| Autor: |
Armstrong, David, Brandt, Joshua, Chan, Fei Mei, Gillies, Andrew T., Jeong, Soo, Knudsen, Edward, Kwok, Artie, Ray, John, Yen, Jody, Reifman, Shlomo, Wong, Samantha N., Subick, Carl |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
Forbes; 11/29/2004, Vol. 174 Issue 11, p184-188, 3p, 1 Color Photograph |
| Abstrakt: |
The article discusses how Ken Hendricks made an $850 million fortune from selling roofing supplies. Hendricks, a high school dropout, joined his father in the trade and eventually started his own shingle wholesaling business. Today Beloit-based American Builders & Contractors Supply is the largest wholesaler of roofing supplies in the U.S. and among the largest suppliers of vinyl sidings and windows. For a rich guy, Hendricks doesn't surround himself with a flotilla of underlings. ABC has no public relations department; the boss doesn't even keep a secretary outside his office. He answers his own phone and is quick to hand out his cell number to any of his 4,500 employees who need it. He has no interest in joining a country club and eschews golf, preferring cross-country motorcycle trips. Before Hendricks came along, the business of selling roofing supplies--asphalt shingles, sheet metal, tiles, rolled roofing for commercial buildings--to contractors was highly fragmented. He bought his first three distributorships from Bird & Sons in 1982 and didn't let up on the buying spree for 15 years. Using a revolving line of credit from Bank of America, Hendricks had 157 outlets by 1997 and a profit of $10 million on $789 million in revenue. He made it work by negotiating volume discounts with manufacturers and keeping a tight lid on costs. He used to deliver shingles to job sites with renovated trucks instead of buying new ones. He recycles pallets and sells them back to the manufacturers. ABC's point-of-sales system was built with a $20,000 software package--still the heart of the company's computer system today. ABC gives its customers--mostly small to midsize contractors--flyer mailings, sample packs of shingles and free seminars on how to use new materials; it even makes yard signs to help contractors advertise. |
| Databáze: |
Complementary Index |
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