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In August, IMARK Buying Group members gathered at the Onmi Grove Park in in Asheville, North Carolina for its annual Summer Invitational meeting. Several days of one-on-one supplier-member meetings, a golf tournament and endless networking were broken up with a handful of informative addresses from IMARK staff and partners.

During the event, IMARK announced that Denver, Colorado-based M&N Supply’s President, Steve Norton, would be the new chairman of the board for IMARK. Supply House Times sat down with Norton to discuss upcoming IMARK initiatives, challenges facing independent distributors and more.

SHT: Tell us about your background in the industry. When did you become involved with IMARK?

SN: I entered the industry in 1991, right out of High School.  I was a smart kid, but knew college was not an option for me at that time. I answered an employment ad for a warehouse position, which happen to be a top tier Plumbing Rep Agency. My primary consideration for responding to the ad was that the firm was geographically close to where I was living. It was a matter of practicality as I did not have a car at that time and could easily get to work by riding my bike or on nice days I could walk. My 11 years at the Rep Agency provided me with a solid foundation as I worked my way from the warehouse to an Outside Sales position. I also developed many relationships in the industry, including a friendship with Steve Morgan. Together Steve and I recognized a need for another wholesaler within the Denver market and in September of 2002 we founded M&N Plumbing Supply Company. From my experience as a Rep, I recognized the value for an independent wholesaler to be part of a Buying Group and in 2006 M&N Plumbing Supply became a member of the Omni Group.

SHT: What have you learned thus far in your career that you believe will help you serve successfully as Chairman of the Board?

SN: Determination, hard work, and a resolution to take on challenges and overcoming hurdles are attributes that I learned and applied resulting in year after year sales growth and building M&N Plumbing Supply into a successful and thriving business. These common characteristics apply to all independent wholesalers. I also “learned the ropes” on how to operate a growing business thanks to fellow members within the group that had already achieved a high level of success. As with the generation before me, I want to share my experiences and insight with fellow IMARK members. A genuine aspect of our group is an open willingness to share ideas and best practices to help all IMARK members thrive.

SHT:During the IMARK Summer Meeting, you focused heavily on member engagement. Why is this so important? What are your calls to action for members and vendors suppliers?

SN: Engagement ensures the continued viability, relevance, and success of our group. For these reasons, IMARK offers several marketing programs that are designed to drive a higher level of collaboration resulting in mutual sales growth and profits for both IMARK members and our approved suppliers.

Calls for action to the membership to support and drive business to IMARK suppliers and effectively utilize all available IMARK marketing programs and member resources. Achieving status on Member Premier Program is another call to action. The Premier Program provides a road map for members that intend to maximize the full benefits of their membership within the group. Status is recognized based on activities accomplished and results achieved for the calendar year. Key criteria of the Premier Program include:

• Increase purchases with IMARK suppliers
• Support a greater number of IMARK suppliers
• Convert business from non-approved suppliers to approved IMARK suppliers
• Participate and achieve purchasing goals within the GainShare Joint Planning Program
• IMARK member employees completing training modules on IMARK University

For approved IMARK suppliers, we ask that they focus and deploy their sales and marketing efforts and training resources with our membership. Grow their sales and share with members and effectively utilize all available IMARK marketing programs and supplier resources. Achieve status on the Supplier Gold/Platinum program. The Gold/Platinum program provides a road map for suppliers that intend to maximize their affiliation as an approved supplier. Suppliers receive recognition for activities accomplished and results achieved for the calendar year. Key criteria include of the Gold/Platinum Program include:

• Increase sales with IMARK members
• Participate and achieve success on the GainShare Joint Marketing Program
• Provide training content for IMARK learning resources.
• Send a case of Caymus to Norton’s home address

SHT: Buying groups have evolved a lot over the past decade. What do you think are the most notable turning points for IMARK over the past 5-10 years?

SN: Our progressive culture has driven the group to expand beyond the traditional role of a buying group. For example, with the synergy and scale of IMARK Group’s 1,600 wholesalers with over 6,500 locations, we developed a Health Insurance Captive Plan. Like all businesses in the United States, IMARK group members are frequently faced with increases in the costs of providing high-quality health insurance to their employees. IMARK Group members can now join a captive insurance plan and can expect savings on health insurance premiums.

In addition, we have established an IMARK Group Retirement Plan, a Multiple Employer Retirement plan (MEP). MEPs allow multiple businesses to join one retirement plan and operate it as a single entity, rather than each business operating a separate retirement plan. MEPs offer cost savings and improved services by providing efficient administration of common back-office tasks. Also, by leveraging scale and purchasing power in negotiations with service providers the IMARK Group Retirement Plan drives costs down for all participating members.

Data is power and the IMARK DASHBOARD offers numerous data points that benefit members and suppliers. Members have access to in-depth analytical tools to help them better manage their experience with the group and provide them guidance on maximizing their total rebate earnings through the group’s supplier partners. For our Suppliers the IMARK DASHBOARD provides multiple analytical sales tools to aid their sales efforts and to help them better manage their overall relationship with the IMARK Membership. Suppliers also gain insight into new business opportunities to grow sales and increase market share with IMARK members.

Networking and building relationships are fundamental principles for our group and demonstrates our membership’s willingness to share ideas and assist fellow members in all aspects of their business. Our I-Net Meetings provide IMARK member Owners and Senior Executives with a formal peer networking session to discuss their challenges, share ideas and review solutions leading to best practices for business improvement. I-Nets have proven to be an indispensable resource and have strengthened business relationships and built lasting friendships among fellow IMARK members.

SHT: In your opinion, what are the greatest challenges facing PHCP-PVF distributors today. What is IMARK doing to address these challenges to help members?

SN: A common concern for virtually all members is attracting and retaining quality employees. Having a robust training program is vital on retaining employees. IMARK University provides member employees with access to high quality, web-based learning materials regarding the products and application of all major commodity products in the plumbing industry. We are also close to launching a platform to provide a greater depth of resources to members for managerial and executive development.

As mentioned, the IMARK Group Retirement Plan provides the membership with an effective and affordable opportunity to offer attractive 401K retirement solutions to their employees.

The pace of industry consolidation is another concern. For this reason, we developed the IMARK Growing Forward Strategy. The program is designed to maintain and grow the group’s purchasing power by alerting member companies of IMARK Group members that are in acquisition mode. While family considerations are of principal importance during the company sales process, many member-owners of independent distributors often feel the best thing they can do for their employees and their customers is to sell their businesses to a fellow independent distributor. This initiative has resulted in more member companies selling to IMARK peers and has kept that purchase volume inside our group.

SHT: What new IMARK initiatives and programs are you most excited for and why?

SN: We are in the process of rolling out our new and improved Fill-It-Now market place. Fill-It-Now is an exclusive closed e-commerce platform that provides IMARK Plumbing and BLUE HAWK members with access to each other’s inventory and allows them to buy and/or sell products among fellow members. Key attributes of this site provides members with enhanced inventory visibility, expanded and diversified product offerings with the ability to provide better customer satisfaction with reduced lead times.

Another new initiative is our partnership with Salesforce. IMARK’s marketing team now has an array of new and enhanced communications tools. The marketing team now can send out individual communications to members concerning time sensitive status reports such as updates on the group’s performance toward annual stretch purchases goals, individual member growth goals and YTD performance on GainShare goals.

I am also excited about the momentum that the IMARK GainShare program has experienced. GainShare is a joint marketing planning program that provides members with the opportunity to set purchase objectives with a select group of suppliers. Members are encouraged to conduct joint sales and marketing activities with local sales reps to drive sales growth and gain market share and increase sales and profits for both members and suppliers and generates higher sales commissions for reps. GainShare ties back to my conversation about engagement and truly enhances the engagement level among our membership and IMARK suppliers along with the local sales reps. It is a win-win-win program that is delivering above market sales results.

SHT: What can members expect from you as Chairman of the Board? What are your goals both professionally and personally in this role?

SN: Foremost, I am here to listen and support the membership in any way that I can. Both my professional and personal roles are to provide leadership and vision on guiding the group on a continued path of growth. Also important to me is to continually promote the group’s core values:

• A family first culture
• Profit minded with humble confidence
• A Passionately progressive outlook
• A membership that is willing to share

SHT: What is something people in the industry may not know about you?

SN: If it wasn’t for a fluke injury to my left eye one week prior to boot camp, I would never have been in this industry. As I stated earlier, college was not in the picture right out of high school, and I was just days away from heading to boot camp for a Delayed Entry Program that would enlist me in the Navy’s Nuclear program, which would have put me on the pathway to operating and maintaining the nuclear powered naval fleet. Instead I needed to find a job heading a different direction, and landed at a Plumbing Rep Agency out of the gate.