In it for the long haul

Ensuring the survival of the J. Royal Co. is Norman Jalbert's No. 1 priority

By -- Industrial Distribution, 7/1/2000

The J. Royal Co. may look like a small-town distributor, but there's more to this growing firm than meets the eye.

The company's headquarters sits at the top of Bay Spring Avenue, a quiet road in Barrington, R.I., that comes to a dead end at nearby Narragansett Bay. It's the town's only industrial area and is home to a handful of other businesses, along with some houses. The picturesque neighborhood gives the impression of small-town life and, consequently, small-time business.

But that's not the case at J. Royal Co. Beneath its quaint, gray and white clapboard exterior is a cutting-edge distributorship whose territory reaches far beyond New England and whose growth potential seems limitless.

J. Royal Co. is a 48-year-old distributor of seals, gaskets, o-rings and a host of related specialty items. The firm has 13 employees, did $4.2 million in sales in 1999, and expects to see $5.25 million in sales this year. Its double-digit growth of the last several years is due in part to president Norman Jalbert's efforts to ensure the firm's long-term survival. A combination of new people, products and territories is at the heart of that strategic plan. With a new, experienced management team in place, J. Royal has expanded into the South and found new ways to serve non-traditional customers in the changing industrial climate of the Northeast. Neither task has been easy amid increasing competition and with limited resources.

Nonetheless, J. Royal Co.'s success in implementing that strategic plan has earned the firm a spot on ID's 50 Outstanding Small Distributors list for the second consecutive year. Plans now are to make J. Royal Co. the premier sealing distributor up and down the East Coast.

Setting the stage

Jalbert, 57, has worked at J. Royal Co. for the last 30 years and has owned it for the last 10. None of his three children work in the business, and he's received some disappointing buyout offers in the last few years. Consequently, Jalbert has taken alternative steps to keep J. Royal Co. going well into the future.

Those steps involve people. Jalbert has spent the last three years putting a new management team in place to grow J. Royal Co. Two and a half years ago, vice president Russ Vroom joined the firm to start a branch operation in Winston-Salem, N.C. General manager Gary Mangiulli joined J. Royal two years ago and office manager Debbie Donahue came on board just a year and a half ago. Combined, the three have 36 years' experience in the industry. Jalbert is counting on that experience-combined with his own knowledge and that of J. Royal's nine other employees-to continue the company's successful track record. Sales have doubled in the last three years.

"You put the right people in place and you can do anything," Jalbert explains.

Indeed, people are the top priority at J. Royal Co. That's why the firm offers a pension plan, 100 percent paid health insurance, profit sharing, and training opportunities as part of its benefits package. Further evidence of the importance of people to J. Royal Co. can be seen in the ISO 9000 banner that hangs outside the Barrington headquarters. It states: "J. Royal Co., Inc. ISO 9002 Certified. Thank you to our employees."

"I think that's the hardest part about being in distribution," notes vice president Vroom. "The competition has similar products. What we have to sell is ourselves and our service."

Southern exposure

When the industrial landscape in the Northeast began to change, Jalbert knew he'd have to follow his customers to warmer climates. He did that, and soon realized the difficulty of servicing his new territory from New England.

"Ours is a very parochial business," Jalbert points out. "You've got to be there and take care of the customer. We have to emphasize local support and service."

At the same time, Jalbert also realized the potential for new business in the South. So he and Vroom got together and decided to set up shop in North Carolina. That was in the fall of 1998. Today, J. Royal covers accounts from Pennsylvania to Florida out of the North Carolina branch, with a focus on Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. Vroom recently added a second outside salesperson to the territory (in addition to himself) who is based in Atlanta.

The migration of Northern companies to the Southern states has begun to slow, and many firms are beginning to move further south into Mexico. While that concerns Jalbert and Vroom, it hasn't had a direct effect on J. Royal's southern expansion. Primary customers in the region include manufacturers of pumps, valves, hardware, automotive components and medical equipment-and the only ones that have moved even further south have been potential accounts. For now, the economy in the new territory remains strong, says Vroom, who predicts continued growth in the region.

As a new competitor, however-J. Royal's North Carolina branch will celebrate its second anniversary in September-Vroom says he still spends much of his time spreading the J. Royal message to potential customers.

"The competition here is strong," notes Vroom, a New England native who got his start working for a Connecticut distributor. "There are companies that have been here for a long time and have more recognized names than J. Royal."

But the J. Royal team views that as an opportunity, not an obstacle. That's pretty much how they view the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania territories, as well.. While J. Royal has accounts in those states, many of them are served by manufacturers' reps. General manager Mangiulli hopes to add a salesperson and perhaps set up shop in that area sometime soon.

"Our growth has been staggering-even better than we could have hoped," notes Mangiuilli. "The future looks very bright ... Our goal is to cover the entire East Coast."

How can a small distributor have such lofty ambitions? By thinking big, not small. Lucy Bair, aerospace manager for International Seal, a longtime supplier to J. Royal Co., points out that J. Royal is a progressive distributor more concerned with bringing good products and services to the marketplace than with the perceived limitations of smaller companies.

"They are not a 'mom and pop' company that gets stuck in a rut," says Bair. "I think what's good about [Jalbert] is that he's looking toward the future-for himself, his company and his people."

Focused on the future

J. Royal's forward-thinking attitude benefits suppliers like International Seal. Bair says her company sells only through distribution, and therefore relies heavily on the partnerships it develops with distributors like J. Royal.

"They're our representative, they're out there with International Seal products," Bair says, emphasizing the trust her company places in Jalbert and his team. "It's a good partnership. You never have the feeling with J. Royal that you're not going to be represented positively."

Jalbert and his colleagues make sure such representation extends to new accounts-especially in the Northeast. While J. Royal has followed many customers south, the firm hasn't given up on its original territory. Instead, Jalbert and his employees have found new markets-like the semi-conductor and medical industries in New England. In some cases, they've had to add complementary product lines to do so. And many of those new products are more technical than J. Royal's traditional product base and require considerable training.

That's part of the reason for J. Royal's regular Friday morning training sessions. Each week, managers and salespeople get together for informal product training given either by a J. Royal employee or a supplier representative. The session is followed by the company's weekly sales meeting. Jalbert says the product training is a must if J. Royal is to stay ahead of the competition, which includes other specialty houses as well as some of the large integrators and catalog houses. Providing a highly engineered product is especially helpful in keeping the latter group at bay.

"You see more and more of the sealing product lines becoming more technical and just too critical from an MRO standpoint," says Jalbert. "Integrators are not keen on getting involved in that ... it's too complex."

That never-ending quest for expertise is an extension of J. Royal Co.'s basic premise that knowledge and service-and the people who deliver it-are what make the difference in today's competitive business world. J. Royal is taking that theory one step further by cross-training all employees to ensure maximum customer service. It's not uncommon for office manager Debbie Donahue to process an order and then ship it to the customer. In fact, when shipping manager Joe Caito was on vacation in the spring, Donahue and veteran inside salesman Mark Westfield filled in for him. At a small company, says Donahue, things have to be done that way or they won't get done at all.

Russ Vroom agrees, recalling a time when Jalbert described him to a longtime customer.

"He said, 'Russ is the vice president of anything I need him to do,'" Vroom says with a laugh. "And I accept that. Around here, everybody has to know how to do everything."

J. Royal Co. is banking on that positive attitude, combined with the growth initiatives of the last several years, to ensure continued success.

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