Making it Personal

Imagine that you're a contractor and you get a call from the president of your HVACR wholesaler distributor inviting you for a day of fishing or a round of golf. You didn't win a contest, and he's not trying to sell you anything; it's just an opportunity to spend a few hours together. Now that's taking personal service to a whole different level.

This is the way that Spokane, WA-based Blacks Wholesale Distributing Inc. has operated since it first opened its doors in 1938. Blacks' employees know their customers, treat them as friends and do whatever it takes to help them succeed in their business. Even as Blacks has grown from its 4,500-square-foot facility in Spokane to a 45,000-square-foot location there and five branches in Washington and Montana, it has remained the distributor where contractors can feel at home.

James "Rolly" Johnson is president of Blacks - the third-generation owner of the business. Blacks Wholesale is named for its founder, Charlie Black, who started the business as a service station repair shop. In 1949, Bert Johnson, Rolly's grandfather, joined Charlie and became a partner. Charlie Black passed away shortly thereafter, leaving the business to Bert Johnson. Rolly's father, Jim, took over the business at age 18 when Bert, too, suddenly passed away.

Rolly officially began working at Blacks in 1982, the year he graduated from high school and began earning his associate's degree in management. While his father was thrust into the business because of the death of his father, Rolly enjoyed all aspects of the work - even when he was sweeping the floor or stocking shelves. "I really liked the customer side of things," he recalls. "You'd see the same customers every day, and they became more than customers, they became friends. That was really appealing to me." After working his way up in the business, he became president and majority shareholder in 1994.

When Johnson became president, Blacks had two locations in Washington and one in Montana. Since then, he's expanded the business to six locations, adding two branches in Montana and one in Washington. The branches also serve parts of northern Idaho and northeastern Oregon. Johnson says the business has expanded because there were opportunities in each of those areas to serve customers. "We saw a need for distribution in those areas," he says. Most competitors, he notes, are either small distributors or a larger distributor some distance away trying to serve the market with deliveries. Going into markets with little competition proved to be fortuitous for the business, making them the dominant players in these smaller markets.

Of course, doing business in the Northwest presents many challenges as well. "We've got all these miles in between," Johnson says. "It might be 200 miles to make one sales call and then drive another 200 miles. That's very unique." Such vast distances drive up Johnson's costs.

Given the size of Blacks' market area, there's great diversity in its product line. "That forces us to carry just about everything that Ruud has," Johnson says. The Spokane headquarters remains the central warehouse, but Johnson says they try to direct-ship as much product as possible from the vendors to keep costs down. Still, Johnson says, they "haul a good majority" of products themselves to the branches.

Branches are small, with each location having two to five employees. In the smaller branches, the branch manager does double duty as the sales manager, which Johnson says is an effective way to operate. "The branch manager is a jack-of-all-trades and knows a little bit about everything," Johnson says.

The Spokane headquarters has specialists who, in turn, help the branches with product questions or service issues. “It happens all the time,” he says. "When they run into a problem, they'll call us for advice." In some cases, the specialists travel to the branches, whether it's for a sales call or a technical issue.

While there is little competition at Blacks' smaller branches, there are plenty of HVACR wholesale distributors in Spokane. Still, Johnson is quick to point to the fact that Blacks is the only locally owned wholesaler in the city [Editor’s note: Larry and Willis Brown, father and son, purchased Johnstone Supply from Bill Nock in 1974. Larry stills owns the Spokane branch of this national distributor for HVACR parts and equipment. Johnstone Supply across the nation are locally owned and operated]. "I can remember back when I was growing up, every distributor that we competed with was a locally owned wholesaler. Since then, things have changed," he says. "Now, they are fairly large regional or national businesses here."

Blacks promotes its local roots in its marketing. "I still believe there's room for the small guy in the market," he says. In fact, Blacks uses a teddy bear with a "we care" sign around its neck as its mascot. Small is beautiful, Johnson tells his customers. "We're the small guy, but we can react just as fast and we can provide the little extra personal touches that our competitors just can't."