Just four years ago, Bill Stevens, president and CEO of Motion Industries, the largest distributor of bearing, fluid power and power transmission components in North America, forecast sales of $3 billion by 2007. It seemed like a long shot, since the Birmingham, Ala.-based distributor had just $2.25 billion in sales at the time.

But Stevens’ forecast proved right on target, as sales last year reached $3.1 billion. And he isn’t resting on his laurels. Stevens is now forecasting sales of $4 billion by 2010.

“We have a very specific growth plan in place,” Stevens said in a recent interview. “We’re going to keep selling additional products to our existing customers, sell new products and grow through acquisition.”

The acquisitions will include companies in its growing industrial products business, the hose market and “through small regional distributors in the high-tech sector,” Stevens says—those selling industrial automation products and equipment.

Motion’s latest acquisition came in May when it purchased Canco, a hose distributorship in Western Canada. The company also expects to soon announce another purchase in the Pacific Northwest.

“Hose is one of our solid growth areas,” Stevens says. “It certainly has our interest.”

The company now has eight stand-alone fabricating centers and will open a few more in the next 12 months.

Motion is certainly not standing still.

Motion Industries has been on the acquisition trail for the last few years. (See chart p. 28). And as Stevens notes, it’s a crucial segment of the company’s growth plan. Motion has made major purchases over the years, but one that raised eyebrows last year was Lewis Supply, an industrial distributor headquartered in Memphis.

Motion was familiar with Lewis Supply, as they both supplied products to the Saturn automotive plant in Tennessee and they had several other customers in common. What seemed at the time a natural fit has worked out even better than first projected. Since its acquisition, Lewis has added a site and will be relocating its main operation in Memphis by the end of the summer.

But don’t ask Stevens how Lewis “fits in” to Motion. He’s quick to point out that Lewis Supply is in the company’s separate industrial products group, which consists of Lewis; Voorhies Supply in Louisiana, purchased in late 2005; and Ruston Industrial, also located in Louisiana and purchased in 2006. There could be further acquisitions down the road that would fall into the industrial products group, he says.

Stevens also makes it clear that Motion is interested in the high-tech industrial automation area. These companies would be small, regional distributors selling all types of products and services—anything from electrical controls, panels and switches to actually integrating plant equipment.

“We see this as a great opportunity for us,” Stevens says.

“This is not an unserved market by any means,” he continues, “but there are a lot of distributors who, for a variety of reasons—retirement or whatever—might be interested in selling.”

It seems like a natural extension for Motion, as the lines blur between traditional electrical, fluid power and motion control products into the automation area, and it opens up a variety of doors for Motion to sell a wide range of products to new customers.

At the same time, it creates problems when it comes to recruiting, hiring and training product experts with technical knowledge. Motion has 188 product specialists supporting 1,200 outside salespeople, but Stevens acknowledges that a shortage of engineers and finding the “right people” are challenges. Today, the company employs more than 5,600 people at more than 500 locations.

Stevens adds that recruiting and retaining people is always difficult. He notes that people have to be treated and paid fairly, with appropriate benefits, but also says companies have to invest in their employees’ growth. In the past, he says, many jobs were considered “stepping stones” to other positions in the company, but today the employees in those positions—who are computer savvy and have additional skills—need to be shown that those jobs are career opportunities in themselves, with good accompanying salaries. It requires a new way of approaching the job market, he says.

Motion invests heavily in training and has started its Eagle Program, a product-focused, internal certification program. Its fluid power and electrical professionals are certified through external, formal programs. Technical training is a must at Motion.

“It’s important for us to be certified to show that to our customers, but also to the manufacturers we represent,” Stevens says. “Otherwise manufacturers will be asking, 'If they don’t have the commitment to understand our products today how are they going to understand our next generation of products?’”

There’s no doubt Motion is a leader in the North American marketplace. And Canada has proven to be especially important to the Birmingham-based company. Last year, Motion sold $199 million worth of products in Canada (that’s in U.S. dollars).

“I’d love to make more acquisitions in Canada,” Stevens says.

In fact, Canadian sales are growing faster than U.S. sales, especially in markets related to energy.

“The locations we have in Canada are doing [phenomenally],” Stevens adds, noting that Canada’s paper industry is not doing quite as well as other sectors.

Meanwhile, Stevens says overseas markets are “on our list,” despite the company’s continued focus on North America. A group within Motion is looking at possible opportunities, but Stevens declined to elaborate except to say, “We do plan to announce something about doing business outside North America.”

He points out, however, that customers with overseas locations want to be serviced in the same manner they are here, opening opportunities to possible alliances with other distributors. Stevens says there are barriers to acquiring companies overseas, such as economic valuations and systems integration.

He adds that most companies today may be forced into being global companies “whether they want to be or not,” and it’s coming faster than anyone expected.

Stevens adds that there is still plenty of manufacturing business in North America. When asked if manufacturing in this country is still strong, he replied, “strong with a small 's.’”

“Is Detroit, for example, going to be as big as it once was [in automobile manufacturing]? Certainly not. But Detroit will still be pretty significant,” he said.

He also points out that two new steel mills are being built in the United States.

Meanwhile, international auto manufacturers are locating plants here. Toyota is building a plant in Texas, which means business for Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers such as Motion. Other international companies are basing operations in the United States and that’s creating additional sales opportunities as well.

Motion has gotten more than its share of new customers in the past few years, but Stevens says the firm still has many of the same kinds of customers it had 15 or 20 years ago. Steel mills and the paper industry, for example, remain key accounts, as does the automotive industry.

But to keep up with the demands of a new industrial marketplace, employee training is critical. And that’s where Motion excels. The company’s Motion Institute has four full-time instructors, and its employees attend webcast training over the Internet as well as traditional product training by manufacturers.

And to make sure Motion retains employees, the company, as part of its Employee Assessment Project, is surveying its associates about what Motion needs to do to attract and retain people at all levels. Although this program just started, Stevens says he’s already learned a few things from employees that his company can begin to implement right away.

For one thing, before companies such as Motion can retain workers, they have to attract them to the distribution business.

“Distribution is not a glamour business. It never has been, and never will be. But it’s a wonderful business and creates great career opportunities,” Stevens says. “After all, what can be more satisfying than helping a customer who has a problem and you help solve that problem?”

Stevens says he’s proud of the relationship his company has built with its suppliers and customers.

Through its Supplier Connectivity program, 72 companies are connected to Motion’s computer system so they can see inventory levels and sales information in a real-time environment. By sharing this information, manufacturers can streamline their production processes to ensure smooth delivery of products from their plants to Motion’s branches, as well as keep up to date on sales.

“By doing this, we’re stressing to these manufacturers that we are truly [their] partners,” Stevens explains, emphasizing that strong manufacturer-distributor relationships are one of the keys to sales success.

And under the company’s Customer Connectivity program, key customers can actually go in and check inventory levels, shipments and other information.

“Customer Connectivity is one of our highest priorities,” Stevens says, adding that customers can check everything from procurement to payment.

Motion has been recognized by a number of customers for helping solve application problems, reduce costs and improve efficiencies. U.S. Steel, Owens Corning and Cargill, for example, selected Motion as vendor of the year for providing logistical support, on time delivery, and value-added services.

Last year, Motion won national distributor awards from a number of suppliers, including Eaton Corp., Hub City and Hewitt-Robins Conveyor.

But that was in the past. Motion, a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Co., is now on its way to gain another billion dollars in sales in less than three years. And no one is betting against them.