The tradition continues

Amazon Hose and Rubber enters its third generation as a woman-owned company

by Rich Vurva

Third-generation family-owned businesses are common in distribution. What’s rare, however, is when a company is beginning its third generation as a woman-owned business. As president of Amazon Hose and Rubber, Summer Rodman follows in the footsteps of her mother and her grandmother at the helm of a traditionally male-dominated business.

Now headquartered in Orlando, Fla., the company was founded in Chicago in 1919 by Rodman’s grandfather, Harry Jacoby. His wife, Rene, worked for the company in various capacities and took over as CEO after his death in 1973. Those early days were difficult for a female executive. She fought for control of the company with her bankers, who felt a woman was unsuited to run the business. She used her initials to sign documents to avoid drawing attention to the fact that she was a woman. She remained active in the business until shortly before her death in 2002 at age 90.

Harry and Rene’s daughter, Gale Petronis, grew up hearing talk about the business at the dinner table and held an assortment of jobs at Amazon. She joined the company full time in 1981 and became president in 1984. Under her tutelage (and her mother’s watchful eye), the company grew and prospered. Petronis built on the tradition started by her father when he coined the phrase “an inch or a mile” to describe the personalized service available to every customer, regardless of how much they purchase.

Like her mother and grandmother before her, Summer Rodman learned the business from the ground up. She performed odd jobs during school breaks and worked for the company on and off after graduating from college. One of her biggest tasks was converting the company from a paper-based inventory and accounting system in 1999 to a Tribute software system that links the company’s Tampa and Miami locations to a single server in Orlando.

Rodman became president in 2005 when Petronis entered semi-retirement.

“The thing I love about Amazon is the people and the family atmosphere and teamwork. It’s a great group. It’s been around my whole life and I really can’t imagine not being involved,” she says.

An inch or a mile
As the company enters its third generation, one thing that remains the same is its commitment to providing personalized customer service.

“Each customer who walks through our door brings unique problems. It’s our job to attempt to provide them with a unique solution,” says Bill “Hippy” Hippenmeier, hydraulic supervisor at the Tampa facility.

“It’s great to see the creativity of a warehouse technician when he discovers a solution to a customer’s problem. What makes that moment even better is the customer’s reaction when he realizes he’ll be leaving Amazon Hose and Rubber with his problem solved,” Hippenmeier says.

Customers include contractors, municipalities, industrial plants and even retail customers in search of a single hose for their car or washing machine.

“You don’t have to be somebody to get the good service. We have a lot of small and medium-sized customers that make up our sales base. Everybody goes out of their way to satisfy the customer, even if we don’t make much profit on the sale,” Rodman says.

Art Workman of Sea Bulk Towing, a tugboat operator in Tampa, says he’s been doing business with Amazon for 39 years. He visits the Tampa branch three or four times a month to buy hydraulic hose, fittings and adapters.

“I can depend on them. They’re real good about taking care of us when we need it. They know that our business can’t afford to be down long. They’ve got some good people over there that know what we need. I never have to worry about it,” says Workman.

He says employees like Bill Hippenmeier are knowledgeable about the products he needs and help him locate hard-to-find items such as metric adapters.

“A lot of times I’ll be in a pinch and need a special adapter that might not be on his shelf. Bill always comes through. He’ll find some way to get it. That’s been a big help to me,” Workman says.

The Tampa facility more than doubled its size by relocating from an old 18,000-square-foot warehouse to a 39,000-square-foot facility last summer. The increased space has allowed the company to organize its inventory in a more orderly fashion. The new layout makes it easier for customers and employees to find the parts they need.

“In order to be a leader in our industry, everyone at Amazon has to be prepared for a customer to ask just about anything,” Hippenmeier says.

Custom fabrication
It’s not uncommon for customers to ask Amazon employees to solve out-of-the-ordinary problems. For example, Hippenmeier recalls the time when a customer needed a way to prevent a dog with a broken leg from chewing through his cast. He fashioned a piece of hose around the dog’s leg. Petronis remembers when a woman drove to the shop in search of an air conditioner hose for her Rolls Royce that her car dealership said would cost $200 without installation. Amazon had the proper hose in stock and it cost less than $40.

An MBA might argue that going the extra mile for such customers isn’t profitable. But Amazon’s philosophy is to take care of the customer, no matter how many dollars they spend. Even if the customer never grows into a major account, goodwill generated by excellent customer service eventually pays off.

One day when Petronis related her tale about the woman in the Rolls Royce at a local Chamber of Commerce luncheon, a man overhead her and said, “That was my wife. You have no idea the goodwill you have gotten out of that and how many times I have told that story to friends.”

“We go out of our way to solve problems. What we do isn’t always right from a business standpoint, but it’s right for us because we have the reputation that if you can’t get it at Amazon Hose, you’ve got a real problem,” Petronis says.

General manager Bill Smith says Amazon urges employees to think out of the box to solve a customer’s problem when an off-the-shelf item won’t do.

“Each location has personnel who can come up with amazing solutions for customers. For example, someone might bring in a power steering hose that requires a special fitting. The factory might charge $200 for the fitting, but we can make one with the same thread pattern,” Smith says.

Going the extra mile
Annual sales of about $11 million are evenly divided between hydraulic and industrial hose and fittings. Unlike competitors who tend to specialize in one segment or the other, Amazon inventories a wide range of products in both categories, says Smith.

“We take the extra step for customers. If you come see us and we don’t have the product, we’ll try to convert you to something that will work. If you’re set on using a specific brand, we’ll do what we can to get it,” says Smith.

Employees are trained in multiple skills. The same person who talks to customers at the will-call counter or on the phone might also fabricate an assembly and enter orders in the computer.

Migrating to a computer-based system was a major culture change for some long-time employees. Most had no prior computer experience and some even decided to retire rather than learn how the system operated. But the switch provided Amazon with greater inventory visibility at each location.

“We can see any branch’s inventory on the screen here. It allows us to open up sales offices and have outside salespeople in remote locations,” says Rodman.

The company is considering opening a satellite location on the south side of Orlando and on the Atlantic coast to be nearer to customers in high-growth areas. It also hopes to hire additional inside and outside salespeople in the next year to fuel the growth. The key is to find employees with a desire to provide excellent customer service.

“Our niche is customer service, not price,” Rodman says.

Amazon prefers doing business with multiple small to medium customers rather than focusing on large OEM accounts that tend to focus on purchase price.

“We’ve found that having one very large customer can be dangerous. If something happens to the economy or to that particular customer, or if they decide to go somewhere else, it can turn you into a tailspin. We’re happier having 100 small customers than one large one,” Petronis says.

Petronis and Rodman are aware that the most difficult transition in any family-owned business is moving from second- to third-generation ownership.

“I try to guide and be supportive. I encourage her to try new things and I am there for her if they don’t work,” Petronis says.

Rodman is grateful for the guidance and encouragement her mother offers. She also knows the company owes much of its success to the employees who make up her Amazon family. As long as they remain dedicated to providing customers with the service they’ve come to expect at Amazon, the company’s reputation and tradition will extend for many years to come.

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2006 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2006.

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