In the summer of 1958, Bill Brennan Sr. took a new product — a gasoline-powered concrete finisher — to a construction job site in St. Louis. The customer liked it so much, he bought it and ordered a second on the spot.

It's not often one runs into a distributor who has introduced so many industry-standard items to a region. Brennan Tools & Fastening Systems, Inc., is one.

Brennan Sr. began as a distributor salesman but soon realized he wanted to do two things: be his own boss and specialize. His road up began on that slab of wet concrete.

In the last 44 years, he has built a business through hard work and innovation that has made him a premier supplier of construction tools and fasteners in the greater St. Louis area. His sons Bill, Jr. and Mark have been with the company for the better part of 25 years, and are now the principals in an ongoing family business. Through planning and technology, Brennan Tools is staying ahead of the competition and growing stronger.

Although he is officially retired, Brennan Sr. keeps an office at the company. Brennan Sr. (his sons simply call him "Senior" when they are all together) introduced concrete anchors, including self-drilling, sleeve and concrete wedge anchors, that eased the work of concrete builders at the time. The agonizingly inefficient system of drilling and hammering conventional anchors in use at the time was costly. The new anchors did the job in one operation.

In 1965, Brennan Sr. was offered another new product unheard of in St. Louis: powder actuated fasteners. He saw a demonstration of the gunpowder-fired tools, today an industry standard, and knew he had a winner. He hit the streets running with the products and never looked back. He was a construction specialist and the proud boss of a successful tools and fasteners business.

The timing was ideal because residential and commercial construction was booming, and powder-fired anchors became the top choice to anchor baseboards to concrete.

"All it took was a demonstration of one anchor, and they were sold. They bought it on the spot," he says. To this day, nothing excites Brennan Sr. more than selling new products face-to-face.

The company's motto, "We Help Build St. Louis," is an apt statement. Brennan was involved in major building projects in St. Louis that read like a list of the city's landmarks: the Gateway Arch, Busch Stadium, Washington University, the Barnes-Jewish Hospital complex, and more.

"St. Louis is a big concrete pouring town because of the Mississippi River gravel aggregate used to make concrete, dredged right here on the river," Brennan says. "I saw right away that construction is like a giant Erector Set, so concrete anchoring devices and powder actuated tools would revolutionize the speed at which contractors could build," he says.

At the arch, built in the late 60's, Brennan Sr. sold thousands of pins and anchors. He watched as the first huge piece of welded stainless steel was put in place by the giant cranes at the site.

Stairs, seats, pipes, and conduit at Busch Stadium are held in place with fasteners Brennan supplied. Avid Cardinals baseball fans, the Brennans have season tickets and go whenever they can. Busch Stadium plans a major renovation, and Brennan Jr. hopes his company will be a big part of that work.

Hospital and university building sites throughout the city use tools and fasteners supplied by the company.

"Actually, those projects [hospitals and colleges] are ongoing in the city. There's always need for more and better health and educational space. St. Louis prides itself on top quality in both those areas," said Brennan Jr.

Brennan Sr. is a founding member of the Specialty Tools and Fasteners Distributors Assn.

"In the mid '70's, a group of powder actuated tool and fastening distributors got together to form an association of their own. You had to be more than 50 percent powder-actuated tools and fasteners to be a member," he says.

"Morrie Halvorsen was the first executive director (Halvorsen retired from the position in 1999). He determined that it would be a working association, and invited many distributors in. There got to be hundreds of members including manufacturers as associates. He opened it up to non-mainline entrepreneurs that needed an association," he says.

As conventions and trade shows grew larger, some associations were dying out, Brennan added, but not STAFDA.

"Halvorsen got President Reagan and a lot of leading tycoons to speak at conventions. It's one of the viable forces in the industry," he says.

In about 1965, spring steel fasteners changed the industry once again.

"They snap to bar joists and revolutionized the electrical and mechanical trades in building construction," he says.

It was another product that Brennan Sr. brought out to the job site and sold on the spot.

Tek screws came on the scene and again, Brennan Sr. introduced them to the St. Louis construction scene. The self-drilling and self-tapping fasteners soon became the industry standard, he says.

The coming years will call for the same innovative drive, says Brennan Jr., that made his father a success. Brennan Jr. inherited his father's love of the eye-to-eye selling experience and has an organizational knack that will serve him well in his leadership.

Major hospital projects in the city are strong now, he says, and there are plans for a lot of high rise projects. A new federal building was recently completed.

"We had some exclusive products, some with patents that ran out and everyone was allowed to distribute the same line or type of item. We are constantly looking for new, innovative products and to be the first to market," Brennan Sr. says.

Brennan Jr., now in charge of the direction of the company, agrees that competition and pricing pressure are stronger than ever.

"I'm not totally comfortable with where the whole industry is going from here. Margins are sliding and I think consolidation is going to hit our industry hard — not just us, but the small and medium distributors like us throughout the country. We want to grow, but the only way we want to get bigger is if it is better," he says. "I have to say that my vision for the company was clear but in the last 18 months and with recent events, some uncertainty has crept in."

One of the building blocks that Brennan Jr. has put in place to stay on top of the heap is a new computer system utilizing a major e-commerce platform. It is big enough to allow the company to expand exponentially.

"It allows the true electronic transfer of all our information. We can't continue to grow by just adding a lot of people in today's economy, and growth will follow technology to a major degree," Brennan Jr. says.

Another innovation adopted in the last five years is the placement of material job boxes that contain the vital fasteners, anchors, hangers and supports needed in the specific area of a job site. Brennan assists the contractor in maintaining essential items on site.

"We call it assisted inventory management," he says.

Mark Brennan is a vice president and manages key accounts. He began working for his father in the warehouse and moved into the general manager's position. Later, he left to start his own business. Mark came back to work at Brennan Tools in 2001, and he owns Brennan Tools with his brother. His specialty cutting tool and bandsaw fabrication business has been rolled into the main business.

Mark recently went out on the road, joining and working with the six outside salespeople representing Brennan. He believes growth in the construction-supply business lies in more networking and an ability to provide products and services in a wider geographic area.

"In the next 10 years, I'd like the company to become a major hub of distribution in the Midwest," Mark says. "I envision a network of distribution drawing from our inventory and saw fabrication capabilities," he says.

Brennan Tools is a member of Evergreen Marketing Group, a national affiliation of independently owned distributors who supply the construction trades. Sixty distribution companies joined to form an alliance with 60 preferred suppliers. The alliance encourages member participation and supports training, education and profitable growth, according to Brennan Jr.

"Evergreen has been a great organization for us and will continue to be in the future," he says.

Jeff Walsh, tooling manager for Sachs Electric Co. in St. Louis, has been buying from Brennan for about seven years. Sachs is a commercial and industrial electrical contractor.

"It's painless doing business with Brennan. They're really excellent in the customer service end — unsurpassed. They have a great knowledge of the construction business and are willing to go the extra mile to help," Walsh says.

Sachs Electric has a variety of Brennan's job boxes on site. The company buys a variety of power tools and fasteners from Brennan. Sachs' current projects include construction at General Motors, Chrysler, Danforth Science and Washington University.

Bud Schreiber, vice president of DeWalt Industrial Construction Div., DeWalt Tool, says his company has been selling tools and accessories to Brennan Tools for over 30 years. He has worked with the Brennans for over 10 years.

"We put an extreme value on distributors like Brennan who impact our business because they have so much expertise. They train and educate users of tools. They make a difference by helping customers make major purchases of industrial tools," he says.

The best-selling DeWalt tools in greater St. Louis are rotary hammers, cordless tools and a variety of percussion and other tool accessories, he says.

Brennan Tools, he says, continues to lead the market in the area. Recently, Schreiber, Black & Decker (owner of DeWalt Co.) president Paul McBride and Brennan Jr. took a helicopter tour of construction projects.

"I recently visited the city and we went up in a helicopter to get an overall view of, among others, a billion-dollar hospital construction site," Schreiber says. "We had a unique perspective that helped us plan for the future in selling tools. That's a partnership. It's the kind of forward thinking and innovation that makes Brennan Tools a leader in the region," he says.