Global Fastener News

“This business takes guts. It always has,” third-generation distributor Andrew Hartman told the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association 2024 convention. “You know what? It always will.”

In his state of industry address, Hartman, of the Hartman Independent Company of Pennsylvania,  told of its founding by his grandfather, Robert Hartman, in 1948.

World War II “changed many things in American society and one of them was an explosion of a demand for housing” as soldiers returned “requiring homes to be built much faster than previously done.”

“Perhaps innovation, as it has before, will be the key for moving us forward,” Hartman said. “Back in 1948, that need led many companies to propose a solution.”

Robert Hartman first worked at pneumatic nailer manufacturer Berryfast and used that experience to start Hartman Independent Company. He would bring truckloads of products into his garage to sell and then deliver it in his 1939 Packard.

Hartman expanded in industrial and construction nailing and stapling markets, selling to pallet builders and home builders.

Following a health scare, the founder brought his son home from college to help out. Allen Hartman did everything from running the warehouse to purchasing to being an on-the-road salesman.

Allen Hartman formally took over in 1983, and the company continued in the fastening and pneumatic tooling industry, but added packaging and other construction an industrial products. Warehouses were opened in Ohio, New York, West Virginia and central Pennsylvania.

At age 14, Andrew Hartman started in tool repair staff, fixing primarily coil nailers for the pallet industry.

“As a teen and college-aged employee, I did everything you could think of, continuing to fix tools, broaden my knowledge in parts and repair, pulling and staging orders, receiving product, putting it away, loading and unloading trucks, and I even made a few deliveries. I was learning the circulatory system of the staff to distributor.”

“It’s easy for employees there to see the owner’s son entering the business and to think it’s all been handed to them,” Hartman noted. “Dad really made me work for what I ended up having.  I had to stand on my own early on.”

“I think one of the best lessons that Dad gave me was the ways that over the year he created a space, a safe space for me to make decisions. The principle of giving decision-making “holds true. Support those we lead. Create an environment where people aren’t afraid to fail and we’ll have that culture that is such a topic of discussion today.”

Since he began full-time in 2002, his functions have included leading warehouse and logistics team, sales, purchasing and product management. 

“I kind of did everything, but I had no authority.” 

His father created the role of vice president and appointed him in 2010.

“Whether you’re young and just entering the workforce or an industry veteran, don’t lose that curiosity and willingness to learn other parts of the business,” Hartman said. “They really work together as an organism, a living and breathing thing, and by knowing how they connect, you become more valuable to the business, and the business itself functions so much better.”

In transitioning to retirement, his father wanted to continue to play a role. But it needed to be defined to limit confusion, Hartman said.

“At one point in those months of transition, I went into his office and asked him, ‘Dad, what is one thing that you just love to do?’” His response resulted in a purchasing and procurement role. Plus he was to teach someone else in the organization how he thought “because you simply can’t replace a mind that has been in a business for 50 years.”

• If you find yourself just standing around physically or metaphorically, then there’s probably something you are missing that can prove your situation or the task that you are doing.

“Business and life problems are also heavy burdens, but we don’t shy away from them,” Hartman said. “We dig in. We watch our form. We support our team, and we lift heavy stuff.”

“Remember to smile. Stare down that work, that heavy stuff, and smile,” Hartman advised. “It does something to that thing that you were facing, but more importantly, it does something to our inner man or woman, and we end up standing up straighter, pushing harder and digging deeper.”

• Hartman noted consolidation “continues at a pace that we who have been around a minute find alarming, but you know what else is happening? When these big companies buy our peers up, there are always those who jettison out, and those folks are starting the seedlings of the next phase of growth. New distribution and new manufacturing is popping up everywhere, and STAFDA remains that one place where the industry can get together.

  • Find your value. “In the gym, the athlete constantly assesses their form. In the military, the seemingly endless drill and training exposes where there is a way to be better,” Hartman observed. “So too, the time of challenge that we find ourselves in now. We have responded, and we will continue to do so. We want to hear what provides value to our shareholders, be they distributors, manufacturers, or rep agents. Speak up. Let’s not just complain or criticize, but let’s come alongside with suggestions too.”

• “I want to remind us all that this has always been a people business, and always will be, Hartman said. “Frankly, life is a people business.” Web: STAFDA.org