Dominating the hose market

River Bend Hose Specialty is a hose distributor based in South Bend, Ind.

By Joe Nowlan, Associate Editor -- Industrial Distribution, 2/1/2006

Traveling to or from River Bend Hose Specialty can sometimes bring to mind the old "you can't get there from here" joke.

Located in South Bend, Ind., the area is on Eastern Standard Time, but not on Daylight Savings Time, explains Lee Slavinskas, River Bend's vice president and minority owner.

"You leave here and go up to Michigan, say, which is only eight miles away, and you're in the same time zone—depending on which half of the year it is," he laughs. "Sometimes they're the same time as we are; sometimes they're an hour ahead. Then, you go west, and you've lost an hour. But when you come home, you gain that hour back."

A couple counties away, things are on Central Time. But on the other hand, both Michigan and those Indiana counties to the west of River Bend follow Daylight Savings Time: "spring forward, fall back."

"So they'll flip their clocks an hour back or ahead twice a year, whereas we never change our clocks!" Slavinskas says, in describing the confusion it can sometimes create. "So half the year we're on the same time they are, and half the year we're an hour ahead.... You'd be surprised how often—as much as you know about it and live it every day—someone will say 'Shoot! I'm an hour early for my appointment.' And often, it's because you're only traveling 10 miles or so...."

Late last year, the Indiana State Legislature chose to adapt Daylight Savings Time, effective in April, 2006. But state officials then allowed each county to determine which time zone they preferred—Eastern Daylight Saving Time or Central Daylight Saving Time.

Slavinskas chuckles at all this as he explains it to an out-of-state visitor, while adding, "from a business perspective, though, I think there would be an advantage for us to be on Eastern Daylight Savings Time," explaining that it would give River Bend an extra hour to get late-in-the-day shipments out on time.

"That hour could be super advantageous," he says, "if I get a call for something they need on next day air."

Whatever the time zone, customers and manufacturers who work with River Bend are glad to find them—on time or not.

A distributor of industrial and hydraulic hose assemblies, theirs has been a steady rate of growth over the years, Slavinskas says, even in 2001 and 2002, when virtually everyone was struggling to some extent. He attributes that to the company staying diversified in its customer base over that time.

"We have always been industry diversified. We've never had all our eggs in one basket as far as being all OEMs, say, or concentrating on just one market," Slavinskas explains. "The diversity of our customer base has been a thing that's helped us be recession proof. I mean, we've had our ups and downs, but they've never been of the magnitude of some other companies."

There's a bit of a Catch 22 for many distributors these days. Being well respected for a particular specialty, or niche, is vital. Yet at the same time, relying too much on that one strength can cause a company to struggle—especially when the business for that particular strength declines. It's a situation that Slavinskas is proud to say has not damaged River Bend and its customers.

"You can't be a specialist strictly from the point of saying 'I've got two big steel mills and two accounts that will be 70 percent of my business,'" he explains. "For years, we never had a customer who was more than 10 percent of our business in a given month. We survived on having a list of 1,200 to 1,300 smaller, active customers who we knew would buy something from us a number of times over the course of the year."

River Bend was founded in the early 1980s. Slavinskas was the first person the then-owners hired, the company's third employee overall.

Today, River Bend has annual sales of approximately $10 million and employs more than 40 people at its South Bend facility. Its territory is predominantly northern Indiana and southern Michigan.

Some key manufacturer relationships have been vital to River Bend's growth since the '80s, Slavinskas explains, referring especially to Parker Fluid and Goodyear.

"We are a Parker Fluid connector distributor. Joining them was a turning point in our growth," he says. They are also a Goodyear industrial hose distributor, he adds.

"Those are superior industry-identified lines," he says. "As a new or fledging business, it gives you a lot of credibility with your customers when a large, top-line manufacturer chooses you to distribute their products."

Jeff Kline, regional manager for Goodyear Rubber in Cincinnati, praises River Bend for its work and innovations.

"They are totally committed to our product line and promoting growth between our companies," Kline says. "They're successful in the marketplace and are innovative and creative problem solvers. And that's the kind of distributor we like to do business with."

Kline explains that being a "Goodyear authorized distributor ... is a designation [we give] to our distributors who are fully committed to the Goodyear product line," adding that River Bend's president and majority owner, Jim Betz, is on Goodyear's distributor advisory council.

Over the years, River Bend has been getting more involved in the fabrication of metal hose, Slavinskas says.

"That, too, was a turning point that today helps us grow our business," he explains.

That, among other things, has meant that River Bend employees are usually in a state of training—learning new techniques or newly established modifications on previous standards. They do a lot of in-house training, both for their outside as well as inside sales staff, Slavinskas explains.

"We take advantage of every one of our suppliers' training classes," he says. "We've also done some things internally where we offer and encourage our employees to take additional classes at the local technical schools. We'll offer some tuition reimbursement and also take advantage of some on-line Internet training."

Keeping on top of training techniques has symbolized a challenge that River Bend has embraced, Slavinskas says. And he explains it has paid off both literally and in other ways as well.

"Where training also helps us," Slavinskas says, "is that we have a history of people staying here a long time. We haven't seen a lot of turnover. So we make investments in people and product training. If a customer has a technology issue or problem, I feel I always have people on staff, who have been here 10 years or longer and can go in, do the troubleshooting and then make recommendations."

One of their customers is Jan Micek, a senior buyer at AM General in Mishawaka, Ind., not far from River Bend.

Not long ago, Micek explains, River Bend was "just" a local distributor from whom her company would buy a handful of parts.

"But in the past few years, we have really used them," she says. "They manage our hose and fittings requirements. They are close enough to us to monitor our inventory. So we've been placing all our purchase order requirements through them and letting them source the parts."

Micek and AMG are taking advantage of the inventory management service program that River Bend offers.

"We, like all companies, try to make our supplier base smaller, deal with fewer sources," she says. "Their business with us has grown considerably.... It's been very good."

Like many in his industry, Slavinskas has been watching the development of the NAHAD Hose Assembly Guidelines. Introduced and re-written over the past year or so, they have already influenced River Bend and its customers. (NAHAD is the Assn. for Hose and Accessories Distribution, an industry trade group.)

"The hose assemble guidelines and other quality-type issues being worked on gives the [NAHAD] membership the tools to demonstrate to their customers that, number one, they are supplying quality products," Slavinskas says, "and also that they are considering the design and engineering aspects of the product."

Slavinskas' intent is to not make hose and belting too technical. But, well, they are technical and often need to be explained and, in some cases, clarified.

"We're trying to make customers understand that hose and assemblies and fittings can be like a designed and engineered system," he says. "It's not just like ...'I need a bolt!'"

In that regard, the guidelines can also guard against commoditization in the industry, he explains.

"And that's been a challenge for a lot of hose and fittings businesses. Over the years a lot of people have gotten into this business [even though] it's not their core product line. And they choose to make it a commodity. They'll say 'Give me a part number and I'll give you a price,'" he says.

The guidelines are still being fine tuned. But Slavinskas likes what he sees, calling them "a work in progress. I think they'll be a good tool.... They will benefit the distributor, end user and consumer."

Slavinskas can look back at 2005 as another good, steady year for River Bend. Their diversity over a specialization approach was paying off—something he anticipates continuing through 2006—regardless of the time zones.

"We have a strong inventory and provide consistent service," he said. "Hey, those things still work."

This story was reprinted from ID's April 2005 NAHAD Convention issue.