Incoming ASA president Joel Becker to take reins of ASA at convention

BY MARY JO MARTIN
Editorial director

Joel Becker

Incoming ASA president Joel Becker doesn’t exactly have the typical background of most wholesaling leaders. He actually was pursuing an advanced degree in biophysics and had completed three years of graduate studies when he decided in 1975 to take a year off. Becker’s father-in-law, Morris Stein, who with his brothers owned Torrington Supply in Waterbury, Conn., offered Becker an interim job — which turned into a lifelong career.

In his 31 years at Torrington Supply, Becker has held virtually every position except bookkeeper. He began — as most do in wholesaling businesses — in the warehouse, handling picking, shipping and counter sales. A year later, Becker moved to counter and inside sales manager and held some purchasing responsibilities. When Stein’s brother Jerry retired in 1979, Becker became the warehouse and shipping manager, in addition to retaining responsibilities for counter and inside sales. Over the next 10 years, Becker took on various jobs in inside sales, purchasing, outside sales, sales management, it manager and general manager before being named CEO when another Stein brother, Harold, retired in 1990.

Torrington Supply was founded by David Stein, who immigrated to New York from Lithuania in 1909. After marrying, he and his wife moved to New Britain, Conn., and started their family while he worked as a plumber for ff Garrity Co. Stein opened his own plumbing contracting business in 1915, purchasing plumbing supplies from a company in Meriden, Conn., and storing them in his garage. As other contractors learned of his “inventory,” they began buying supplies from Stein. This created a wonderful business opportunity, and in 1917, Stein opened Brass City Plumbing Supply in Waterbury, Conn.

Within three years, Brass City Plumbing Supply had added two more branches — one in Torrington, and the other in Middletown, Conn. But when a flood from the Naugatuck River wiped out the Waterbury branch, Stein was forced to relocate the corporate offices to the Torrington location. After recouping their losses, the company reopened a branch in Waterbury in the mid-1930s. Around this time, Stein renamed the company Torrington Supply Company.

Three of David Stein’s four sons joined Torrington Supply over the next decade and the infusion of their energy and talents helped the company flourish. The elder Stein retired in the mid-1950s and his sons — Morris, Jerry and Harold - took over ownership.

Torrington Supply is currently led by third-generation family members Nancy and Joel Becker. Nancy’s brother, Fred Stein, worked at the company for 40 years before retiring this past December. The company — which focuses on the distribution of plumbing, HVAC, pumps and PVF — now operates nine locations throughout Connecticut and employs 120 people. The majority of the sales are residential and light commercial plumbing and heating products to the plumbing trade.

In addition, four showrooms primarily service the trade, but also cater to a growing retail clientele. There is also one stand-alone retail showroom within a stone and marble distribution company showroom.

According to Becker, Torrington Supply operates using a hub and spoke central distribution model with most products being redistributed to the branches and directly to branch customers from the distribution center in Waterbury.

Becker recently shared his thoughts on the industry, and on his goals as incoming president of the American Supply Association, with editorial director Mary Jo Martin.

MJM: What are some of the changes you have experienced since being in this industry, specifically in the way wholesalers do business?

Becker: I think the biggest change is the level of competition and sophistication in the way most wholesalers operate today. Most wholesalers I come in contact with are well managed, have strong management teams, are well capitalized, have enormously complex and sophisticated systems, and provide very high levels of service to their suppliers and customers. The days of the fly-by-night competitors are gone. The emphasis on personnel development, training and recruitment is greater today than ever in the past.

MJM: What are some of the major challenges you see wholesalers facing in today’s marketplace?

Becker: Along with the change mentioned above has come a higher level of expectation by our customers and suppliers. Distributors today have to have the personnel and systems in place to ensure they have what their customers want now at the right price. Easy profits are being squeezed out of the system as both lower margins and higher service expectations come at the same time. Ultimately, the winners and losers will be determined by the people working at our businesses.

The best companies put enormous resources into maximizing personnel productivity because it both pays off now and ensures a prosperous future. Most of the PHCP distributors I know of struggle with personnel issues and have not begun to figure out ways to maximize personnel productively. This is one of those issues where it seems there is no right way to go.

MJM: You’ve been involved in various ways with ASA for quite some time. Can you outline the committees and divisions that you’ve served on and why you’ve chosen to be so active?

Becker: My involvement with the industry began almost immediately. I entered this industry on the heels of my father-in-law’s direct involvement with ASA. He was our industry’s most ardent supporter and built his career around the concept of participation and giving. At my father-in-law’s urging, I began attending our region’s monthly credit meetings when I was still working in the warehouse. There was a real purpose and camaraderie to those meetings. I got to rub elbows with all the owners of our competitors and got to know them pretty well. My father-in-law always told me to treat our competitors like customers. I enjoyed being around them and began attending the regional and national conventions in the late 1970s.

In the early 1990s I was asked to fill a vacancy on the Industrial Piping Division council and began attending ASA board meetings. I served on the council and through the chairs to IPD chairman. During that time, I frequently volunteered for non-IPD assignments and was involved on the technology committee and then the Center for Advancing Technology.
When Karl Neupert approached me about both giving and helping with the Education Foundation endowment campaign, I agreed to help. In recent years, I served on the ASAEF board, and in 2001 I was asked to serve on the ASA executive committee.

MJM: With ongoing consolidation and the growing interest in buying groups, how can ASA grow membership and participation at events?

Becker: Our first task will be to keep our existing members involved and active. The good news is that most of our membership decline has been a result of member-to-member acquisitions. The actual number of branches has not changed all that much in the last 10 years. If we can successfully engage these companies, we’ll naturally bring in new members. We can do this by delivering 21st century programs and services that are valued by everyone. Our second membership step will be to reach out to the very large pool of unaffiliated independent wholesalers. In my own market, I have an equal number of competitors that are not ASA members.

The ISH-North America show is going to continue to be a challenge and is probably in need of some kind of change. With that said, it is still well attended and the most efficient way for contractors, distributors, manufacturers and reps to meet. The key to raising manufacturer interest in the show is distributor attendance. We are going to work hard to build the attendance and make the show a valuable showplace for our manufacturers. I feel strongly that there will always be a need and desire for an annual industry get together. I also feel strongly that the convention performs a very valuable function.

There are surely changes we can make in the programming but overall it’s been pretty good. Every year I attend the Young Executives’ “Meet the Pros” workshops and listen in amazement at what others have done in their showrooms, sales management, personnel management, etc. Where else are we going to be able to hear from the best in a constructive, non-competitive format? Most of what I’ve learned and done in my career has come from an idea sparked at an ASA Convention workshop or social gathering. The buying group meetings are no substitute for these meetings, and serve a very different purpose.

MJM: What is your impression of the current regional structure and its viability?

Becker: Personally, I think the regional structure works, both from an ASA perspective and that of a member of wane. We at Torrington Supply continue to receive enormous value from both. We’re looking for programs, services and information to help us run our business, which ASA provides.

We are also looking for networking opportunities with other distributors within our geographic territory who have the same regional issues — be it taxes, fuel prices or weather. Regional events even provide opportunities to talk with competitors, which we rarely have. We really don’t get this from our buying group.

ASA’s role is to create and administer the programming and services our members want, and the regionals’ role is to help administer and distribute the programs and provide networking opportunities. We have different roles but a strong symbiotic relationship.

MJM: Do you find that the executive committee and board of ASA have common goals? Is there agreement about the direction the association should take?

Becker: I sure hope so. There are issues at times where individual board members have regional differences with other board members or ASA, but that’s to be expected. In some eyes, the executive committee is ASA and the board is a separate entity from the executive committee. That is not the case — we are all on the board and the executive committee acts on behalf of the board.

MJM: Where do you see the wholesale channel headed in the short- and long-term? How much more consolidation is feasible and how difficult will it become for independent wholesalers in an ever-more-competitive marketplace?

Becker: I do not see the demise of the wholesale channel. On the contrary, I know there are pressures with the national builders going direct and with the big box companies going after the contractor market and the national chains continuing to expand through consolidation.

Even with all that, there is an enormous leveling of the playing field in the construction business. From our experience, we firmly believe the battle for a contractor’s business is won or lost on the local street corners and not at corporate headquarters. So long as the local company offers the service (sometimes a product and brand issue, but usually a personnel issue), the buying decisions will be made based on the relationship between the customer and the branch personnel — not the size of the corporation.

There is still plenty of opportunity for consolidation, but I do not see it as tipping the market in the direction of the larger companies. As I said, for 99% of us the battles are — and will continue to be — very local.

MJM: What are some of the ASA programs or services that you have used at Torrington and how have they improved your business?

Becker: We try to maximize our membership value and take advantage of many of ASA’s programs. We subscribe to Translink (ASA ANSINET) as our EDI van, EDI Express maps, HomePortfolio (a showroom internet search tool), have had numerous serious conversations with Catalog Builder, and were, until recently, subscribers to the Industry Database.

We are heavy users of the Education Foundation programs. We do not know of any other source of training materials specific to our industry. The training materials make our membership worthwhile. Every employee at our company has an individual development plan whereby they are required to complete four training credits a year. The credits consist of all the ASA training materials, webinars, vendor product training programs, etc. The majority of the credits are earned from ASA programs.

We also attend the ASA Convention every year (we find it very useful), and usually take advantage of the lunch & learn phone seminars and regional training as it comes along.

MJM: What are your hopes for this year’s ASA Convention and ISH North America?

Becker: I hope for a large distributor turnout. If we get that, good things will happen.

MJM: What are your goals as incoming president? Do you have a platform of certain programs that you are most interested in progressing?

Becker: The most pressing issue facing ASA is developing an appealing value that will cause our existing members to feel their dues are a bargain, i.e. they can feel the tangible benefits of membership, and new companies to want to join. This has been the top priority since I’ve been on the executive committee, so this is nothing new. However, I hope that we can build on the experiences of my predecessors and make some breakthrough this year.

The ASAEF has a $10-million endowment that now must be put to work. The donors want the annual endowment income to be spent developing and delivering programs to the ASA membership. As our 2006 convention approaches, we are in the final stages of completing the original $10-million campaign. It is now time to deliver the goods. The ASAEF board has worked hard at developing great training programs with seemingly broad appeal to our membership but with limited success. I would guess that less than 25% of all member firms purchase ASA training materials.

I hope ASA can work with the Education Foundation to redefine our value and expand our role. By limiting our scope to training, we’ve limited our opportunities and value to our members. Perhaps if we broadened our scope to include all topics involving personnel management and productivity, we could have a larger appeal and attract the interest of all members — large, small, distributor, manufacturer and rep.