Southeast brand
Wholesale Supply Group has 34 stores in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia.
CLEVELAND, Tenn. - In a nation of big-box stores and conglomerates, Wholesale Supply Group gives more of what its competitors can't or won't - customer service, its executives say.
"We've got a lot of people who've been here 25, 30, 40 years," said Lloyd Rogers, chief executive of the Cleveland-based plumbing, electrical and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment supply business. "They value the customer."
Rogers, 78, who on Tuesday marked the company's 75th year, is himself a 59-year veteran of the business.
Wholesale Supply has grown from one location in 1942 started by Roy Higgins and Gene Davis to 34 stores in six states selling both retail and wholesale.
The family-owned business with about 220 employees and more than $40 million in sales last year is looking at opportunities for more growth. Rogers said that some 60 percent of sales are residential, another 30 percent commercial and the remainder is industrial.
Jeff Rogers, Wholesale Supply's executive vice president, said the business expanded first into small towns. Much of the company's growth came from buying out other similar businesses, said Rogers, the 55-year-old son of the CEO.
He said the company handles distribution out of Cleveland, and it has tried to keep that geography in mind as it expanded.
Also, the vice president said, most of the company's leadership "started out in the back" of its operations and learned the business from the ground up.
"They've got a whole complete idea of the business," he said. "You learn the system and catch on more quickly. Dad's been hands-on. He wouldn't ask anyone to do anything he would do himself."
Like his father, Rogers, too, said that Wholesale Supply prides itself on customer service.
"It's about relationships," he said. "We still have places where that makes a difference."
Joshua Rogers, the company's marketing director, said Wholesale Supply is a "Christ-centered" business.
"It's doing things ethically," he said.
Also, he said customers can walk through the door of the company's Keith Street headquarters and talk to his grandfather, Lloyd, or father, Jeff.
"You can't do that in a big box," he said.
Jeff Rogers said the company has no plans to sell the business and officials are keeping their eyes on expanding as they continue to look at buying opportunities. The company owners also expect to benefit this year from a growing economy and the possibility of lower federal taxes helping people continue to build at the commercial or residential level.
Lloyd Rogers joined the business in the late 1950s when it then offered building supplies. Plumbing, and later electrical, supplies were added and each operated as standalone businesses for several years.
In the early 1970s, the building supply division was closed and the other segments were brought under the Wholesale Supply Group umbrella.
Since 1987, 29 new branches have opened.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.