78 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK RUETZ FOR RUETZ AT AIS, MSC, AND FAB GROUP by Timothy O’Keeffe In April, Fastener Professional of the Year, Jim Ruetz, retired as President and CEO of All Integrated Solutions – a division of MSC Industrial, and handed the keys over to his nephew, Nick Ruetz. Both Jim and Nick attribute a strong circle of advisors, peers, and family pedigree as they reflect on the transition and the future. “My grandmother, Oma, was a refugee in Poland in 1943,” Nick recalls. “When the Russian’s came, she fled one way and the rest of the family went the other. Oma, who turned 91 this year, recalls sitting low in some bushes as she watched the army boots march by. When I think of my career in business, I think about her and I think about my father (Dick Ruetz). He taught me the value of hard work and how to treat your employees, but grandma instilled in me how to survive and be resourceful.” Jim is equally reflective. “I never really wanted to be in the family business,” he says. Jim’s undergraduate degree was in Oceanography and his first career choice was to be an Air Force pilot, but he washed out of the program. Jim joined All Tool Sales in Racine, WI, in 1979 where his brothers Dick and Bill were already hard at it, specializing in machine tool components and tools for production. A year later, the company’s founder, George Ruetz, made a key strategic decision to create an OEM fastener division – All Fasteners, and BUSINESS FOCUS ARTICLE gave Jim the opportunity to manage and grow it. “I quickly realized that my science background didn’t meet what I needed to run a company,” says Jim. “I decided to go back to school and get my MBA from the University of Chicago.” In 1997, Jim and his brothers made the move to rationalize about 400 customers, allowing the company to focus more intensely on their largest accounts. The move was so bold that Progressive Distributor magazine put them on their cover. In 2013, the company was sold to High Road Capital Partners. Bill and Dick retired post-sale, and Dick moved to Florida where he continues to mentor Nick. In 2015, Jim, Nick, and the management team engineered a rebranding of the companies to All Integrated Solutions (AIS). The new company consisted of High Road Capital partners of New York, NY; Accurate Components and Fasteners of ABOVE: PROGRESSIVE DISTRIBUTOR – NOV/DEC 2001 JIM & DICK RUETZ LEFT: NICK RUETZ New Brighton, MN; All Tool Sales and All Fasteners in Racine, WI; Williams Fasteners in Minneapolis, MN, and Cedar Rapids, IA; and in 2016, Great Lakes Fasteners in Grand Rapids, MI. Between acquisitions, Nick studied at night and earned an undergraduate degree in 2015 from the Lubar School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Master’s of Science with an emphasis in Business Design & Innovation from Carthage College in Kenosha, WI, in 2017. In 2018, All Integrated Solutions was sold to MSC Industrial, and Jim and Nick went to work facilitating the transition as a strategic division of a public company. CONTINUED ON PAGE 158
in the Summer 2019 issue of 6 DISTR
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