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Living By Value

Roy Torres, Vice President of Material Management at GHX Industrial

Roy Torres and GHX Industrial exemplify how distributors deliver for both customers and suppliers.

by Kim Phelan

The customer was struggling. It was a supplier-related situation outside the control of the distributor’s branch. It might have been tempting to walk away, but the OEM customer wasn’t bailing on their distribution partner. “They understand sometimes things are out of our hands, but they stick with us because we do whatever it takes to satisfy them, to keep their production up and running,” said Vice President of Materials Management Roy Torres at GHX Industrial, who is also the incoming president of NAHAD. “It makes a difference to them.”

According to Torres, the incident underscored what distinguishes the company in the industrial marketplace: “Adding value for customers and making them better off than if we hadn’t been there.”

The Houston facility where photos were taken for this article is one of about 50 GHX Industrial locations.

A value-added, fabricating distributor that focuses on both fluid transfer and sealing, GHX Industrial is one of four brands under the Fluid Conveyance business unit of Sun Source, which acquired GHX in 2018. Its customer industries are diverse and include power generation, oil and gas, pulp and paper, chemical, agriculture, OEM, construction, transportation, food processing, marine, pharma, primary metals, and mining. It almost goes without saying, but fluid conveyance and sealing opportunities from the widespread emergence of data center construction has also become a major GHX area of attention.

Although seemingly straightforward on the surface, hose and sealing distribution is a complex environment where safety concerns are a daily presence, as are end user application challenges. “If they don’t have the right materials, they could contaminate their production,” said Torres. “It’s not as simple as, ‘give me a part to replace this.’”

In fact, devising creative solutions factors strong into their value proposition. A large — and growing — outside sales force is valuefocused and acts as the GHX tip of the spear to anticipate and respond to customer needs. The company is highly proficient in technical matters, too, and able to solve problems directly or tap supply partners’ engineering resources when necessary. Heavy fabricating is a major part of the business, and other services include hose testing in-house and at customers sites, preventive maintenance (including recertifying their hoses) and measuring gaskets.

“If one of our downstream oil and gas customers is doing a turnaround, we’re on site for them — putting inventory there with a trailer and solving problems that come up,” said Torres. “We have a tagline; it’s called The Expert Fit, but it’s really not about the hose. It’s about us working together with customers to provide the services and value that make them better. That’s what we live by.

“Maybe the customer doesn’t need something right now, but when they do, you better be able to provide it or you don’t get the rest of the business,” he continued. “So, investing in inventory, investing in equipment and brick and mortar, and having a process to turn something around quickly — not all of our competitors can do that, and we think that’s what creates value.”

KNOWING HOW TO GROW

GHX Industrial was founded in 2007 and grew quickly through both investing in current markets and through acquisitions. During Torres’ 20+ year tenure, the company grew from six locations to 50 with both store count and profitability increasing. In 2018, the company became part of Sun Source.

From the beginning, the growth-minded distributor was keen to hire a purchasing professional with deep M&A experience. Luckily, an experienced professional from the automotive and heavy-duty truck aftermarket industries — with two decades of M&A and procurement know-how — came along at just the right time. That professional was Roy Torres.

His journey into industrial distribution was atypical and started in the accounting office of a Houston-area automotive parts company, the ink on his college diploma barely dry. Torres’ acquaintance with the business had started while he still in high school, working part-time in their warehouse, and he was offered work in accounting while earning his degree in the same field at University of Houston. After a few years of full-time employment in accounting, he moved into the purchasing group as a buyer and later took on responsibility for purchasing and visual marketing. During his tenure, he saw the company sold to private equity and later become a publicly traded organization.

The breadth of experience and education he acquired throughout both processes proved invaluable in Torres’ next role at a heavy-duty truck parts company that was focused on consolidating segments of that industry. Supported by Torres’ background, the company acquired approximately 20 mid-sized businesses by the time he left.

Heavy fabricating is a major part of the business — other services include hose testing, preventive maintenance, and measuring gaskets.

Eventually, the CEO from his first job introduced him to a friend: an owner at the newly started GHX Industrial. It took a little convincing, but Torres came around to see it was a good fit. And the rest is history.

“When I walked in and looked around, I said, ‘gaskets and hose? I don’t know about this,’” Torres recalled. “But they started telling me what their vision was, what they were looking for, and why they were talking to me. They wanted a professional purchasing guy ... and you know, it didn’t take long for me to realize this could be a really good opportunity. And if nothing else, it’d be a good education — and it turned out to be great.”

Today, as vice president of materials management, Torres has responsibility over the distributor’s transportation, as well as pricing, inventory and replenishment, and supplier relations. For the latter, he negotiates supplier programs and serves as liaison between operations, the sales groups, and their suppliers. Within his department of 15, six report directly to Torres, and the group comprises a transportation manager, a director of purchasing, three pricing managers, a business analytics manager, as well as support staff.

Over the last year, the team has had to work through the challenges of customer pushback over tariff-related price increases, but it’s not the least among the business climate changes Torres’ group is facing. Uncertainty is looming presently as one of GHX’s primary hose suppliers, Continental, has publicly announced its intent to sell the ContiTech group sector this year, which may involve a name change to the brand. In addition, the distributor’s largest gasket supplier, Flexatallic, is under contract to be sold to Michelin, a deal that’s expected to close within the first half of 2026. The new ownership, “a very different kind of company” than Flexatallic’s previous ownership, said Torres, could also bring several changes and potentially new approaches or processes with the supplier’s distributors. “There are some big concerns and opportunities going on that we are right in the middle of,” he added.

“We’re not a lot different than some of our suppliers,” he continued. “They’ve got budgets, they’ve got expectations, they’ve got growth benchmarks they’re trying to reach — and they’re also managing their people and managing their cost. Without a real strong outlook for 2026 from a sales standpoint, our suppliers are making decisions to do the right thing for their businesses, and they may not always coincide with our goals.”

But Torres is a skilled negotiator and says that thanks to his mentors and his deep experience in maintaining healthy supplier relationships, he is proud of his ability to understand what is important to the other person. He also says that much of what he does day to day is very much like a sales role.

“Suppliers have choices. They can work with whoever they want to,” he said. “We have to be able to sell our value just like we’re expecting the supplier to sell theirs. So, you have to be able to understand people and how to talk to them, how to keep your calm, make your point but know when to not dwell on something — and find a common ground that works. I hope people would say about me, ‘he’s tough but he’s fair.’”

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2026 issue of Industrial Supply magazine. Copyright 2026, Direct Business Media.

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