Customers know even their most demanding needs will be met, thanks to Field Fastener's teamwork, customer service and positive attitude

For Bill Derry and his associates at Field Fastener Supply, a sluggish economy is no reason to slow momentum. Businesses can grow in tough times, Derry says; it just may take a little more effort than you're used to.

"Our attitude is, we're going to go out and out-perform the economy. And we've done that," says Derry, president of the Machesney Park, Ill.-based distribution firm, which sells fasteners and related items to customers in a range of industries. "We have looked at the economy and said, 'It has created a couple of very specific opportunities that match our capabilities.'"

Those opportunities? Quite simply, the customer's desire to reduce costs and his overall need to find easier, better ways of doing business. Field Fastener does more than provide the nuts, bolts, screws and other small hardware items customers use to build their products or run the systems that build their products. Field Fastener has built its reputation on its ability to find more cost-effective ways for customers to run their businesses.

That could mean finding a more effective fastener or fastening system to use in their plant; Field prides itself on its technical knowledge, which resides in long-term employees, including some engineers. It could mean implementing an inventory management system to streamline the procurement of fasteners and related items. It also could mean adding non-traditional products to the customer's order, making it that much easier for him to get the parts he needs, when he needs them.

Derry and his partner, his brother Jim Derry, have taken their company to market this way since buying it 13 years ago. Bill Derry was a former colleague of Field Fastener Supply's owner, Dick Field – the two worked for a fastener manufacturer at one point in time – and when the opportunity arose to buy the company, he and his brother jumped at it.

It's been an interesting ride ever since, Derry says. Field Fastener has expanded geographically, entered the OEM market and become an even more technical, service-oriented company. When the Derrys purchased Field Fastener, annual sales were about $1 million and there were 12 employees. Today, sales hover around the $16 million mark and employees number 42. A new location in the Chicago suburb of Wood Dale, Ill., has helped the firm penetrate the Chicago market.

The Chicago location is the result of Field's 2001 purchase of B&B Fasteners. Prior to the acquisition, Field covered Northern Illinois and parts of Wisconsin. Expanding to Chicago is an important part of Field's growth plan.

"[The acquisition] was a big deal for us," says Derry. "We'd had some great internal growth and we wanted to supplement that with growth through acquisition … We were beginning to get into the Chicago market and this helped us develop a presence there."

As with most acquisitions, there have been growing pains during Field's integration of B&B. Perhaps the greatest challenge is transferring Field's team approach in business to a new group of associates. The process is working, Derry says, but there are hurdles when introducing new cultures to new companies.

"It's a long process to get people thinking like teams," says Derry. "We've tried to create an entrepreneurial spirit in the company – and we do that by using a team-based management system."

The team-based approach means that, first and foremost, the entire company is a team. Derry says he and his brother try to instill this concept by giving employees a stake in the business. All employees participate in a quarterly, profit-based bonus program (except commissioned salespeople, who are on a different plan). The Derrys open the books to employees one day each month, explaining how the firm performed in the previous quarter. Bonus checks are handed out that day. The involvement gives workers ownership in the company and a stake in its performance, Derry says.

"This way, everyone gets a broader view of the company," he explains. "You can't expect a customer service rep to think like an entrepreneur if they don't have knowledge of the other parts of the business."

Another aspect of the team approach is an effort to expose all employees to Field Fastener's most important objective: serving its customers. All employees are encouraged to interact with end users – whether that be through visits to customer facilities, more involvement over the phone, or through company-sponsored meetings in which customers tell Field Fastener Supply what they expect from the distributorship. Everyone from the quality manager to the warehouse employee is encouraged to get close to customers.

One recent customer visit to Field Fastener included a luncheon, to which all employees were invited. They listened to what the customer had to say about its market, its growth plans, and its expectations of Field Fastener.

"We are a customer-driven company; you have to be in distribution," Derry explains. "If people want to advance their careers with our company, experience dealing with the customer is only going to help them."

Derry estimates that about half of his employees have held jobs that require face-to-face customer contact. The greatest thing that does for the company, he says, is create an internal attitude that puts customer service first.

Robin Miles, a commodity manager at the Freeport, Ill., facility of a diversified manufacturer, has first-hand knowledge of that philosophy. Field Fastener has supplied Miles' facility with nuts, bolts, screws and other hardware items for eight years. Miles has worked with Derry and his team for four years.

"They understand the customer's requirements and what needs to be done to satisfy customers," she says, pointing to an important example for her firm: testing of fasteners to be sure they meet quality standards. "They understand that when we get new suppliers, we have to go through a qualification process. They understand that we're very tight on our processes, and they follow those processes to a tee."

Through its quality department, Field Fastener tests and provides documentation on new products, so that Miles' company doesn't have to. This helps both the customer and the distributor meet quality standards.

"They are definitely a team-oriented company," Miles continues. "Everyone knows what their role is and if someone is out, someone else on that team knows what to do. They work together as a team, through the good and the bad."

Diane Anderson, a sales representative at XL Screw Corp. in Wheeling, Ill., echoes those sentiments. She's worked with Field Fastener since the Derrys bought the company in 1990. And she praises the distributor's effort to work as a partner with her company, which has been a supplier to Field since the 1970s.

"We work together trying to see where we can reduce costs. A favorite term of Bill's is, 'Think outside the box.' I think we've done that for them," Anderson says. "Their approach is not, 'You are the vendor, you must do this.' It's, 'Let's see what we can do together.'

"You don't find that concept very often. … And when others slack in business, Bill and Jim's forward attitude doesn't allow that to happen. When others are down and crying, they're pushing [for business]."

The fastest-growing part of Field Fastener's business is in supplying non-traditional products to customers, usually as part of inventory management systems. Non-traditional products include o-rings, screw machine parts, plastic components, electronic items, small stampings, plumbing supplies, and light bulbs, among others; this business represents one-third of Field's overall activity. As with the other facets of the company, this is an area where the team approach is vital.

"It was a challenge to add these products when we first started. Our biggest strength, obviously, is fasteners; when customers started to ask us to source these other products, we didn't always know enough about them," says Derry. "This is where our team-based management system helped."

Instead of asking all salespeople to bone up on new and varied product groups, the Derrys assigned a team of employees to cover the procurement and supply of non-fastener items.

"Because it's an area of focus for one of our teams, we've accelerated the learning curve on these items," Derry says.

That's not to say Field Fastener has become an expert on everything under the sun. While the company has become adept at supplying and servicing some new product groups, there are others they continue to learn about. For the latter items, Field Fastener is quick to tell customers that it will procure and supply them, but that it can't be the front-line source for technical service right away.

The process of supplying customers with non-core items is not new in distribution. It's a trend that's swept through the industry, touching general-line and specialty houses alike. For many companies, taking on new product lines is a matter of business survival. But for Field Fastener, the process is less about survival and more about cost-reduction. The more Field Fastener can do to improve a customer's operation, the better positioned it will be to serve that customer for years to come.

And that process goes far beyond distributing and managing products. Field Fastener uses its expertise in procuring, delivering and supporting products as a backdrop for a more forward-looking goal: the ability to analyze a customer's operation and put a system in place to manage the flow of products and services.

"Our value is more measured by our ability to analyze and provide data for decision-making than it is in the management, storage and movement of parts," Derry explains. "Most traditional distributors, and most fastener distributors, view their value as this warehouse full of stuff. 'When you need it, I've got it.'

"Our view is changing. Ten years from now, we may not have anything in our warehouse, but we'll understand the customer's usage and know how to get them the products when they need them."