Makeovers and moves at Midwest Fastener
True to its Michigan roots, the company’s name is Midwest Fastener Corp., but the business extends across the entire United States. Fueled by a growing team of field representatives and a product mix that is improving, innovating, and certainly evolving.
According to Glen Gevaart, Portage, Mich.-based Midwest Fastener’s VP of hardware sales, the company is coming out of the pandemic stronger than ever. One thing that remains the same, is the kind of customer service on which the business bases its successes.
“When the company started 50 years ago, it was just in the state of Michigan, and all the focus was trying to take care of customers around the state,” said Gevaart, in an interview with HBS Dealer, “We’ve been working hard to build on that.”
Gevaart listed some of the company’s recent highlights:
• A growing team of sales reps and a growing product mix.
• Innovations in the performance and category management of our fastener lineup.
• Acquisition and integration of Northfield, Ohio-based Hy-Ko, known for making signs, numbers, letters, keys. This includes the high-tech ChipKey programs, key machines, and all the eye-catching key chain-related products that build impulse sales.
Meanwhile, the pandemic and industry-wide supply chain issues have generated an influx of orders from potential new customers. The company will prioritize existing customers, and it will supply others where it can.
“We used to get a call once a month from new customers – ‘Hey, I need several thousand of this or that.’ But now, we’re getting those calls almost daily from retailers that we don’t normally do business with.”
Through it all, Midwest Fastener points out their high shipping percentage. What normally runs about 98%, slipped to a still-impressive 95% during the supply-challenged pandemic period. “We’re still feeling really good about that,” Gevaart said. “And we can take care of all of our current customers.”
Also, during the pandemic, Midwest Fastener revamped its entire construction fastener category, he said. The company made improvements to this approach – starting with updating the opening price point BuildRight brand and elevating to the new-and-improved SaberDrive.
The SaberDrive brand is armed with new features and a new-and-improved tagline: “Bigger Bite. Better Drive.”
“SaberDrive has become kind of an industry standard for consumers and contractors, both. The SaberDrive brand name has taken off.”
New to the line is the SaberDrive Platinum version that specializes as a deck screw. Included in the list of benefits is durability. It achieves 2,500 hours in the industry-standard salt spray test. As the name implies, the product is blasted with salt water until it rusts. A 2,500-hour rating is a long way from what used to be considered sufficient (500 hours) and is at the top of the range of what’s considered a high-quality fastener.
Other physical improvements include SaberDrive Platinum’s Spiral-Razor tip that cuts as it penetrates.
Behind the products is a growing sales organization. Midwest Fastener employs 150 reps with 15 regionals sales managers across the country. This is a big shift from 10 years ago when a handful of regional sales managers worked with rep agencies.
“We’ve changed our model pretty significantly,” Gevaart said. “And that reflects our culture as a service-oriented company.”
And through all the changes and growth of the company, a new generation of family ownership is taking on a visible presence both internal and external, including Andy DeVries, who took on the role of president in 2017.
“We were founded in 1967, and we have a long history of building relationships,” Gevaart said. “And at the same time, it’s great for the industry to see Midwest Fastener Corp. in a whole new light with the new generation bringing us into the future.”
