Call them the new school, the fresh faces or the newbies. Whatever name fits best, these are nine guys who started from scratch or purchased their first industrial distributorship in the last eight years. Some of them started humbly at home, selling products from their basements before moving out into industrial space, while others opted to buy existing distributorships.

Along the way, each of these new distributors made a fair share of mistakes – like buying the wrong software system or not jumping on opportunities quickly enough – and lived to tell about it. Through it all, each one says he's persevering in the current selling environment, and a few even posted impressive sales gains during a year when flat sales were commonplace even for long-established companies.

These distributors' product ranges are as diverse as their backgrounds, interests and reasons for getting into distribution in the first place. So, without further ado, here they are – industrial distribution's new school.

The day the tractor trailer pulled up to Peter Kiscunas' home to deliver product was the day he knew it was time to move The Industrial Depot out of his basement and into "real" industrial space. Kiscunas, president, and co-founders Tom Arbeiter, vice president of operations, and Rich Surges, vice president of sales, had been selling fasteners, cutting tools, hardware, plumbing equipment and fittings to OEMs and MRO customers from his basement for three months.

The trio was working for a large industrial supply company when the entrepreneurial bug bit.

"We all wanted our own businesses, and saw opportunity in the opportunities that our employer was overlooking," Arbeiter says. "We wanted to take on larger commodity buys, work in the global market, import product and deliver more varied service levels to our customers."

The trio decided to realize their goals by opening The Industrial Depot in Lawrenceville, Ga., in 1999. Last year, the distributorship brought in $6 million in sales, up from $2.2 million in 2001. According to Arbeiter, the company hopes to double its sales in 2003.

With 23 years of combined experience in distribution, The Industrial Depot's founding fathers parlayed their knowledge into one company that now has 12 employees and two locations.

"We knew the segment well, and we're basically doing exactly what we were doing before, only now we can look at larger commodity items and buy internationally," says Arbeiter.

Despite their experience and market insights, Arbeiter says the company made a few early mistakes, like buying a $500 QuickBooks software program that it promptly outgrew within six months.

"At the time, we didn't know that we needed a point-of-sale system with inventory control and Web-based solutions included," Arbeiter recalls. "We've since switched to Advanced Business Software, and wished we went with them from the beginning – it would have helped a lot."

Sheldon Summer's biggest headaches are big boxes. Not the cardboard kind, but the retail kind that have come into his area, threatening to lure away his contractor customers with promises of low prices.

As president of Providence, R.I.-based Eastern Tool and Eastern Tool Repair Center, Summers conquers the behemoths by providing services that his large competitors cannot.

"My customers understand that they can buy their tools there, but who is going to show them how to use them and who is going to service them?" Summers asks. "The big boxes certainly don't do it because they don't know a galvanized nail from a ring nail."

A longtime woodworker, Summers founded Eastern Tool in his cellar in 1997 after 20 years of working on the marketing side of the industrial sector.

"It came time to retire, so I started this company in my cellar," Summers says. "It slowly grew into my garage, then into a small shop, and then into a larger one and a repair shop across the street."

Working with the motto "if you can't lift it, we don't have it," Eastern Tool sells power and pneumatic tools, nailers, staplers, compressors, fasteners and power tools to contractors, whom Summers says he "thoroughly enjoys" working with.

"I like the social aspect of the distribution business," he adds. "All of my customers are contractors, so all interaction is professional-to-professional. There's no amateur nights around here."

Early on, Summers found those professional customers by simply "getting out there and hustling." He says his firm thrives by delivering unparalleled customer service, and he often tells his seven employees that "you can have 500 happy customers, but if you have one unhappy one, you've killed 200 out of that 500."

"We knock ourselves out to keep customers happy, by doing things like keeping our phones open twenty-four-seven and providing fast turnaround on repair services," says Summers. "We'll jump for the contractor, and they really seem to appreciate that."

Summers won't divulge sales numbers, but says company growth has been "steady and right on target" since 1997. "The economy has hurt a little bit but not enough to throw us off plan," says Summers.

What do you get when you pair up the former head of SKF, Inc.'s Cuba operations with an ex-Phillip Morris executive whose family ran a distribution company for 40 years? You get the right balance of experience and knowledge to open Atlantic Bearing Services, a Miami-based bearing and power transmission distributor that serves mostly Latin American customers.

Founded in 1999 by Cuban national Alejandro Pardiñas, sales manager, and Spanish national Alvaro Ortega, general manager, 10-employee Atlantic Bearing Services' success caught the attention of Entrepreneur Magazine, which gave the company a spot on its Hot 100 fastest growing entrepreneurial businesses in 2001.

Hailing from different backgrounds and careers – Ortega an ex-Phillip Morris executive and former banker in Germany, Pardiñas the head of SKF in Cuba – Atlantic Bearing Services' founders brought their individual strengths to the table to form their new company. Calling the manufacturing industry "too capital intensive," Ortega says they selected distribution after seeing an opportunity to serve the overseas steel mills and distributors from American shores.

"We took three months to draw up a business plan and analyze the market," says Ortega. "Through that exercise, we came to the conclusion that there were a few areas that weren't being addressed by existing firms, so we filled the niche."

For starters, Ortega says American bearing distributors weren't traveling to Latin America to meet customers.

"We put a lot of money into traveling," he adds. "Companies also weren't offering any engineering know-how – they were basically just order takers. We, on the other hand, staffed our sales department with five engineers."

Relatively unaffected by national economic woes, Atlantic Bearing Services' sales hit $5.3 million in 2002, up from $4.9 million the year before. Ortega says margins did drop slightly, due to increased competition and increases in supplier pricing. He expects company performance to remain steady in 2003, and says the distributorship is keeping a close watch on the political and economic turmoil going on in places like Argentina and Venezuela.

"Some countries are in precarious positions right now, but we continue to get good customers throughout the entire region," says Ortega. "It's about getting the orders and reducing expenses, that's what we're focused on. There's a lot new to do in this market, and we plan to tackle it with all we've got."

Cedric Beckett was facing a tough decision last year. A former executive with Bowman Distribution (now Barnes Distribution), Beckett wasn't sure if he wanted to run another public company, or take the plunge into entrepreneurship and buy a private firm.

When Kennametal, Inc., put Strong Tool Co., on the block, Beckett went with door number two.

"It was the perfect opportunity because I already had years of experience in machining and distribution," says Beckett, company president, who bought the nine-location, 80-employee distributorship in April 2002 with an initial investment from both private investment and bank financing.

Strong Tool specializes in cutting tools, abrasives and MRO supplies, and works mostly with the automotive, medical and aerospace industries. In 2001, the company posted $32 million in sales, then dropped to $30 million last year. Beckett says his goal for 2003 is $34 million.

Attracted by Strong Tools' established brand name, recognition in the marketplace and "marquee-type" customers, Beckett has already made significant changes to the company – adding branches, hiring employees and upgrading its operating system to the latest technology.

"We've also introduced e-commerce – something the company wasn't heavily involved in when I bought it," says Beckett.

The fact that existing company employees have embraced the major internal changes, he adds, has meant the difference between success and failure.

"You simply cannot introduce these kinds of changes without employee buy-in," says Beckett. "They have to be ready to accept the challenge and recognize that changes must be made in order to grow."

Steve Short likes to tell his 17 employees that if Updike Supply doesn't have 100 percent market share, then there's still work to be done.

"If we can gain a larger market share through strategy and value-added services," says Short, president of the Dayton, Ohio-based distributorship, "then we're sure to survive and thrive in the future."

Short purchased Updike Supply in 1995 after serving as chief operating officer and part owner of a $65 million manufacturing firm. After selling that company, Short was ready to "do something different" with his life. "I didn't pick distribution, but it was a good business opportunity at the time," says Short. "Most appealing about distribution was how much of a people business it is, and that was my strength."

Looking back, Short calls his decision to buy an existing business a good one for him, particularly because he didn't have prior experience in the industry.

"Coming from the outside like I did and trying to start a distributorship from the ground up would have been a fiasco," Short admits.

With 17 employees, one location and a sales office in Cincinnati, Updike Supply has felt the pressure of the national economic woes for the last two years. The company sells cutting tools, abrasives and general MRO supplies to the metal-cutting industry – a sector that's been hit hard by the manufacturing recession.

Also challenging the distributorship is the continued contraction of the U.S. manufacturing sector, which means more competition from overseas.

"We have two problems to deal with – the softness in the industrial sector, and increased competition," says Short, adding that customers face similar challenges, and that's meant a permanent retraction of the company's market.

"When the economy does come back there will be fewer customers for us," says Short, "but we've made some small acquisitions and integrated those companies into ours. Those moves, coupled with very aggressive marketing, have allowed us to grow."

Tom Miller knew a lot about the oilfield industry before he started Eagle Supply Co., Inc., in his house in 1999. Armed with market knowledge obtained as an employee and later a partner with a distribution firm, Miller started his business by selling industrial fasteners, hand tools and related products to companies working in the region's oilfields.

"I wanted to see what I could accomplish on my own," says Miller, president of the eight-employee firm, which has since moved out of the house and now operates from one location in Hobbs, N.Mex. "I'd worked in this field for years, and I saw potential in a market where I already knew the products and the substantial potential for profit margin."

Miller says early customers included companies from the oilfield industry with whom he already had established relationships.

"That's what I was familiar with from my previous employment and the partnership, so that's where I concentrated my efforts," says Miller, adding that his biggest challenge so far has been sourcing products at a competitive price, then pricing them competitively. "We've worked through it on the trial and error method, basing our strategies on the individual customers, their location and the travel distance between the customer and our store."

The trial and error approach seems to be paying off for Eagle Supply, which saw sales rise from $750,000 in 2001 to $1 million in 2002. This year, Miller projects over $1.25 million in sales, thanks to a new building designed to attract more walk-in business, and a diversification of products lines.

"We also plan to hire as many additional salespeople as necessary to service our customer base," says Miller.

Still, Eagle Supply hasn't escaped the wrath of the economy. Growth has been steady, but it hasn't been up to par with what Miller had in mind when he started his company four years ago.

To work through the challenges, Miller keeps in mind a piece of advice that a friend gave him years ago: Do the very best you can, and help as many people as you can along the way.

"Starting your own business is a gamble no matter what you do, but the satisfaction and the rewards of helping others is beyond measure," says Miller.