Speed Wins

Everybody deserves an opportunity, says Brian Pellegrin, and he’s always been intentional about giving people around him the chance to grow and succeed in their careers. Maybe it’s because 36 years ago, someone took a chance on him, and it paved the road for a fulfilling life of working in the hose and fluid power segment of industrial distribution.

A soft-spoken and behind-the-scenes kind of guy, Pellegrin is the Southeastern regional manager for Singer Industrial. He’s also the recently-inducted volunteer president of NAHAD who’s been a part of the association for almost two decades. His view about opportunity in distribution is shaped by the mix of luck and elbow grease that characterize his own story.

“I’ve always wanted to give employees the opportunity to grow and have a mindset they can be successful, whether it’s with us or if they go somewhere else—or even start their own business,” he said. “Those who are successful have one thing in common: You have to get up and go to work every day with a positive attitude and wanting to be good at what you do. You don’t have to have an MBA behind your name to be successful. Sometimes just the HW is enough, and that’s hard work. When I was starting out, I prided myself on always being the first one to the shop in the morning and the last one to leave—I wanted to outwork everybody.

“Having opportunity is important, but the rest is up to you,” he continued. “And the more information you gather, and the more great people you surround yourself with, the better opportunity you have for success.”

In 1986, he cut his teeth in distribution right out of college as a truck driver for an oil field supply store and was quickly promoted to inside sales. When customers started asking for hose and fittings, Pellegrin got to work developing new relationships with those product suppliers, creating a whole new line of business for his employer.

Two years later, pounding the pavement paid off and the 25-year-old distribution rookie, now married with a newborn, met his lucky break: Jimmy Strickland, owner of Hose Specialty, offered him the opportunity to manage a new branch opening in Pellegrin’s hometown of Houma, Louisiana. Word was spreading about Pellegrin’s talents, and within a few more years, another door swung open, this time to manage a new location for American Hose & Hydraulics, where he remained until 2006. That year, Pellegrin partnered with two industry friends to open their own business, Spartan Industrial Products, which they ultimately sold to Singer Industrial in 2011—and he has been with the company ever since.

Pellegrin’s deep product and operational knowledge make him a vital resource to the general managers he supports. With P&L responsibility for five platform companies owned by Singer Industrial—with locations spanning from the Gulf Coast and Southern Florida up the Atlantic seaboard as far as Virginia—he helps facilitate both customer and supplier issues and transactions while also contributing to the due-diligence work for any acquisitions that may fall within his region. In any given week, he can be found moving throughout his six-state region assisting with a wide range of products and services, from marine military products for Hampton Rubber’s Navy-related customers to partnering with Shipyard Supply to serve a large rental customer—and just about everything in between.

“I have been around a long time in industrial distribution operations—38 years—with most of it being customer facing, managing the business and dealing directly with sales reps and customers,” said Pellegrin. “I know a lot about the product and the vendors that we deal with, so I can help navigate our companies through the issues they may be facing or the opportunities that arise—to help give them the bandwidth they need, because in a lot of cases, speed wins.

“If we have managers who aren’t as familiar with the vendors, for example, I make sure we’re addressing supply chain issues quickly, getting product to take care of the customer. Because of my experience, they might also be asking me what the next target areas are and what we should be looking at as far as growth opportunities. So, the more I can support them, the better are our chances of success.”

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

He’s keen to make customers successful, too, which is the secret sauce for a thriving distributor. Not only does he want to sell the customer what they need, he and parent company Singer Industrial are focused on educating them about what they could be using to minimize downtime and take advantage of new opportunities. “We have to be continually bringing them product and ideas that will help them continue to be successful in their operations,” he said.

To ensure customers have what they need when they need it, Singer Industrial operates two industrial hose fabrication facilities— in Houston and Pittsburgh—where the company’s own private brand of large bore hoses and assemblies are made and stocked in high volumes.

“We mainly use that when there’s a need in competitive situations,” he said. “If we’re unable to get product from our current suppliers, we have additional stock on hand so we can still take care of the customer,” he explained.

The company also has a high-volume hydraulic OEM facility in Fargo, North Dakota. Singer Industrial has two 12-inch hose crimpers and several 10-inch hose crimpers in their fleet—and all Singer Industrial locations have full crimping capabilities and stock a full range of product offerings that include industrial and hydraulic hoses, gaskets, conveyor belts, fluid power systems, and cylinder and mobile repair.

Singer Industrial’s fluid power division is a very service-oriented business, Pellegrin added, a sizable portion of its sales being in repairs, engineered/system design, or an innovative solution.

“They do not just sell the part,” he said; “they help the customer understand what part they need to keep the customer’s downtime to a minimum.”

Service has gone mobile at many strategic North and South locations of Singer Industrial with its recently added Onguard Hose Testing program. Through it, platform companies and their branches— including those in Pellegrin’s Southeastern region—go onsite to test customers’ hoses. “With our tracking system, we can help our customers keep track of their assets from cradle to grave,” he added.

“People see the value in us coming onsite to do their hose testing,” he continued. “It’s not always easy to transport hoses, especially in the larger bore categories.

“Everything combined, this is probably unprecedented in the industry. I think you have several distributors that do some of these things, but we may be one of the few that offer all of this under one umbrella.”

CLOSER TO THE CUSTOMER

Over the past year, Singer Industrial focused on the prime initiative of being closer to the customer to improve service and product availability. Toward that end, the company has opened 10 greenfield locations across the U.S., one in Pellegrin’s region. In each case, conveyor belt products were emphasized to capitalize on opportunities in the aggregate market, he says.

“We also opened a new location for Shipyard Supply in Lakeland, Florida, which was to support and gain market share in the pump rental market,” Pellegrin noted. “We have also added two hydraulic onsite service vans in that market that are being operated by Hoser Inc. headquartered in Monroe, North Carolina, and Hose Tech, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, two of our most recent acquisitions.”

In addition, Shipyard’s Houston headquarters, a 70,000 square-foot facility, is getting a 28,000-square-foot addition to house Singer Industrial’s private brand inventory and provide greater work space for the hose production there. “We’re adding another 7,500 square feet for a metal hose fabrication center on the same property, which will also enhance our capabilities in metal hose assemblies.”

Cross-selling is a powerful advantage for the platform companies of Singer Industrial, each of which retains its original name, management, team, and culture. Those that might specialize in either hose or hydraulic product have the ability to increase wallet share through collaboration with the wider Singer Industrial network—thus offering customers a greater product breadth when needed, such as fluid power, metal hose, pump rental hoses, and conveyor belt sales and installation.

Getting closer to the customer is working. Pellegrin’s Southeast region has fared well over the last three years, he says, despite economic headwinds, with healthy sustained demand in the marine industry, pump rental, environmental, and construction. The addition of Shipyard Supply’s greenfield location in Florida has boosted growth for that platform company, and recent acquisitions in Georgia and North Carolina have brought growth to the region, as well.

COORDINATED AUTONOMY

With over 100 locations nationwide, Singer Industrial preserves the fundamental success of its platform companies with the simple approach it calls “coordinated autonomy.” When they acquire a company, they don’t interfere with how the business operates and takes care of its customers.

“These folks can still purchase and sell the same products they were doing before— we do not go in and tell them they have to change anything they’re doing because they are already successful, and that’s why we wanted to acquire them,” said Pellegrin. “The more the companies are left alone to operate as they have in the past, the better the experience is for the employees, too. And all of these companies are unique. They’re in different geographies. They’ve had different management philosophies. We’re all different in how we manage, and we want to keep that continued autonomy.

“So, we focus on speed to the market. The local service these businesses have provided in the past is what was instrumental in them gaining the market share they achieved, and we do not want to mess up anything with that formula of success.”

He confirmed that his own experience of selling to Singer Industrial played out exactly in this way, and today he’s quick to assure owners of prospective acquisitions that the autonomy is real, and the bountiful resources serve only to bring more value to the local facilities and their employees.

However, the very definition of being a company does necessitate a certain amount of centralization and uniformity at a high level. So, Singer Industrial—which has grown exponentially from 2011-2024 into one of the largest rubber and fluid power distributors in North America—is currently in the process of moving all locations to one ERP system to manage its data and harness analytics. The company is also migrating toward one payroll system and one healthcare plan and is streamlining HR, marketing, legal, and safety—all the non-customer-facing areas where centralization will make the company more efficient, says Pellegrin.

ASSOCIATION LEADER

Serving as NAHAD’s top volunteer leader through next April, Pellegrin will be executing on the board’s two-year plan, which currently includes a rebranding project for the association. Now 40-years-old, NAHAD will refresh its website for easier navigation and will roll out a new logo.

In the coming year, Pellegrin and his fellow board members will continue to drive more participation among NAHAD’s 200 member companies in the Hose Safety Institute, which is also undergoing some changes that will come in 2025. Pellegrin noted the organization will soon hold its second Hose Safety Awareness week September 8-12.

“The board and I are working hard to make NAHAD an organization that is inclusive for all, from those who have one location to those with many locations,” he said. “Members deserve to get the value they pay for no matter what size they are, so we as an organization must keep that in our crosshairs as we make plans to move this organization forward.”

As for value, he asserts that from the time he attended his first convention in 2008—as a newly-minted owner of Spartan Industrial—all the way to the present, the education and connections made at NAHAD have been top shelf.

“The relationships you form with manufacturers and distributors are, in my opinion, worth every dollar you spend,” he said, “and they never would have happened if I had not attended the conventions. Some of these folks you only see at convention, so that interaction, getting to know people, and the discussions that take place, they’re invaluable.”