Mixing it up

Bearings and Drives knows the value of a diverse mix of products, services and customers.

by Rich Vurva

When John D. Nations founded Bearings and Drives in Griffin, Ga., in 1947, he understood the importance of not placing all of his eggs in one basket. Because he suspected there wasn’t enough bearings business in northern Georgia to keep his fledgling company afloat, he added drives and other power transmission components to the product mix.

Andy Nations, John’s son, learned from his father the importance of diversity in the mix of products, services and even customers. Nearly 60 years after Nations founded the company, it has grown into a $72 million provider of industrial products and services to manufacturing, mining, OEMs and engineering firms in the Southeast U.S. and, more recently, Latin America and other international locations.

The company experienced dramatic change over the past half century. Now called B&D Industrial, it operates three divisions. The largest, Bearings and Drives, represents more than 300 manufacturers of bearings, power transmission and fluid power components from 29 branches in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.

B&D Service provides equipment repair and maintenance services to a wide range of industries in the Southeast. Field service crews from three service centers in Macon, Augusta and Savannah, Ga., travel throughout the Southeast U.S.

Scale Systems is one of the nation’s largest industrial scale distributors, offering sales and service support for a wide range of laboratory and industrial weighing applications.

In addition to 20 Certified Bearings Specialists certified by the Bearing Specialists Association, the company also employs three electrical engineers, fluid power specialists, conveyor system specialists, data programmers and crews of millwrights, welders, electricians and machinists. According to B&D president Andy Nations, this highly trained staff sets the company apart from its competition.

“Since the very beginning, we’ve competed against the largest bearings and PT distributors in the country,” he says. “To some extent, we’re selling the same products they sell, so all we have to offer that’s different is our people, our service and our ability to help the customer.”

Although the company has grown substantially over the years, it strives to keep as much decision-making authority as possible at the local branch level in order to be responsive to customers.

Finding a niche
Keeping abreast of changing customer needs is one of the keys to success, says vice president Harold Sharp. For example, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, B&D Service recognized the downsizing trend among U.S. manufacturers. Many companies eliminated maintenance staff and looked for ways to outsource repair jobs.

“Customers don’t employ the number of people today they did 10 years ago,” says Sharp. “As they downsize their personnel, they’re outsourcing more and more. We fit a niche there. It’s a matter of being flexible to fit their requirements.”

B&D entered the service arena by providing gearbox repairs from a back corner of a single warehouse location. Today, it offers 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week maintenance, equipment installation and repair service, and can troubleshoot and provide warranty repair service on speed reducers, vacuum pumps, rotary blowers and rotary airlock feeders.

At one of the world’s most productive paper mills, a B&D Service crew recently saved the day. Assigned to perform routine maintenance inside the mill, which annually generates more than 650,000 tons of paperboard used in folding cartons, the crew received word that a bearing on a paper machine failed, causing the machine to be taken out of production. The paper mill estimates that downtime on the paper machine costs between $8,000 and $10,000 per hour, so time was critical.

The B&D Service crew got to work 30 minutes after the machine broke down.

“We pulled our guys off the job they were doing and put them on the bearing. They pulled the bearing and replaced it, and we had them back up and running in about 16 hours,” says Sharp.

When a primary speed reducer failed on the main conveyor line at the Florida Rock Industries rock quarry in Macon, knocking the quarry out of commission, B&D Service quickly located a replacement part and shipped it from Milwaukee. But the replacement part needed to be modified in order to fit the conveyor properly and downtime cost an estimated $4,000 to $6,000. The clock was ticking.

“Our machine shop worked all night to modify the input shaft,” says Sharp. Within 36 hours from the time the line went down, B&D Service had it up and running.

Without the ability to make onsite repairs, the total downtime costs would have exceeded hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Providing emergency repair, maintenance and other support services sometimes helps B&D keep a foot in the door at locations served by integrated suppliers or large national distributors.

“A lot of people are outsourcing B&D Service to come in and do their maintenance work. They’re looking for service because they haven’t gotten it in the last several years. We’re picking up a lot of business because of the service we offer,” says general manager Howard Gainey.

He says it’s common for customers to phone in late in the day looking for a rare component or for repair assistance.

“Many of our customers keep us busy during the day, however, between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. it’s crunch time for critical situations. Customers know they can depend on us to help them avoid or minimize downtime. When customers know something is down and they’ve got to get it up and running, we have dedicated people that will do whatever it takes to solve their problem,” he says.

Gainey says the company’s reputation for offering more than a low price on bearings, belts and chains gives it an enviable competitive advantage in the marketplace.

“It makes a big difference. You’re not just a price or a part to them anymore. You can actually install it and service it. It takes it to a whole new level,” says Gainey.

As B&D expanded its menu of offerings over the years, customers weren’t always aware of the company’s full product and service package. To help publicize its diverse capabilities, B&D recently developed new marketing materials, redesigned each division logo to give them a similar look, and is updating its database to improve communication internally and with customers and prospects.

“At some customer accounts, one of our branches might be calling on them, Scale System might be dealing with them and a B&D Service specialist might have a relationship with them, but the customer doesn’t realize we’re all the same company,” says Nations. “It’s been a challenge to keep everyone aware of what we can offer them.”

Lowering customer costs
B&D Industrial touts its inventory management and consigned inventory programs as another key to success.

“We believe in keeping inventory at point-of-use, as close to customers as possible, not in a distribution center in a distant location,” says Gainey. “While some distributors have followed a trend to reduce inventory at the local level, at B&D Industrial, we remain inventory heavy.”

B&D helped tire maker Bridgestone achieve major inventory reductions at facilities it manages as part of a national contract with IBC’s BearingSupplyPlus. Maintaining consigned inventory for Bridgestone significantly reduces the tire maker’s costs.

“Each part that we send them has a label with the customer’s part number and another that indicates it’s a consignment item,” says branch manager Ed Lesh. “We bill the customer once a month on the consignment items used. This allows the customer to reduce their inventory expense and invest the savings in production or maintenance repairs.”

Going global
Like most industrial distributors, B&D Industrial suffered when manufacturers began closing U.S. production facilities and shifting manufacturing to Mexico and other parts of the world. But at the request of customers seeking help establishing supply chains in Latin American countries and elsewhere, B&D started exporting products through a newly established international sales group.

“We had many U.S.-based, multi-national customers asking us to help them as they moved production to Mexico and other countries. Opening our international division has helped us retain business that left the U.S.,” says Courtney Jones, general manager of the international sales group headquartered in Marietta, Ga.

By hiring Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking salespeople and scheduling regular visits to Mexico, the Caribbean and other Latin American nations, B&D expanded its global customer base. Today, about 70 percent of its international sales are to new customers.

B&D doesn’t sell to foreign distributors. It ships products through freight forwarders and direct to end-user facilities overseas, avoiding profit margin markups that foreign distributors normally charge.

“We sell exclusively to end-users. Most other distributors exporting products outside the U.S. sell to distributors,” says Jones.

Exporting products outside of the U.S., helping customers lower inventory costs and providing emergency repairs and maintenance services are just some of the ways B&D Industrial changed since its founding in 1947. The one thing that hasn’t changed is its commitment to do everything it can to satisfy the customer. That’s one ingredient that will never leave B&D’s product and service mix.

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2004 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2004.

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