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The quality of the relationships between manufacturers and distributors is a source of debate and, sometimes, disagreement
At the 2005 convention of the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Assn., Marshall Jones was among the scheduled speakers. The president of Marco Supply, Jones' topic was manufacturer-distributor relationships.
Sounds like a fairly typical convention/trade show address. Heard one, heard them all, right? Not this time.
Jones grew up in distribution, he explained to his audience, as in 1970 his father founded Marco Supply, which sells tools and equipment primarily to professional construction firms. But Jones was not there to deliver nostalgic anecdotes of summer vacations spent in the warehouse. He got his listeners' attention with his to-the-point observations about manufacturers and distributors-their similarities and, especially, their differences
"It's been said that there is a point where every problem is large enough to see, but small enough to fix," he told his audience. "The challenge of the manufacturer-distributor relationship has been big enough to see for a long time. The bottom line is, I don't believe either the distributor or manufacturer really want to be partners with each other."
Unlike most trade show speeches, Jones' talk jump-started many discussions. The cocktail hour talk that night consisted of much more than the usual, "Where are we eating?" or "What did you shoot today?" Excerpts of that talk ran a few months later in INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION and created further discussion and reaction.
In revisiting the topic of manufacturers and distributors-and analyzing his speech-Jones remains firm in his opinions on the subject.
"There's a lot of tension. It's not smooth, that's for sure," Jones says today.
He received some flack and criticism following the STAFDA talk-some from his own suppliers.
"Some manufacturers we worked closely with said, 'Gee, I thought things were good. I thought we had a good personal relationship and worked well together,'" Jones recalls. "And I think [in many cases] we do."
He isn't trying to sound an "abandon ship" distress call, he explains. He says he knows there are many distributors and manufacturers who have done well together.
"There are a number of examples of two companies that have people who naturally get along and work well together," Jones says, "doing a lot of good things,...