FALL 2022

46 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S

46 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK BUDD SALES CO. 4916 Westhaven Road, Arlington TX 76017 TEL 817-269-0430 WEB www.buddsales.com A LITTLE HISTORY AND UPDATE WITH TOM BUDDENBOHN How Did You Get In To Fasteners? My youth was spent growing up in North Jersey. After graduation with a BA in Economics and minor in International Business, the job market in the “Banking” business was not as attractive as I expected. I was referred to Avdel from a former Avdel Executive and met their needs for a young, ambitious and teachable Outside Sales person. The challenge was they did not know where they would place me after a 6 month “Training” that included listening in on Customer Service Calls (when you could unscrew the Mic on a phone) to spending most of my time in the Applications Lab reviewing and selecting the correct Fastener to meet the Customers needs. After 6 months, I relocated to Dallas Texas at the age of 23… I had a huge territory of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. 1100 Miles east to west and about 800 miles North to South. Six years with Avdel followed by 14 years with my largest Distributor, Central Industrial Supply. We had some simple Metal Stamping capabilities as well. We were focused on Applications of ITW, POP, Avdel and Parker Kalon “Solutions”. With the Stamping capabilities, I had excellent contacts at 2 new “Startups” in Texas, Compaq and Dell. While Fasteners were exciting, Stampings capabilities were Turbo Charged business. What a ride… When my Distributor decided to move away from Fasteners, I decided it was time to strike out on my own in the Rep Business… a Professional Manufacturer’s Rep. With 2 teens in High School and a mortgage, I spent many nights watching the clock to get my day started. It started pretty well… lots of Fasteners, Clamps, Rivnuts… WOW! (occasionally, I wondered “what have I gotten my family into” )? Then the Brass Inserts in EVERY Nokia Mobile Phone had 4 or 6 Inserts and Bollhoff shipped many millions of pieces WEEKLY into the Americas… all of them. I later became the Bollhoff Rivnut Master Distributor for Texas and surrounding States. After a couple years, with my partner and my wife running the business, we acquired the St. Louis and Chicago Bollhoff Rivnut Distributorships. Now we covered 8 states. BUSINESS FOCUS ARTICLE CONTINUED ON PAGE 140