Domestic Fastener Demand Boosting Birmingham Sales
FEATURE
Sales for 2012 have risen 20% for Birmingham Fastener’s manufacturing and distribution operations, and part of the increase is a demand for domestic fasteners.
“Business is good,” vice president Brad Tinney declared.
Sales had dipped in 2008, but have “worked back up since.”
Founded in 1980 as a distributorship by president Howard Tinney, Birmingham Fastener expanded into manufacturing by the end of the 1980s.
“These are exciting times to be a domestic manufacturer,” Brad Tinney told GlobalFastenerNews.com. “There are good things in the future.”
What is a key reason? “More and more people are ordering, ‘domestic’,” Birmingham general manager Leland Brown explains. “The ‘Buy America Act’ has altered the market. Now orders are written for U.S. products.”
Brown added people are saying, “‘I want to support the U.S.’ l like the sound of that.”
And buyers are looking at documentation, Brown added. He recalls earlier in his career when “no one asked for documents and test reports.”
Department of Transportation inspectors are asking for the documents, he noted.
Brown envisions the domestic trend is going to continue as China’s costs are going to rise rapidly 2015. “Their people are wanting more pay,” he observed. “Shipping costs are up.”
Brown and Howard Tinney both started at Southeastern Bolt and Brown joined him at Birmingham Fastener. “My first desk was on saw horses,” Brown recalled.
“Howard and I have a simple philosophy,” Brown explained. “We want to do business the way customers want us to do it. Howard always says, ‘If it makes sense plus dollars, then do it’.”
Brown believes Birmingham Fastener was ahead of other companies on quality issues. “We made our salespeople memorize ASTM specifications,” he told GlobalFastenerNews.com. “Our people know standards – especially outside salespeople who sit in front of engineers.”
Today Birmingham Fastener has manufacturing operations in Birmingham, and distribution centers in Alabama, Florida, Texas, Nebraska, Connecticut and Wisconsin.
Birmingham Fastener is headquartered at 931 Avenue W, Birmingham, AL 35214. Tel: 205 595-3511 or 800 695-3511 Web: bhamfast.com
Affiliated companies: Alabama Aerospace, Birmingham Fastener Manufacturing Inc.; Dallas Fastener; Hanceville Distribution Center; Houston Aerospace; Huntsville Fastener; Prosouth Fastener; and Texarkana Fastener.
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