St. Peters, Mo.—Boxes are still being unpacked and some inventory hasn’t yet been put on the shelves at Century Tool & Equipment after its move to a new, larger office and warehouse space in St. Peters, Mo. Yet David Loika, the sole proprietor of the diversified automotive tools and equipment distributor, unabashedly describes his 10-year-old company as not only growing but still small and not like many others in the same business.
Century deals in more than 30 automotive equipment and tool lines such as Robinair AC machines, Schumacher Electric battery chargers, Clore Automotive battery chargers and HVAC equipment, with more than 45,000 line items of replacement parts in stock. One of the foundations of Century’s business, said Loika, is that they provide warranty and out-of-warranty service for every piece of equipment they sell. For some lines, they are the single source for replacement parts and a repair depot for those lines as well.
“Our customer is any automotive service shop out there. Some parts wholesalers also buy from us as a source for replacement parts, and even some retail consumers, who want high quality tools, battery chargers and the like. Customers can visit our store or our Web site, www.centurytool.net. We’re very diversified,” he said.
“We became a Robinair service center when we started business,” he said. “And my career started in HVAC at the manufacturing level with Hussmann Corp. and as an HVAC maintenance supervisor for a hotel chain. So it made sense to go with something I knew when I decided to start a business.”
Century, like many distributors, stocks new equipment; unlike others, it also has an inventory of refurbished equipment—for two reasons. “Some customers can’t always afford a new unit,” Loika said. “But there are also times when a unit is broken and the customer needs a unit temporarily because it generates revenue. In those cases, our rental units are perfect for them.”
It is easy to distinguish Century by the numbers as well. Century’s revenue mix is 90 percent new product sales and 10 percent repairs, though just a few years ago those percentages were just the opposite, according to Loika. Most impressive is that 75 percent of their sales now come from their online store, a comprehensive Web site laid out as a catalog with easy online ordering.
Still, with all that convenience, many customers pick up the phone while online to call in their orders, inquire about product specs and receive installation instructions.
“I learned a long time ago that the information we can provide customers is often every bit as important as the quality products we can sell them,” said Loika. “All of our employees attend weekly meetings here to learn about product specs, applications, installation and so forth. Usually our manufacturers also provide workshops at least once a year.”
The way the company reaches customers is pretty non-traditional, too. Loika does not have an outside sales force, but instead relies on his inside staff to make contacts bolstered by direct mail and email campaigns. His email list grows continuously, he said, thanks to a place on the Web site for visitors to sign up for email updates. “Our business has grown by 100 percent over the last two years,” he says, attributing most of that to the growth of his online sales.
Still, Loika underscores that the St. Louis market is very important to him because he sells the brands most shops prefer and his repair depot operation is a viable source of revenue that he’d like to see grow even more. “We also go the extra mile for our local customers,” he said. “When a shop buys a new piece of equipment, we hold a free orientation session in our warehouse where we teach them how to properly use the equipment, what they can do to avoid unnecessary maintenance bills later and how to do simple troubleshooting.”
He mentioned also that many shops often do not purchase inexpensive accessory items that would help them keep their equipment running better and longer. “Well, with Robinair they should be buying the hand-held oil and die injectors, and vacuum pump filters. Those will keep the machine cleaner and run better as a result. It’s the same thing they tell their customers about maintaining their vehicles,” he said.
Loika is always thinking about how to remove any obstacle to bringing in new and return business. The Century office is nearly paperless. Whether a customer orders online or over the phone, they receive a same-day order acknowledgement. Requests for catalogs and spec sheets are fulfilled via PDF files sent by email. And, they invoice most of their accounts via fax or email, too. He believes this allows him to have fewer employees because paper does not have to be handled or filed repeatedly. This allows his employees to spend their time more productively helping customers and getting orders.
But while Loika doesn’t want to have a lot of employees pushing paper, he does have plans this year to create a new call center staffed by as many as six representatives so he can reach and sell more shops and other distribution channels. He believes he is mixing equipment and tool sales, replacement parts sales, and equipment repair in ways few other tool and equipment distributors cannot do as well. “I believe there is a real value for customers to purchase equipment from a company who will be there to service that equipment and keep it running for a long time. That increases the value of their investment, even though in many respects we now live in a throw-away society. And, I believe more and more shops have to get more mileage out of their tools and equipment these days. Buying good quality and being able to have it maintained is something they can get from Century,” he said.
