Brothers Merge Industrial Supply Companies to Improve Customer Experience
Kansas City, MO (PRWEB) August 20, 2015 -- Brothers Vince and Billy Hodes have always worked well together as a team. Now they have decided to see if that success can carry over into business. After 15 years of operating Midland Metal Industrial and Midland Metal as two separate companies, they are merging the companies and expecting the sum to be greater than the parts.
“We used to battle it out a lot as kids, sharing a bedroom. Our dad would always tell us, ‘You boys better learn to work together. You’ll be brothers your whole lives.’ We’ve been each other’s number one fan our whole lives,” Vince Hodes laid out.
In fact, it was their father that first introduced them to Midland Metal. In 1980, Bill Hodes bought Ross Manufacturing from John Ross. Midland Metal was forgotten subsidiary of Ross, and as Ross was rolled into Hodes Company, Midland was run separately by Joe Carolyn and Nick Hodes, older brother of Vince and Billy. In 1999, Vince Hodes, who was National Sales Manager, spun off and purchased the Industrial Division. Two years later, Billy Hodes bought the remaining divisions.
Both brothers repeatedly stressed the impetus for the merger was improving the customer experience. Billy Hodes said, “The merger integration process provided a natural opportunity to reevaluate, and even improve, the overall customer experience. As the integration progressed, our customer experience team stayed focused on the customers’ needs.”
Indeed, Midland Metal places a huge emphasis on ensuring their customers’ success. A look at their website’s marketing page reveals a focus on programs designed for their customers to use in marketing to their own customers. Midland’s Your Brand is Our Brand campaign, led by Billy Hodes, provides several profit-generating resources for distributors competing in an increasingly cutthroat market.
“We empower our employees,” Vince Hodes added, “and provide them with the tools and information they need to respond to our customers’ needs.”
When asked what steps are being taken to ensure Midland Metal continues to thrive, Billy Hodes stated, “Setting ambitious retention goals, making the customer experience an integral part of merger planning, finding new ways to improve the customer experience, communicating and listening with customers, and empowering employees to provide better service, have all played a part in improving the overall service and experience our customers have come to depend on for generations.”
Vince Hodes further added, “For our family business, values are the connective tissue, the source of our success, our commitment, and our longevity. They energize our culture, helping to assure cohesion, resolve conflicts and strengthen operations through the natural act of passing down a legacy of teamwork.”
Midland Metal Mfg. supplies brass fittings, ball valves, steel nipples, malleable iron fittings, red brass, bronze, stainless steel and forged steel fittings and nipples, as well as flanges, hydraulic and pneumatic fittings and accessories, pressure gauges, hose clamps, and much more. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, they also have stocking locations in California, Georgia, and Texas. Led by President Vince Hodes since 1999, Midland has been family owned and operated since 1980.
For more information, please use the contact form on the Midland website, call 888-821-5725, or email sales(at)midlandindustrial(dot)com.
Tighe Greenhalgh, Midland Metal Mfg, http://www.midlandindustrial.com, +1 (816) 994-1228, [email protected]
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