SUMMER 2019

78
THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK
RUETZ FOR RUETZ AT AIS, MSC, AND FAB GROUP
by Timothy O’Keeffe
In April, Fastener Professional of the Year, Jim Ruetz,
retired as President and CEO of All Integrated Solutions
– a division of MSC Industrial, and handed the keys over
to his nephew, Nick Ruetz. Both Jim and Nick attribute
a strong circle of advisors, peers, and family pedigree
as they reflect on the transition
and the future. “My grandmother,
Oma, was a refugee in Poland in
1943,” Nick recalls. “When the
Russian’s came, she fled one way
and the rest of the family went the
other. Oma, who turned 91 this
year, recalls sitting low in some
bushes as she watched the army
boots march by. When I think of
my career in business, I think
about her and I think about my
father (Dick Ruetz). He taught me
the value of hard work and how
to treat your employees,
but grandma instilled in
me how to survive and be
resourceful.”
Jim is equally
reflective. “I never really
wanted to be in the family
business,” he says. Jim’s
undergraduate degree was
in Oceanography and his
first career choice was to
be an Air Force pilot, but he
washed out of the program. Jim joined All Tool Sales in
Racine, WI, in 1979 where his brothers Dick and Bill were
already hard at it, specializing in machine tool components
and tools for production. A year later, the company’s
founder, George Ruetz, made a key strategic decision
to create an OEM fastener division – All Fasteners, and
BUSINESS FOCUS ARTICLE
gave Jim the opportunity to manage and grow it. “I quickly
realized that my science background didn’t meet what
I needed to run a company,” says Jim. “I decided to go
back to school and get my MBA from the University of
Chicago.” In 1997, Jim and his brothers made the move to
rationalize about 400 customers,
allowing the company to focus
more intensely on their largest
accounts. The move was so
bold that Progressive Distributor
magazine put them on their cover.
In 2013, the company was sold
to High Road Capital Partners. Bill
and Dick retired post-sale, and
Dick moved to Florida where he
continues to mentor Nick. In 2015,
Jim, Nick, and the management
team engineered a rebranding of
the companies to All Integrated
Solutions (AIS). The new company
consisted of High Road Capital
partners of New York, NY; Accurate
Components and Fasteners of
ABOVE: PROGRESSIVE
DISTRIBUTOR – NOV/DEC
2001
JIM & DICK RUETZ
LEFT: NICK RUETZ
New Brighton, MN; All Tool Sales
and All Fasteners in Racine, WI;
Williams Fasteners in Minneapolis,
MN, and Cedar Rapids, IA; and in
2016, Great Lakes Fasteners in
Grand Rapids, MI. Between acquisitions, Nick studied
at night and earned an undergraduate degree in 2015
from the Lubar School of Business at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Master’s of Science with an
emphasis in Business Design & Innovation from Carthage
College in Kenosha, WI, in 2017.
In 2018, All Integrated Solutions was sold to MSC
Industrial, and Jim and Nick went to work facilitating the
transition as a strategic division of a public company.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 158