It's one thing to celebrate 100 years in business. It's quite another to reach that rare milestone in the height of a recession, an achievement attained last year by Alter & Sons.

Sales are down slightly for the year at the construction distributorship, but service always remains a constant, proving the major reason why the firm — founded in 1902 — is still thriving in its fourth generation.

Serving commercial and industrial contractors as well as a solid industrial client base, Davenport, Iowa-based Alter & Sons has branched out from its beginnings as a scrap metal house and has become a well-respected distributorship, serving customers up and down the Mississippi River along Iowa's eastern boundary.

The company is owned by Victor Rothbardt, the third generation to be involved with the company. His son, Greg Rothbardt, serves as fourth generation vice president and maintains a regular sales territory. Other family members include Harry Alter, Victor's cousin, and vice president/controller Sherman Rudnick, a cousin by marriage.

"Greg handles most of the day to day activities, and Victor still keeps his hand on the rudder. As a corporation, that gives us a lot of confidence in them," says John E. Thompson, director of sales for Assembly Solutions for Ingersoll Rand, a major supplier to Alter & Sons. "A lot of times you have two-condo, one-boat distributors, but these guys are in the office every day."

"We're pretty proud of our history," admits Greg, a journalism major in college who joined the family business after graduating in 1993. "We've managed not to pigeon-hole ourselves into doing just one thing. Being 100 years old has definitely helped us get our foot in the door at some customers. I go through our employee list and turnover has been very low for as long as I remember. We've got a dozen people or so who have been here 15 or 20 years.

"That's a lot of experience, and we have quite a few people with a lot of product knowledge. Having the flexibility of being a family-owned business has really helped us. There's not a lot of red tape or bureaucracy. If a customer is looking for a product that we haven't sold before, we research it and try to work with them to provide a solution for the customer."

Alter & Sons, which Greg Rothbardt admits often flies under the radar screen, pulled out all the stops last summer when it hosted an open house to celebrate its longevity. It was the first time the company had held such an event, and they invited vendors and customers.

Aside from gaining some publicity in the local newspaper, the catered event was a huge hit with those who attended, and went a long way toward further cementing Alter's already rock-hard relationships with their customers.

"We had some booths and displays, but we were mostly just trying to thank our customers for their years of support," says Greg. "Obviously, without them we wouldn't be in business today. The vendors thought it was one of the better open houses they'd been to in years. We gave away some door prizes and everyone got a choice of a couple different gifts with our logo on it. People were very appreciative."

Alter & Sons took full advantage of vendor marketing funds to ease the cost of hosting the event. Management made sure that the get together wasn't too "gimmicky" by not requiring guests to tour the warehouse before they could eat, for example.

"We didn't do any of that kind of stuff," says Greg. "If they wanted to look around the building they were welcome to, but they certainly didn't have to. We got some good mileage out of it. It was money well spent."

That's usually how Alter & Sons' customer base feels after doing business with the company. Greg Hester is executive vice president at Northwest Mechanical, a mechanical contractor that has been doing business with Alter & Sons for at least 20 years. Hester, who purchases everything from consumable tools to welding systems and compressors from Alter & Sons, admits he pays a premium to maintain the high service levels he receives.

"They offer outstanding personal relationships, by far the best around," says Hester. "They really do a very good job of getting to know us and our needs, and that develops a great level of trust."

Aside from the aggressive customer service that the company is famous for in Iowa, Alter & Sons isn't afraid to take on new challenges to increase growth. Traditionally a construction house with a robust rental and service department, Alter & Sons started to pursue the industrial marketplace in the mid-90s. "Over the last five or six years we've really been pushing our industrial business much harder, like more engineered products like hydraulics and material handling and air systems," Greg says.

The company is at the point where industrial sales make up about 60 percent of sales. "It has definitely changed over the years," says Greg, noting that construction in Iowa has been relatively slow over the last two years. "A few years ago a new power plant went up, and it ended up being very good for us. That year our construction sales were way up. We may be more weighted towards industrial, but we're actively pursuing contractors in our area."

The beauty of being diversified is that when one side of the business is down, the other is often flourishing. In an effort to be still more recession proof, the company has recently emphasized its service business, adding higher margin services to the mix.

Aside from small hand tool and power tool repairs, Alter & Sons offers preventative maintenance contracts for hoist cranes and compressed air systems.

"A lot of people don't want to touch that stuff, so if a maintenance department doesn't want to change filters and oil, we've got service technicians that go out in the field," says Greg. "It's always a challenge to find qualified people to do that kind of work, but we have a good team in place and we use that as a sales tool.

"Generally, it does have a little better margin but there is also potential for other problems. But our service technicians are invaluable to our company. If you have a bad service department, all of a sudden it can spill over into other areas of our business. If a customer has a bad taste in their mouth from our service department, they might take their business elsewhere."

Other unique offerings include 24-hour, on-call service and integrated supply contracts that go much deeper than simply maintaining inventory for customers. Aside from checking min/max levels and providing product, Alter & Sons also provides things like shelving and lockers, and fans and sweepers.

"We assemble everything in our warehouse and make sure it's in good running condition before we send it out to the customer," says Greg, noting that Alter & Sons also offers free safety seminars.

Another value-added service more customers are asking for nowadays is entering orders into the customer's computer system for them. "It seems to be the name of the game these days," says Greg. "Customers are reducing their number of buyers, and we are picking up more of the load. We have salesmen onsite at our customers' plant, talking to crib mangers and helping to spec product for them to make sure the product is correct when it arrives at the plant."

In the end, it always comes down to service and relationships, and the Rothbardts know that without the emphasis placed on that part of the business, Alter & Sons would be just another also-ran selling commodities at low margins.

"Greg still calls on us for the most part," says Northwest Mechanical's Hester. "And I know a lot of people talk about the fact that Victor is still out there and that to this day he still enjoys the number one thing — building relationships and selling to people. I like how they have grown. As they have taken on more customers, they haven't suffered the growing pains of losing contact with existing customers."

Ingersoll Rand's Thompson has witnessed that first-hand. When he broke into the business as a sales rep, Alter & Sons was one of his first accounts. He was impressed by their service then, and he still is today.

"They are real experts at maintaining the relationships they bring to their customer base," he says. "They are in a very old-style territory and a lot of times it's not necessarily price, but relationships. They treat their customers very well, and because of that customers come back to them and they are able to maintain a good margin with them by servicing the heck out of the customer."

It's far too early to predict whether or not Alter & Sons' service excellence will be extended to a fifth generation. While Greg and his wife Julie have son (Sam) approaching 18 months, it's far too soon to predict what the future will bring.

"Who knows at this point," says Greg, "although I wouldn't rule it out. I'm still young, even though I've been here almost 10 years. We're very proud of the fact that we've made it this far. No one wants to be on a sinking ship either, so we try to change with the times. I'd love to see the company go another 100 years … it's taken a lot of hard work and perseverance."