When Joel Roth and Fulton Supply Co. contract with a new customer, the man and the company consider it very much like a marriage. There are no secrets, and Roth expects to have complete access to all the customer's information on data files, processes, order taking, procedures, organization personnel, and the like.

"If you went to a doctor with a complaint, would you refuse to let him examine you? Would you not give a medical history?" asks Roth, president of Fulton Supply Co., a distributorship offering a complete line of industrial supplies, tools and machinery, as well as engineering solutions to supply chain problems, headquartered in Atlanta. "That usually is our point when we have a customer say 'no' to giving us all access. We bring an engineering solution to a customer's supply chain problem, and to do that, we need to look at their total company—the entire supply chain from all respects—including paperwork, engineering, design, consumption, sourcing, pricing and inventory."

As an example, Roth cites a company for which Fulton provided specialty pallets. The company required their order first thing in the morning, but claimed to not know how many they would need until 2 p.m. the previous afternoon. Understandably, Fulton was having a hard time filling those orders on time.

After reviewing the company's processes, Fulton discovered that outside orders for a day's delivery would come into the company's order processing department almost eight days prior to Fulton's due date. Fulton established a computer link with that processing network, and soon after, was aware of pallet orders with a week's advance notice. After making that connection, Fulton never had another problem meeting the order.

"The key to this was true partnering with the customer," says Roth. "If they don't understand partnering, we can't do what we are capable of doing."

At Fulton Supply Co., the flagship company that includes Pensacola Mill Supply Co. and Tull Equipment and Supply Co., a particularly catchy phrase is an ideal explanation of their products and services. Roth says that Fulton can sell something to everyone but stockbrokers and booksellers.

Taking a look at the company's product/manufacturer list shows that truer words could not be spoken. Fulton covers a broad range of products, and sells more than 100,000 SKUs.

In terms of diversity, the company sells capital goods, such as machine tools, conveyors, rack and shelving, and hoist equipment; MRO materials such as drill bits and sandpaper; and OEM materials such as motors, chain and strapping.

"Our products have broadened in recent years because of integrated supply contracts where customers have asked for other products," says Roth. "Now, we also carry products in packaging, safety supplies, janitorial and sanitary supplies and even welding."

Fulton Supply holds about six integrated supply contracts that account for about one third of their total sales. Roth has some reservations about them, though, because from a distributor's standpoint, after the initial two or three years, the contracts lose their value to the distributor and customer. Customers go out searching for a different contract, and their distributors are left behind.

"Integrated supply contracts are heavily favored to the customer," says Roth. "Industry wide, they just aren't making the money for distributors."

Roth purchased Tull in 1978, Pensacola in 1981 and Fulton in 1987, all from their original owners. Tull and Fulton, coincidentally, were both founded in downtown Atlanta in 1914, within a block of each other. All now are under the Fulton Supply umbrella. The seven locations under the three company names cover South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

But why keep them separate, rather than bring them all under the same name?

"The names have been around for a while, and they have real value," says Roth. "Companies that homogenize everything make a mistake. These companies have local identities and relationships that are of value to everyone. Each has different products and vendor franchises. By merging, something would have to be compromised. I'm not sure what we would have gained by putting all three under the same banner."

The companies' group philosophy is universal enough, and Roth says that each promises to design, install and sometimes operate the most cost-effective supply chain solutions they can devise for their customers' indirect materials.

It is in reducing those indirect materials' costs that Fulton exceeds customers' expectations. When given an assignment, Fulton personnel will examine their customer's entire process and determine which factors are salient. Those are the aspects they focus on. The company devises solutions to those problems.

One example Roth cites is regarding a multi-plant steel processing company with whom Fulton had signed a multi-year contract. Terms of the contract stated that Fulton would reduce the customer's cost-per-ton of their maintenance and operating supplies by 20 percent in the first three years. Fulton did their analysis, and found changes could be made in several areas, including the cost of the steel strapping tools and the maintenance, standardizing some products, changing inappropriate specifications, employing a portable filtration system, and outsourcing their specialty pallets manufacturing. Fulton fixed all those supply chain issues and more, and at the end of three years, found a reduction, not of 20 percent, but of 47.13 percent.

For Richard Ulmer, senior buyer at Clariant Corp.'s location in Martin, S.C., Fulton has been the company to call for almost 14 years. Ulmer buys MRO and mill supplies from Fulton for Clariant, a global leader in fine and specialty chemicals.

"This site is out in the middle of nowhere," says Ulmer. "Van [Perry, Fulton's sales manager in the area] always helps with looking at any specific application; knows the material; and quickly corrects any problems. Fulton is the only account I don't really ever have to worry about. My guys know that when they need anything, to call Van, and he'll be able to take care of it."

Fulton's customers include manufacturing plants; electrical product manufacturers; metalworking; pulp and paper; process industries, including chemicals and petrochemicals; and institutions. Fulton also services hospitals, hotels, corporations such as Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, government agencies and the Center for Disease Control, and municipal construction projects, such as a new $2 billion sewer project, for which Fulton is providing everything from power tools and bearings to cable.

"Not one aspect of our customer base has as much as 5 percent of our business, and we like it that way," says Roth. "Any other way, we would be vulnerable to the markets. Our diversity is advantageous. If one area goes down, we won't be unduly affected. Our biggest problem is where best to concentrate our sales efforts."

According to Pete Colson, Fulton's director of materials management, Fulton's sales responsibilities are not relegated to their salespeople alone.

"Every manager in the company knows what's going on in the marketplace," he says, "and that is because each manager handles some outside account responsibilities on their own."

Roth contends that no one in the company can operate in the metaphorical "ivory tower," and that they must stay attuned to the marketplace.

Fulton's managers and salespeople look at their territories with a resourceful eye. If they only look at the area manufacturers, they may be missing out on other markets.

As an example, Roth cites a company that recently moved to town that manufactures carts for Home Depot, which is headquartered in Atlanta. That company is not a traditional manufacturer, but it requires 5,000 or 10,000 casters a month. Looked at properly, that's a good caster account, says Roth.

Having found a potential customer, Fulton's salespeople first find out who the buying influence is, build a relationship of communication and trust with that person, then determine the customer's objectives, needs and desires.

Armed with the information, the salesperson comes back to the office, and everyone sits as a group and figures out how Fulton, Tull or Pensacola can meet those needs. That, says Roth, is where they engineer a creative solution.

Ray Hughes, a technical sales rep for Lenox, a band-saw blade, sawing fluids, hand tools and power tool accessories manufacturer headquartered in East Longmeadow, Mass., has worked with Fulton Supply for four years.

"Fulton has a long-standing history within the area and the industry," he says. "They are my eyes and ears on the street. The salespeople cover entire counties and states, and always are out chasing accounts. They always are open to getting new business."

Roth boasts geographic diversity and integrated supply as advantages that have kept Fulton's head above water in the manufacturing recession, but says that the company still is in a uniquely adverse position when it comes to retaining and recruiting new business.

"Our profits have been down over the last few years," says Roth. "Our major market has been manufacturing, which has been hit hard. And in spite of the national economic figures, we have not seen a strong upturn in manufacturing."

Roth cites a prevailing overcapacity in manufacturing and the production that has shifted offshore as the basis behind the still stagnant growth.

Atlanta, though, always had been considered a kind of promised land when it came to industrial distribution, but that is the case no longer. In the last 10 to 12 years, the area has become a hub for regional distribution warehouses for five major distributors in the United States, says Roth. Those warehouses have put more than $100 million of inventory in Fulton's backyard, and 100 field sales-people in its territory.

"In addition to that, some of our largest accounts have closed their doors, consolidated, outsourced or gone overseas," says Roth. "Others have gone on more national programs, including integrated supply and e-commerce, where distribution decisions are no longer made in our area."

Roth admits that these issues affect distributorships across the country, but says they are true to an extraordinary degree in Atlanta.

"I am alarmed at the number of old-line distributors who have gone out of business," says Roth. "That's troubling. But as they say, it's a jungle out there."