The Meier Supply Co. A-Team,
pictured left to right,
Mike Nohle, Dale Norton,
Mike Meier, Bruce Johns,
Karl O'Neill, Frank Meier

Meier Supply Co.
The Little Company that COULD

At 47 years old, Frank Meier Jr. (pronounced Meyer) is president of a $20+ million-dollar company that has grown by 25% a year over the last two years. It was a surprise, therefore, to find that when I asked Frank what his greatest success in life was, he answered, "Raising my family." When you probe a little further, you find that this guy means it. But he does not mean just his two teenage sons - Tony and Frank - who work part-time in the company. He means everybody associated with the business. He says the "best advice in business" he got was watching his father. He was a true model of "work hard, yet enjoy what you are doing." Frank has a saying when it comes to customer service: "There is nothing that can't be fixed." And you get the impression that he really believes it. There is a "can-do" spirit and attitude at Meier Supply Co. that explains why they have been so successful.
 

Family

Meier Supply is more than a family-owned, family-centered business - Meier Supply has extended the meaning of "family operation" to include not just Frank Meier's personal family but the families of its employees and even of its customers.  Frank's grandfather, Frank M. Meier, started the company in 1957 with his son, Frank Meier Sr. (Frank Jr.'s dad). They bought the assets of the refrigeration division of a failing company in Binghamton, NY, which remains the headquarters today. It was literally "down the street," at 3 Louisa Street, from the Meier residence in Binghamton, and the Meier boys became involved in the business very naturally. Along the way, the company bought five different companies (in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, and Stroudsburg, PA) and turned them into branches of their own little company. They also expanded in the New York State area, buying branches in Utica and Rochester. The result today is 12 branches which make up Meier Supply.  These two entrepreneurs oversaw the company's initial success and early growth.  Frank M. ran the company until his death in 1984.  Frank Sr. ran the company until 1995, and Frank Jr. now runs the business.

The young Frank Jr. joined the company part-time at the age of 13 as a shipping clerk in 1975 and became president in 1995.  But the family links don't end there.  Brothers Michael and Mark Meier are both an important part of the company operations - Michael is general manager of the company and Mark works in outside sales.  Little sister, Kim Meier-Carroll is the computer guru in charge of the whole information technology operations of Meier Supply.  John P. Norton, vice president, and Dale Norton, who is in charge of the HVAC division, represent the original Norton side of the enterprise.  Frank Meier Sr. continues to serve as an officer in the company and plays a role as an adviser even though he is officially retired.  Frank says he misses his father's advice during the winter when the senior Meier retreats from the Binghamton winters to Florida.  The family-operated business analogy doesn't end there, however, because their employees tend to be family oriented also.

Meier Supply has four sets of brothers, two husband-wife teams, and four father-son teams working in various capacities for the firm. Mike attributes this kind of "nepotism" to the recognition that certain families exhibit a "work ethic" that leads to the hiring of family members.  It also leads to a high degree of employee loyalty such that Meier has minimal turnover of employees and a waiting list of candidates to join the firm.  He feels he has hired and can continue to hire the "best employees in the world."

Several other qualities make Meier Supply an "employer of choice."  In addition to treating the employees like family, Frank Meier is quick to say it is important that his employees "have fun" working there because he considers them the company's "greatest asset."  The lyrics of the popular 1970s song "We Are Family" kept running through my mind as we talked.  So Meier spends a great deal of effort on employee-centered activities, including education and training.  He admits that his employees, although they do work hard, probably enjoy themselves more than did his grandfather and father when they were starting the business. Add to this mix an employee-owned stock ownership program (ESOP), which makes workers part owners of the company, and a superior benefits program, and you can see why they consider themselves "family" and why they enjoy working there.  It is a family with a purpose - and that purpose is customer service. 

Construction crew members
Don Marshburne and Rick Lane
working on the new distribution
center.

Customer Service

A visit to the Meier Supply Web site (www.meiersupply.com) provides the first clue that Meier Supply is not just another small, family-owned distributor.  It belies the common perception of what a small company does to survive and prosper.  Its philosophy of having a vision, providing superior customer service, mastering supply chain management, and establishing business alignments demonstrates that it is well positioned for this industry.  The Web site reveals a mission and a vision that are uncommon for such a small firm. You can read and immediately see that this company not only is taking steps to survive in a highly competitive industry, it is ensuring its future and that of its employees.  Meier Supply understands not only that they must display the mastery of supply chain management but of unparalleled customer service as well.

Meier Supply focuses its attention on continually improving customer service.  Employees receive specialized training in how to please customers.  As an element of improving customer service, Meier provides specialized training to employees that stresses customer relationships.  Earlier in its existence, Meier provided the usual training (HVAC, equipment, parts, manufacturers, etc.) but now, secure in the knowledge that they have mastered the technical side of the business, Meier trains its employees in the "people side."  Meier believes firmly that relationships and knowing your customers' needs are the keys to pleasing customers.  He understands a lot of bigger competitors can deliver the equipment on time and accurately, so they provide value in other ways. 

This philosophy of customer service is not just a management expectation.  It is a shared vision that penetrates down to the floor of the warehouse and shipping dock.  The difference is the degree to which each branch manager, sales rep, and counterperson knows the preferences, profiles, and personalities of their customers.  Knowing their customers' children's names is part of the skill that demonstrates this mastery of customer relationships.  Meier expects its customer service representatives to be "masters" at pleasing their customers.  Each salesperson believes in a simple, yet effective, philosophy: "The buck stops here."  Recognizing that the system is based on people and that it is inevitable that errors will occur, Meier has made it the responsibility of each individual to solve a customer's problems - no matter what it takes - even if costs the company money.
 

Education/ Training

To return to the "family" analogy for a moment, Meier treats each employee (73 full-time/12 part-time GED to college degreed) like a sibling whom he wants to succeed. He makes sure that each has the education and training, and the accurate placement in the company where he/she will be able to contribute most effectively. Employees are typically administered the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) before they are placed in the business.  This psychological test reveals the personality and type of people the prospective employees are and where they will be most effective in the organization. Meier doesn't use the test to exclude people. Rather it helps place people in a situation where their skills and personality will help them succeed.

In addition, people who have direct contact with customers (sales representatives, sales counter employees, branch managers, etc.) receive additional special training (e.g., Dale Carnegie training) to enable them to understand how to be more effective in dealing with customers. The company also provides an annual series of technical seminars (70 seminars in 2001) for employees and customers designed to enable employees to become familiar with the manufacturers they represent and to increase their product knowledge; they are designed also as a service to customers to make them aware of Meier's new products and capabilities. Meier considers itself "the best in education in the HVAC/R industry."
 

The Internet
Although Frank Meier will tell you they could be more sophisticated from a technology perspective, it is evident that they have recognized the need to automate many of their operations.  It was one of the "best business practices" that Meier recognized was necessary for the company to continue to grow and prosper. Initially everybody was frightened of the challenge but when they saw their customers moving to electronic data interchange, Meier decided to move forward. If it would benefit customer service, he felt it would be a wise investment. Kim Meier-Carroll oversaw the transition to the new computerized system and the several transitions and improvements phases since its installation. They started at headquarters and expanded the system - branch by branch - providing the training of the staff until everybody became so accustomed to using it that they hesitate to look anything up in a book anymore.

A positive result was the ability to status inventory at any time across all the branches. Now with centralized inventory control, Meier knows exactly how many specific parts sit in the warehouse, which are already "sold," and when they need to order more. The speed at which the computer could perform the inventory calculations and accelerate the ordering process has proved a boon to Meier not only in its ability to improve customer service but also to forecast income and understand the demands for various parts on a daily basis.

They can provide differential pricing to customers depending on economic order quantity and payment patterns. Customers are also linked to the system so they can check inventory status and can determine their cost. The system allows them to track business trends and enables them to recognize the difference in geographic areas' needs; the growth of their heating business, the stability of the refrigeration business, and the cyclic nature of the A C business; and how to stock inventory to meet these diverse needs. When they started this automation process in 1993, it was with a bit of trepidation; but now as they have become more knowledgeable and more sophisticated in its use, they are beginning to add the "bells and whistles" they couldn't have foreseen nine years ago. Kim is now overseeing the addition of a bar-coding capability that will speed up the inventory process even further.
 

The Meier Future

In an industry that has seen consolidation and failure in recent years, Frank Meier and his management team have decided the best choice for Meier Supply to survive was to grow. So Meier has devised a strategy to ensure its future growth and business alignments. Meier recalls when there were 25 independent distributors in the area - now there are two. For several years when the economy was going strong, many large companies consolidated and bought out distributors and their whole list of customers. This activity was very threatening to independent distributors like Meier Supply and others.

Recently, competition has become so fierce that only those companies with solid finances and a solid position in the industry have survived. Meier has strengthened its position in the industry and aligned itself with a major HVACR manufacturer, RUUD Manufacturing, which assures it of a major source of equipment for distribution for years to come. Frank Meier say that it has made Meier Supply more competitive and that he was very happy with the arrangement. Also, Meier is a member of the Key Wholesale Group. 

In addition, Frank and Michael Meier are supervising the construction of a distribution center in Johnson City, NY, a few miles from the existing headquarters. The 33,000 square feet of space will provide Meier Supply with an overdue expansion of some much needed warehouse capacity as well as more loading docks for their trucks. Initially, the warehouse operation will move to the new location followed by the headquarters operations. So there will be a new headquarters for Meier Supply for the first time in 45 years. But they won't abandon 3 Louisa Street, the place where it all started. It will become the Binghamton branch of this "little company that could!" And a new Meier Supply, confident of the future, will carry on.
 

Timothy F. Regan, Jr., is a freelance writer who is a regular contributor to HVACR & Plumbing Distribution magazine. He is employed by the Raytheon Co., a $20 billion defense contractor, in its Falls Church, VA, office as the manager of business development support and publications. He is employed by Raytheon, but the ideas and opinions expressed in this article are strictly his own. You may contact him at tregan5195@aol.com or by fax at 703/820-8280.