialists
Innovative programs and cutting-edge capabilities help Moss Rubber & Equipment compete in Northern California
By Victoria Fraza -- Industrial Distribution, 4/1/1999
WHEN ASKED TO CHARACTERIZE THE MANAGERS AND STAFF at Moss Rubber & Equipment Co., Tom Chojnacki replies: "They're real people. What they tell you they're going to do, they're going to do." Chojnacki is western regional operations manager for Dixon Valve & Coupling and has worked with Moss Rubber & Equipment for more than 10 years. His company's relationship with Moss Rubber goes back even further than that. And that's no surprise; long-term relationships are characteristic of this small, San Francisco hose and accessories distributorship. With 12 employees and more than $3.5 million in sales, the family-owned company, like most small firms, prides itself on developing personal relationships with customers and suppliers.While relationships are important to the firm, they are dependent upon a number of variables, says company vice president Greg Moss. Top service levels, cutting edge fabricating techniques, and up-to-date technology form the baseline that allows Moss Rubber & Equipment to establish a good rapport with trading partners, he says. It also helps to offer special programs like plant hose audits and safety surveys. Those are the things that help set this 34-year-old distributorship apart, says Chojnacki. The challenge for Moss Rubber & Equipment is to combine all of those elements for success in Northern California, a market that is not immune to the myriad threats facing small distributors today.
The early days
Before coming to San Francisco in 1963, Greg's father, Don Moss, worked for well-known hose distributor Goodall Rubber in Salt Lake City. Don's late brother, Leon, worked for Goodall in Los Angeles. The brothers longed to start their own company and had dreams of moving to San Francisco, so when the opportunity arose to do both, they jumped at it. They moved to the Bay Area and bought Nyson Rubber in 1963, changing the company's name to Moss Rubber & Equipment in 1965. While some new products have been added over the years, they all complement the company's original core products -- hose and accessories, conveyor belt, boots and raingear.
Don Moss is the company's semi-retired president, and he embodies the down-to-earth, personal approach Moss Rubber & Equipment is known for. Dressed casually in polo shirt and khakis, much of his working time these days is spent helping out with deliveries and maintaining close relationships with employees and walk-in customers. Don's attitude has spilled over to Greg, who manages the company's daily operations, as well as to his other son, Scott, who, along with Tim Elder, is in outside sales, and to Jerry Victoriano, the company's general manager.
In the beginning, Moss Rubber focused on heavy construction in the San Francisco area -- an industry that still makes up much of its customer base. Projects like the Bay Area Rapid Transit in the mid 60s helped the business take off, remembers Don. The company also supplied bearing pads for the reconstruction of the Golden Gate Bridge in the early 1980s. Moss Rubber & Equipment is currently involved in two major construction projects -- retrofitting the San Mateo Bridge, which connects the suburbs of San Mateo and Hayward, and the BART extension to the airport.
Over the years, the company grew and had to diversify, explains Don. Today, 60 percent of Moss Rubber & Equipment's business is with the petrochemical industry in Northern California. The company has done some business with wineries in Napa and the Central Valley, as well. But deals like the one Moss Rubber & Equipment has with Chevron are characteristic of their core customer relationships.
Moss Rubber has been doing business with Chevron for 25 years and has had an "alliance" with the company for five years. The alliance is a selective supplier program that Chevron runs only with key distributors, says Steve Taylor, senior buyer, purchasing and materials management for Chevron's Richmond, Calif. refinery. The alliance is a long-term agreement in which the distributor helps drive down costs and document savings for Chevron. In turn, Chevron looks for ways the distributor can increase its business with the global oil company. To become an alliance supplier, the distributor must have top service levels, quality products, competitive pricing, and a strategy to help the refinery lower its total costs, says Taylor. The agreement is reviewed annually for contract extension, and local alliance teams meet quarterly to discuss cost savings opportunities and ways to improve the relationship. Taylor says he expects the Moss Rubber alliance to continue.
"I think they have the right attitude for a small business to succeed serving a large customer like Chevron," says Taylor, pointing to Moss Rubber's quick response, timely delivery and professional manner.
In emergency situations, says Taylor, Moss Rubber brings material out to the refinery in the middle of the night and on weekends. Moss Rubber is especially responsive during the refinery's shutdown period -- and it has to be. The shutdown is a scheduled turnaround time in which the refinery completely closes for routine maintenance. The shutdown usually takes three to four weeks, during which time Taylor calls on Moss Rubber & Equipment frequently for hose and other products needed to clean and re-stock the plant.
Building on solid skills
Moss Rubber's alliance with Chevron is a perfect example of its ability to develop a good customer relationship based on solid skills and capabilities. First and foremost, Moss Rubber believes in the basics of service -- knowing what the customer needs, having it when they need it, and getting it there on time. But there's much more to it than that. Greg Moss explains that these days, good customer service also means providing quarterly documented cost savings, offering special services like safety inspections and hose certifications, and staying abreast of the technologies that can create both internal and external efficiencies. Dixon's Chojnacki echoes Greg's comments, noting Moss Rubber & Equipment's forward-thinking attitude.
"I believe their philosophy is service," says Chojnacki. "They certainly demand service from us ... they are also very receptive to new ideas and innovations. A lot of companies don't have the foresight the Mosses do."
Chojnacki is referring to Moss Rubber's investment in fabricating equipment, which allows the company to offer the best possible products and services to the customer. He also emphasizes the company's dedication to innovative programs -- like the joint safety inspection program Moss runs with Dixon. "It takes a lot of time," Chojnacki says of the program, adding, "it puts them a cut above a lot of other folks."
The program runs like this: teams made up of representatives from Moss Rubber and Dixon go to a customer's facility to perform a safety audit. Guided by a representative from the customer's plant, they inspect every hose and coupling installation "they can lay their eyes on," says general manager Victoriano. The goal is to identify existing and potential safety problems. As part of the process, the Moss-Dixon team takes notes and, in some cases, photographs, to document the inspection. The information is then put into a binder and given to the customer as a reference. Moss and Dixon will then work with the customer to solve problems, as needed. Often, that requires running training sessions.
Moss Rubber is involved in a similar program with hose manufacturer Boston Weatherhead Division of Dana Corp. Boston has set up a network of 30 Certified Chemical Hose Distributors strategically placed across the country. Each distributor sends a minimum of two warehouse technicians to Boston's factory for training, which is done in conjunction with coupling and clamp manufacturers. They are all taught the proper method of coupling, testing and tagging hose assemblies. The goal is for large end users such as Dow Chemical to receive an identically certified hose assembly whether it's purchased in San Francisco or Detroit.
As a small distributor, Moss Rubber & Equipment must invest in such programs, say Greg and the others. Pushing product through the channel is the job of large consolidators and catalog houses -- companies that continue to encroach on the business of smaller firms. In addition to local competition, Greg Moss counts companies like Motion Industries and Applied Industrial Technologies among his competitors. But he and his associates believe they are up to the challenge those firms represent.
In doing so, Moss Rubber is also trying to stay ahead of the curve with information technology -- as much as it can, given its limited resources. In 1996, the firm installed a new software system which allows employees to send quotes and invoices via fax and to use EDI. While customers have talked about the importance of EDI and other methods of electronic commerce, few have demanded them, says Greg. But when they do, he adds, Moss Rubber & Equipment will be ready.
While proficiency on all these levels helps Moss Rubber & Equipment cement its customer and supplier relationships, there is another important element that Victoriano says cannot be left out of the mix.
Sitting in a conference room at Moss Rubber's South San Francisco headquarters, Don, Greg and Scott seated around him, Victoriano makes a sweeping gesture with his hands as he says: "You have sitting in front of you 100-plus years of knowledge -- about what our customer is, what he's doing ... and that makes a lot of difference. We're tested, tried and true over a long period of time." m
COMPANY SNAPSHOT
Moss Rubber & Equipment
President: Don. E. Moss
1998 Sales: $3.5 million
Founded: 1965
Headquarters: S. San Francisco
Locations: 1
Primary Products: Hose and accessories
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