Topeka, Kan.--David and Joy Krietemeyer, owners of Automotive and Industrial Distributors, said they are looking to expand their business, regardless of the current economic climate.
“It’s like the hotdog vendor that cooks a dozen hotdogs and sells 11, so he has one left over, so the next day he only cooks 11, and so on,” David Krietemeyer said. “Basically, you could put yourself out of business, and I just don’t agree with that philosophy. If you are not growing, you are dying.”
Seeking to expand his distribution area, Krietemeyer said he went to his paint provider, Akzo Nobel, and asked for approval to take on eight new counties in the Kansas City area: Clinton, Jackson, Platte, Wyandotte, Johnson, Leavenworth, Clay, and Cass.
Once authorized, Krietemeyer said he hired Drew Kirkland, a former technical consultant for Akzo Nobel. He said Kirkland is certified to teach on a number of paint lines--Valspar, PPG, Akzo Nobel.
“Drew has worked in the industry for about 20 years, and he worked for the paint company that we represent, so it was an amazing opportunity to hire somebody of that caliber into the business,” he said. “He is really the reason we got more territory.”
Another part of Akzo Nobel’s decision to authorize another Akzo distributor in the territory was the size of the area, Joy Krietemeyer said. “It is almost impossible for one wholesaler to do all of it, so they saw an advantage to bring in another salesperson to that area.”
“However, if our other Akzo Nobel competitor is selling in that shop, we just turn around and walk out,” David Krietemeyer said. “We are not there to absorb any of their business at all; we are just after new business.”
Kirkland, who lives in the Kansas City area, said he started visiting with Automotive and Industrial Distributor’s existing customers in August and has recently started moving into the new market areas.
“I have been involved in the collision business in the Kansas City market since 1992, so I know a lot of the people in these shops and I have built a reputation with a lot of them because I have worked with them before,” he said.
Krietemeyer said he has ordered a trailer for Kirkland to travel with in order to demonstrate paint on location at body shops. The trailer will be equipped with a mixing machine and a computer. “We are planning to put Akzo Nobel’s waterborne in there, too,” he added.
Currently, he said he has three customers spraying Sikken’s Autowave, Akzo Nobel’s waterborne basecoat.
“We were one of the first to install waterborne in Kansas,” he said, adding that he put one in for Hite Collision Center in Lawrence last year.
“We were nervous initially about taking water-based paint on, but it has been one of the easiest products to use,” Joy Krietemeyer said.
Regardless of whether a shop is switching to a water-based paint or changing paint brands entirely, Kirkland said which paint to use in a shop is big decision, not an overnight thing.
“It is a divorce and a wedding on the same day,” David Krietemeyer added. “That is exactly how it is, and it should be.”
Once the company takes on a new account, Joy Krietemeyer said they make service a priority from day one.
“From the start, we maintain their inventory for them, along with setting up and labeling their shelves,” she said. “They don’t have to call an order in every day; we take care of it for them.”
David Krietemeyer said the goal is to get the product to appear on the shelf as soon as the customer thinks about it.
Joy Krietemeyer added that they also work to train their wholesale customers as well assist body shops when they are having problems.
David Krietemeyer said that recently, he had a customer who was concerned about the cost of the primer. When he went to examine primer use at the shop, he said he discovered that it was priming and sanding each car three times.
By using a two-coat method, Krietemeyer said he was able to reduce the shop’s costs by 30 percent, saving it $600 a month on primer.
“Lots of times something really small can turn into a lot of dollars,” he said.
Until Automotive and Industrial Distributors expanded its territory, it had focused primarily on northeastern and central Kansas, Krietemeyer said. As business starts to grow in the Kansas City market, he said the next step is getting a new warehouse up and running in that area.
