SUMMER 2018

70
THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK
GLOBALFASTENERNEWS.COM
by JOHN WOLZ EDITOR
editor@globalfastenernews.com
SFA PANEL: U.S. TARIFFS HIKING STEEL PRICES
BTM Manufacturing received two loads of steel over
a three-week period with price increases of $0.04 per
pound on each load.
Southwestern Fastener Association panelists agreed
steel tariffs are not creating jobs – just price increases.
The panel on “Past, Present & Future” featured SFA
members representing different age groups.
“The steel industry is taking advantage of it,” BTM
president Jake Davis opined.
Supporting the domestic steel industry does not
create many jobs, panelist John Longyear of Metric &
Multistandard observed. The steel industry is heavily
automated, Longyear explained. Where there used to be
100 working in a steel mill, today there can be 30 or fewer.
Tricia Dyer of All America Threaded Products agreed
that domestic steel mills are upping prices “because
they can.”
Panelists doubted steel tariffs will change the
fastener industry.
“Nuts aren’t made here and they are not going to
be,” Longyear observed. The exception would be special
production runs.
Longyear, a 46-year veteran of the fastener industry
described doing business in the 2018 economy: “If you
can run fast, you can make the sale.”
“There was no ‘online,’” Longyear recalled of his
start in the industry in 1972 with Metric & Multistandard.
It was long before faxing too, he added.
“Nobody had computers. You ran back and forth
in warehouse and physically looked at shelves for
inventory.”
Longyear recalled there were only three companies
selling metric fasteners when he started: Zelenda,
Veteran Tool & Supply and Metric & Multistandard. All
three were New York based. Metric was a niche industry
with 80% of sales to end users.
“Distributors didn’t want to touch metrics,” Longyear
explained. Today distributors “can’t not sell metrics.”
Nor was there an Amazon.com not-so-many years
ago. “Everybody is affected,” declared Davis, who is with
manufacturer BTM and distributor ISSCO Inc. It makes
traditional fastener distributors a “niche business.” It is
increasingly easy for commodity buyers to just go online
and click to buy, Davis said.
However, Dyer finds that contractors have not
moved en masse to Amazon and remain buyers from
distributors.
Tips to attract millennials include offering more than
a job. “People want growth,” Dyer said.
“Does your company have a plan for the future?”
Longyear asked. “This is not a glamour industry
even though it holds the world together.”
“It is easy to get stagnant,” Davis warned.
Each generation is new, Davis observed. There were
Baby Boomers (1945-1964), GenXers (1965-1980) and
now Millennials (1981-1996) in the workforce.
“Everyone was a new generation,” Davis noted.
Millennials are so computer data oriented, Dyer
observed. Today customers can see what time thread is
being cut on what machine, she pointed out.
That customers can look at inventory online “makes
you a better salesperson,” Longyear suggested.
It means companies need to keep up with their
websites. Longyear, noting he may be the oldest
manager in the room, said he pushed for an upcoming
Metric & Multistandard website.
Your position on a Google search is vital, Longyear
said. Customers “will never get down to twentieth.”
BUSINESS FOCUS ARTICLE CONTINUED ON PAGE 146