Beyond Shipping Boxes: Nate Bucklew on What an Industrial Electrical Distributor Actually Does
Manufacturing Happy Hour
In this episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour, recorded in the warehouse of E&H Electric Supply in Louisville, Kentucky, with a wire spool serving as the table, the host speaks with district manager Nate Bucklew. It is part of a series of conversations around Louisville's manufacturing community, and the host admits that after more than 150 episodes it was "criminal" that the show hadn't yet covered industrial distribution. The central question is what a distributor contributes to manufacturing beyond moving product, and where the role is heading. Bucklew's answer returns again and again to the same point: modern distributors distribute ideas, services, and planning, and "product that goes out the door is simply a byproduct of everything else."
Why distribution matters to the manufacturing ecosystem
The host asks Bucklew to imagine they are sipping bourbon at a bar and explain, in about a minute and a half, why an industrial electrical distributor is a critical part of manufacturing. (For the bar, Bucklew suggests Whiskey Row for its history, jokes that the question should really go to their wife as "social planner," and settles on Repeal as a less mainstream alternative to places like Jeff Ruby's.)
Bucklew frames the answer around jobs and community rather than products. They had spoken at a local university the night before, and they note that many people choose careers to make a difference. Distribution, in their view, exists to enable manufacturers and maximize their efficiency, and manufacturers are among the largest employers in Louisville. So while E&H is "selling lighting" and "selling plant automation and safety," Bucklew sees the underlying work as helping sustain jobs and the broader ecosystem.
They point to COVID as an illustration. While many people couldn't work, E&H received letters from customers designating it as part of critical infrastructure, because it supports water treatment facilities, utilities, and food and beverage producers that keep groceries on shelves. For Bucklew, that is the importance of the work beyond any single solution or product.
From warehouse shelves to district manager
Bucklew grew up in Pittsburgh. Their father spent a career in the industry and their older brother entered it too, and "like any little brother," Bucklew followed. They started at the company's Pittsburgh location working in the warehouse during college, stocking shelves. At that stage they didn't see much of the business or technology side, but they "fell in love with the people side of it." They returned for another summer and then joined full-time after graduation.
They credit a management training program that taught fundamentals of product and industry but also people and leadership. The training took them to Kentucky, somewhere they never expected to leave Pittsburgh for, first to Lexington and then to a management role in Elizabethtown, just south of Louisville, for six years. There they got to know the local manufacturing community, including the bourbon industry, which Bucklew describes as a big part of that market. They then moved up to manage in Louisville, where they have been for nearly six years, and are now district manager for the Bluegrass industrial district, working with other managers across Kentucky to build businesses that support customers and partner with suppliers.
Career advice: foundation, patience, and never being the smartest in the room
Asked what early-career people should do to accelerate their advancement, Bucklew's first word is "foundation," which they admit requires patience that feels impossible when someone is fresh out of high school or college and eager to make a difference. Their reasoning is practical: to serve customers you have to know what you're doing, and to manage well you have to understand what your people are doing, which takes time. At the university, students asked how long the training program lasts; one to two years feels like an eternity at that age, Bucklew says, when in reality it goes by quickly, "too quick sometimes."
They acknowledge this is easier to say in hindsight. They remember being four months into warehouse work and wondering when their time would come, or waiting in outside sales for the next call. Their advice is to "grow where you're planted": be a good coworker, supplier, and customer. It's a people business, they say, and if you build good relationships and trust and take care of those around you, many other things take care of themselves.
The lesson from those early years that still sticks with them is that they are never the smartest person in the room. Distributors have insights and should offer them freely, but there is always a lot to learn. Bucklew became a manager at 24, leading four people who were all older and more knowledgeable about the market and the industry. Striking a balance between leading and being guided and coached by those people was, in their words, a "nimble balance but an important one." Continuous learning and patience are the threads they identify when looking back.
Manufacturing as Louisville's identity
Bucklew calls manufacturing part of the identity of the Louisville market. They reference a TV commercial claiming the U.S. doesn't manufacture anything anymore and respond that people should go to Michigan, Missouri, or Kentucky to see otherwise. They acknowledge that businesses have moved a lot of production overseas for financial reasons, but insist manufacturing in Louisville "is real" and "matters," admitting the latter is something of a buzzword.
In their view, manufacturing provides careers and the ability to support a family, and it carries a sense of pride tied to "Made in America." They also see it as self-reinforcing: good manufacturers attract more industry and investment. Bucklew doesn't think it's an accident that greater Louisville has been selected for major investments, attributing it to talented, willing workers built on the region's long manufacturing history.
When the host lists industries covered in earlier episodes, including bourbon, automotive, and the tugboat industry in Paducah, Bucklew agrees that food and beverage and automotive have been core. But the area capturing their attention is material handling, distribution, and fulfillment. They connect it to digital transformation and changes in how consumers shop: investment in parcel operations, adding speed, accuracy, and tracking so packages send updates as they move through miles of conveyors. Bucklew sees the technology and automation inside these distribution centers as a big part of Louisville's recent industrial growth and of where the nation is heading as buying behavior keeps accelerating.
Inventory is "just stuff" unless it keeps customers running
Turning to distribution itself, the host recalls an idea from earlier in the day: the value isn't the product on the shelves but the ability to get it to the people who need it quickly. Bucklew agrees that product is irrelevant if it isn't aimed at the right customer. A distributor could hold enormous quantities of an item, but it has to be there when customers need it, which, they note, has been a source of frustration across the supply chain over the previous two years.
Manufacturers, Bucklew says, can't afford downtime; it is "crippling" to their ability to stay alive and relevant. E&H supports them through critical spares kept on customer sites, supporting capacity in its own warehouse, and vendor-managed inventory. Keeping manufacturers running is "ultimately the purpose of this inventory, otherwise it's just simply stuff."
OEMs, machine builders, and integrators have a different need: timelines and delivery commitments, often without the space to hold all the inventory themselves. The distributor bridges that gap so product arrives when they need it.
Kitting and the modification center
Asked for the highlights of what E&H does beyond boxes on shelves, Bucklew traces an evolution. Years ago the value proposition was next-day delivery: if it's on the shelf, it's on the truck tomorrow morning. That built a reputation for speed. Over time, the company started asking what was holding customers up, such as staffing problems or tasks they couldn't do.
That led, with customer guidance, to building custom push-button stations and built-to-spec terminal block kits, so that when a customer opens the box they don't have to count out components; they can put them straight onto a machine or back panel and get to the field.
E&H also has a modification center. It sells enclosures and control panel components and wants to provide everything that goes inside the box. Bucklew is careful to say the company doesn't necessarily build panels unless customers ask. The goal is that customers don't have to measure and cut a large square in stainless steel or cut 14 push-button holes themselves; the enclosure arrives ready for wiring and layout, letting them focus on their core value. Doing this consistently, Bucklew says, positions E&H closer to customers and builds a stronger partnership. The host summarizes it as offering different ways to serve customers as they need to be served; not everyone needs panels cut, but the option exists for those it helps.
Addressing the skills gap
The host links this to an earlier episode with Amatrol about the skills gap. Bucklew says E&H feels the problem itself: by the end of the year, two employees with 45 years of tenure will retire. The company can recruit talented people, but transferring that knowledge comprehensively is "tough if not impossible." The question is how to handle that internally and how to help customers facing the same challenge.
Training is a big part of the answer, offered across formats: in-person sessions at E&H, training taken on site to customers, and e-learning for customers who are too short-staffed to let people leave the plant. E&H works alongside Amatrol, Rockwell Automation, and other manufacturing partners to put curriculum in front of customers that helps workers both do their jobs and advance. Bucklew ties this back to community and pride in manufacturing careers, pride E&H shares in helping.
But where the problem is simply a shortage of people and training can't solve it, E&H offers value-added services or connects customers with its integrator community and delivery partners. Connecting customers with whoever can solve the problem, whether E&H's own people or other partners, is in Bucklew's view critical.
Local inventory for a local market
The host raises something they think people overlook: people tend to assume goods are simply available somewhere and appear the next day, but a distributor's stock is shaped by its market. Bucklew notes that distributors handle this differently; some run distribution centers serving a whole region such as the Great Lakes. E&H's approach is to put a warehouse near the customers it serves, because needs differ not only from Minnesota but even from Elizabethtown, 40 miles south, where the customer mix is different. There are some common "A items," but inventory doesn't necessarily overlap.
E&H builds inventory by anticipating demand, examining data, and talking with customers about what they use, what their pain points are, and what item they can't get. Bucklew's point is that even within the same industry, different customers and markets produce different inventory demands, and they value being able to build around local needs.
The distributor of the future: people first, then innovation
Asked what the distributor of the future looks like, Bucklew starts with people and says they won't depart from it. Innovation and digital transformation matter, and distributors need to understand and invest in them, but people are key. They cite recent conversations with customers who stressed the value of being able to call someone and get an answer when a website doesn't fully show availability or what's needed.
Still, Bucklew says distributors must be innovative and willing to invest. Sitting between customers and suppliers, E&H has to understand what matters to both. Manufacturers are bringing new product generations, firmware, software, and data-driven solutions, and the distributor must be agile on both sides with the end customer in mind. They note that when you talk to customers or read trade magazines, the things customers lose sleep over are people and expertise, new technology and innovation, and old technology that leaves their equipment vulnerable. Distributors need to equip themselves to bring solutions to those problems.
Coaching customers and employees through change
The host describes digital transformation as helping customers use their data to produce more and reduce scrap, and asks how Bucklew gets people to make that change. The answer is "the why." Telling people what to do "is never effective for long, if ever." It starts with E&H's own people understanding why, for example, upgrading the backbone of a customer's network infrastructure matters: getting data upstream, making quicker decisions, spotting a safety incident ahead of time.
E&H lets customers lead it on priorities, structure, and where to invest, but customers also rely on the distributor for foresight, such as where robotics and mechatronics fit into machine building, which Bucklew describes as designing machines differently. That requires persistence, because customers are busy running machines and new approaches require new engineering. Bucklew frames it as helping customers see a different way of thinking about downtime, and stresses that E&H must understand these technologies itself before it can convey their value.
The host adds that E&H has its own story to tell here, having automated and digitized parts of its warehouse and its vendor-managed inventory program so staff no longer arrive with paper and pencil.
Moving into services, and the discomfort that comes with it
The host notes that E&H, through its Industrial Solutions Network, offers services ranging from assessments to cybersecurity, and asks what it's like entering areas that don't look like traditional distribution. Bucklew admits to "a level of discomfort." The company has to step up its game with training, and with basics like having safety systems around equipment it has bought, to make sure it's ready to perform.
A particular concern for Bucklew is that in solving one customer's problem, E&H must not be "poking another customer in the eye," or a delivery partner. They call this a nimble journey that depends on talking with customers about what they need and deciding whether E&H should offer it or bring in someone already built to scale.
Lighting is their example. A customer can buy fixtures from E&H, but ultimately needs them installed, and many maintenance crews are struggling to stay staffed. E&H can bring in a delivery partner to install them. E&H might not physically do the installation, but it offers the customer a turnkey service. Bucklew sees turnkey problem solving, where customers turn to E&H and it "go[es] make it happen with some partners around us," as key to the future, balanced between partners and E&H's own capabilities. The host summarizes the theme of the whole conversation this way: find where the ecosystem needs help, decide whether someone else already does it or where E&H can add value, and pick up partners along the way.
Louisville and its collaborative culture
Asked what makes Louisville special, Bucklew stays on theme: people. Not originally from Louisville, they came to the region about 12 years ago, first to Elizabethtown, and found a place to build community and raise a family. They also mention parks, museums, industry, college sports (declining to pick between the Louisville Cardinals and UK), and a culture spanning horses, bourbon, and industry. As outsiders, they say, their family has grown to call it home.
On whether the local manufacturing community is collaborative, Bucklew says yes, with a condition: distributors must earn it. Customers are busy and have no time for someone who walks in and wastes it. If E&H adds value, collaboration follows, and many of the technologies and solutions E&H brings forward are learned from customers in the first place.
Inside E&H, that translates to showing up with a purpose. Before a sales call, staff should ask why they're going and whether they've done their homework. Bucklew also emphasizes that E&H is a supplier to its customers and a customer to its suppliers, and it should behave accordingly, practicing what it preaches by being a good, loyal, and innovative partner to its supplier community.
The one thing that keeps customers in business
For the single most important thing a distributor must do to keep customers in business for the next ten years, Bucklew first adds that transparency and integrity are a baseline for everything. Beyond that, the answer is staying in front of customers: understanding their goals and challenges so the distributor can plan and build a business to enable them. For manufacturing facilities, that means keeping plants running and preventing downtime. For machine builders, it means understanding their outlook, how much of a given product they'll need, and their "30,000-foot" plans, so E&H can scale and make innovative investments that serve them. If E&H builds trust, adds value, and stays close, Bucklew says, customers can in turn give it the foresight to keep putting them first.
His closing takeaway for the audience is that there is more to distribution than boxes and product. It's about solving problems and making customers successful, about being a people business, and about keeping critical infrastructure running and contributing to communities across the country. Bucklew also concedes that distributors have their own learning and evolving to do to stay relevant and stay on the cutting edge, "or get cutting edge perhaps."
A bourbon to close
Asked for a go-to bourbon, Bucklew names Woodford Reserve Double Oaked, adding that as someone from Pittsburgh, whiskey wasn't really their thing and they're far from a connoisseur; after trying many, including very expensive ones, Double Oaked "gets it done." If pressed for a second choice, they pick Basil Hayden, both for being usually available and good value. They note that bourbon culture is genuinely local rather than just for tourists, that the bourbon shelf in a liquor store can be paralyzing, and that many new, innovative distilleries are emerging. The host closes by recalling that, when starting the podcast, they had seen a Kansas City distributor's tongue-in-cheek video series filmed around wire spools and thought they should try something similar someday, making this conversation at a spool in Louisville feel like a full-circle moment.
Our manufacturers, they can't afford to be down. Downtime for them is crippling to their ability to stay alive, stay relevant. We've got to keep them alive, and some of that's critical spares on sites and then supportive capacity here, vendor managed inventory, taking this product out. So keeping those manufacturers running is ultimately the purpose of this inventory; otherwise it's just simply stuff.
Modern distributors distribute more than just boxes. They distribute ideas, services, planning. Product that goes out the door is simply a byproduct of everything else. This episode, we're going to hear what the distributor of the future looks like as we sit down with Nate Bucklew.
Nate is part of this city series we've been doing going around Louisville. We were in the lab at Amatrol, we were at watchill proper talking about the bourbon industry with the Opus guys, and I think we have a very iconic location to talk about industrial distribution, being inside your warehouse, literally using a spool as our table for the conversation. It's great to have you here. Authentic. Thank you, thank you for having me. So we're in here, yeah, we're in the warehouse right now. I got to ask you, since we are in the bourbon capital, where would we be having a beverage if we were doing this over a drink?
I think Whiskey Row is important, the historical element of that. There's a lot of good bourbon restaurants, good bars. Being here in Louisville, you'll find it anywhere. I think I joked a little earlier, gosh, that's probably a question I need to defer to my wife on as my social planner, but Repeal is pretty cool. I think that's a unique one, maybe not one of the mainstream, the Jeff Ruby's of the world, certainly great, but Repeal is neat and would probably be where I went for a drink.
Well, when you're having a beverage there, I want you to answer this question as if that's the scenario you're in, right? What makes an industrial electrical distributor such a critical part of a manufacturing ecosystem? So we're sipping on bourbon, how do you answer that in 1 minute 30 seconds or something?
The timing is going to be the hardest part of this. I was just at a local university last night talking about what we do, and a lot of folks get into careers to make a difference. And you think about what manufacturing is and what we do, what we aim to do is to enable that and maximize the efficiency, maximize what our manufacturers can do. But ultimately what it is is jobs, it's community. You look at some of the manufacturers in town, among the highest employment, largest employers here. So it is jobs, it is a backbone of the community. And what we get to do, yeah, we're selling lighting and we're selling plant automation and safety, but we're helping to create jobs and continue that ecosystem.
You look through COVID, where a lot of folks couldn't work. We had to, we were getting letters from customers, part of a critical infrastructure, whether that's the water treatment facilities or the utilities, food and bev, putting food on shelves at the grocery store. We support a lot of those customers. So there is importance in what we do beyond the solution or the product that we provide.
And we're going to talk about the ecosystem here today. We're going to talk about what you do, what you'll be doing in the future as well as distribution continues to evolve, but first we want to get to know your backstory a little bit. So my first question is, how did you get into this industry? Give us a little bit about how Nate made his way into the industrial distribution world.
So I started with our CED location up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It's where I'm from. My father was in the industry for his career, my older brother got into the industry, and like any little brother, you follow what your big brother does, and started in the warehouse through college up in Pittsburgh, just stocking shelves, doing a lot of what we've seen, and really fell in love with, I didn't get to see a lot of the business and the technology, but fell in love with the people side of it. Came back another summer, came back full-time after graduation.
CED's got an incredible management training program, where they invested into me and taught me some of the fundamentals of product and industry, but people and leadership. And I've bounced around a little bit, came down into Kentucky, never thought I'd leave, but moved down to Kentucky to get a broadened training experience. Spent some time in Lexington and ultimately had the opportunity to go and manage down in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, just south of Louisville, and managed down there for 6 years. Got to know some of the manufacturing community; the bourbon industry is a big part of that market and this market here in Kentucky. And kind of working with customers, working with that team there, ultimately had an opportunity to come up here and manage in Louisville. I've been here for coming up on six years, and now I'm a district manager for our Bluegrass industrial district, working with some of our other managers across Kentucky and helping to ultimately build businesses that support our customers, that partner with our suppliers, to make this whole thing work.
And our audience probably heard this in your answer: you've done everything from stocking the shelves to where you are as a district manager now here at E&H, which is a prestigious role at the end of the day. So what I want to ask you is some advice for the audience out there, maybe particularly early career talent. What are the things that you've done or the things you'd recommend the folks in industry do to prepare themselves for advancement and to accelerate their careers? What's helped you, and what advice would you give to the audience?
Foundation. Build a foundation, which requires patience, which is impossible as you're coming out of school, whether that's high school or out of college, and eager to make a difference and eager to get into new roles that are aligned with your passion. But ultimately, to be successful for our customers, we need to know what we're doing. To be successful in a management role, I've got to understand what my people are doing, and that takes time. You got to do that. And again, our training program puts us in a position to learn on the site, on-the-job training with our experts, with our personnel who have been doing this for a career, with our customers who ultimately drive us to build a business that supports them. So patience is key. Again, I was at a university last night talking to folks, and it's like, how long's a training program? And one to two years feels like an eternity in that time frame. Absolutely. When in reality it's quick, too quick sometimes. But I think that's so important, just having a foundation to build upon, learn upon, and then offer some insights on.
Patience is great advice in our instant gratification world that we live in now, and especially when you're in your early 20s and two years does feel like an eternity versus like a blip.
And I was there. I mean, it's easy for me to speak it now. That fourth month in the warehouse, you're like, oh hey, when's my time? And you're in outside sales, you're waiting for that next call. So it's always easier said in hindsight, but it's important. And again, whether that's the young professional or individuals looking to get into the next role, kind of grow where you're planted and be a good coworker, be a good supplier, be a good customer. It's a people business. Build good relationships, build good trust, and take care of those around you. A lot of the other things take care of themselves.
A slightly different question: reflecting back on those warehouse days, the early days of the training program, what's one of the lessons you learned back then that still helps you today, whether it was a conversation with a mentor, something you learned in that program?
I'm never the smartest person in the room. And not just me; there's always something to learn. We've got insights to offer, and we should be quick and free to offer those, but we got a lot to learn as well. I showed up as a 24-year-old manager with four individuals, all older than me, all more knowledgeable about that market and, frankly, about our industry. And how to strike that balance of leading and being led, being guided, being coached, is a nimble balance but an important one. I think that probably rings the most consistent for me as I look back and like, gosh, what were some of those important lessons learned?
Continuous learning, patience, you've been distilling a lot of great advice in this part of the conversation so far. Let's shift a little bit over to the Louisville manufacturing ecosystem. What does manufacturing mean to Louisville, Kentucky? And feel free to go a little broader as well.
Oh, I mean, it's an identity of this market. There's a commercial on TV right now of, you know, they say we don't manufacture anything anymore, and it's like, go to Michigan, come to Kentucky, go to Missouri. And it's the reality. We push a lot of things overseas, and there's some financial reasons that businesses have done that, but come to Louisville, Kentucky: manufacturing is real. Manufacturing, it matters. And that's a little bit of a buzzword there, but it's the reality of it. And what it does, again I mentioned a little earlier, community and jobs, and building a career and providing for a family. Manufacturing, it's key to what we do.
And I think there's a pride element to, you know, being an American, in manufacturing here, Made in America. Having some of that here brings a lot of pride to this community, and we've got some great manufacturers, which is a big piece of that. And I think one feeds itself: more industry coming in, more investment, big investment being made. And I don't think it's any accident that Kentucky, that greater Louisville area, has been selected for a lot of those investments. We've got great people, we've got willing workers and talented workers, and that's built upon, I think, a lot of the history and rich history of manufacturing that's here.
Yeah, I'd love to hear what industry or industries are capturing your attention these days. We've talked a lot about some of the core industries that are here in this area over the past couple interviews. We've got bourbon, we've got automotive, I just learned about the tugboat industry down in Paducah. That was a new one for me. What industries are capturing your attention right now?
That's huge, and those are some of the main ones. The food and bev, the automotive, I think have been core to this industry, but over the last decade or two, you look at material handling and the digital transformation and how all of us as individual consumers shop. The material handling industry and some of the distribution and fulfillment, some of the parcel, the investments being made into that to be able to add efficiency, add speed, accuracy, and tracking, to where we're getting updates as things are moving through miles of conveyors. That is a big part of this industry, but a big part of where I think our industry as a whole, our nation, is going. As things continue to speed and buying behaviors change, those distribution centers and those fulfillment areas, the technology and the automation that goes into that, I think has been a big part of some of the industrial growth here in Louisville.
I want to ask you, we're going to shift gears in this conversation a bit to talk about industrial distribution, what it means to be in this industry, where we see this space going. Because I've said it before, but after over 150 episodes of Manufacturing Happy Hour, it's criminal that I really haven't addressed industrial distribution yet, so you're the perfect person to help lead us off on this. And there was a quote we said earlier today, I shouldn't say a quote, something we said earlier, that it's not the product that's on the shelves, it's the ability to get that product to the people that need it quickly. Yeah. So go ahead, I'd love to share your thoughts on that, and then I'll go in with my question after that.
Product is irrelevant if it's not pointed at the right customer, if it's not here for our customer base. We can have 22 million of this, 30 million of this; it's got to be here when our customers need it. And frankly, that's been part of the frustration of the last two years for all in a supply chain capacity. But our customers, our manufacturers, they can't afford to be down. Downtime for them is crippling to their ability to stay alive, stay relevant. We've got to keep them alive, and some of that's critical spares on sites and then supportive capacity here, vendor managed inventory, taking this product out. So keeping those manufacturers running is ultimately the purpose of this inventory; otherwise it's just simply stuff.
And then you look at some of our OEMs, our machine builders, our integration, speed to market there. They've got timelines, they've got commitments that they've made, they've got to deliver on. We've got to enable that happening at the time they need it. And again, they might not have the space for all of this inventory. We've got to bridge that gap. So we fulfill a role there, but again, it's just stuff if it's not enabling our customers to do what they need to do, and what we have here should be aided by what they
And there are some, I'd love to get into the nitty-gritty a little bit, because there are specific things that you do as a distributor to help get your customers to market quicker, as you say. Can you give us the highlight reel of those? You don't need to go into all the detail, but the unique things that you do that are more than just the boxes on the shelves.
Sure. Rewind the clock for years, it's next-day delivery: hey, you get us an order, we got it on the shelf, it's going to be on the truck tomorrow morning. So some of that has laid the foundation for that quickness, that reputation, that serviceminder more, and we've understood: hey, what's holding you up? What, you're having staffing problems? What can't you do? We've gone and started to take the kind of custom-built push button stations or built-to-spec terminal block kits, to where when our customer opens a box, they don't have to count all those things out. They get it, they put it on their machine or they put it on their back panel, and they can get the field. So we've done more of that over time with customer guidance.
And then we looked a little earlier at our modification center. We sell enclosures, we sell control panels, and we want the box, and we want to provide
everything that goes within it. And ultimately our customers, we don't necessarily panel build unless our customers are asking us to do that, but we want to put it to where they don't have to get it and then measure out and cut a big square in stainless steel or cut 14 push button holes. And we've got a machine that, when they get it, they can start to get to work with wiring, with layout, and really get to the core of what they do, where their value is. That positions us closer to them, that adds more value to them, and if we can do that successfully, more consistently, we've got a really good partnership to build upon.
Yeah, I think the way I summarize it is you create different ways to serve your customers in the way they need to be served, right? Not everyone needs the panels cut, right? That's an option for them that's available for the ones where that helps them get to market quicker.
Another thing you do, and we talked about this with Amatrol not too many episodes ago, we were really talking about the skills gap, and they do a lot of work in your market and quite frankly beyond, they serve the globe, they do a lot of work around writing curriculum, building training stations. But you're also doing things to address the need for skilled workers and the fact that we don't necessarily have all the skills we need out there in the field today. Tell us how you're doing that.
Sure. Well, we recognize the importance of it for our customers because we feel it ourselves. At the end of this year we're going to have two 45-year tenured employees retire, and we can go and recruit talented people, but to transfer that knowledge comprehensively is tough, if not impossible. So how do we ourselves, and then how do we help our customers with those same challenges? Training is a big piece of it: offering training, effective training, a breadth of training environments. In person, we'll bring folks in here, we'll take training on site to our customers. E-learning, because they don't have as many people, they can't get out of the plant, we'll offer e-learning alongside Amatrol, Rockwell, some of our manufacturing partners, to put curriculum in front of our customers that helps their people do the job but advance in their job as well. And that's again back to the community and manufacturing works. There's a pride element to it, and in that career advancement, if we can help to aid that and guide that, all the more valuable we are to that customer. But there's some pride in that for ourselves as well, so that's a big piece of it.
But also, again, where we can't train our way through it, if it's truly just a shortage of people, we do want to offer some of those value-added services or connect them with the expertise, our integrator community, some of our delivery partners, where we don't need to do it but we know people who can. And I think that's a big part of our ecosystem, and connecting our customer with those who can solve those problems, whether those are our people or other partners, is critical. So we've got to be on that continued focal point of solving customer problems where they can't solve them themselves.
Yeah, so we've been talking about inventory, we talked about what you're doing to address the needs for skilled workers. I also want to add as an aside, I just love it when we have forklifts behind us as well. That's what makes Manufacturing Happy Hour Manufacturing Happy Hour. It's not real without that, so I need to figure out how to get those in my own podcast studio. But I do have one more, let's say, product and inventory related question for you before I completely switch it up a little bit. So one other thing I think people might miss when they're thinking about distribution is, I think we just nebulously assume that stuff is available somewhere and it arrives at their door the next day, but you stock stuff that's unique to this market, right? What you have here would look a little different from what's in, say, Kansas City, for example. So explain why that part is important and why that might be something that most people don't realize about what a distributor does.
Sure. And different distributors do it differently. There's distribution centers that'll service a region, the Great Lakes region. Our motto is we're going to put a warehouse here that's focused on these customers, because what they need is going to be different than Minnesota, or gosh, even Elizabethtown, 40 miles south of here. The customer mix down there is different than it is up here, and our inventory isn't necessarily going to overlap. There are some A items, some common themes, but ultimately we build our inventory to support that local customer base. And again, we can anticipate it, we can look up and see what the A items are, we can get in front of our customers and understand, hey, what are you using, what are your pain points, what's that one item that you can't get, and we stock accordingly. So the true, intricate differences of same industry but different customer, different market, the inventory requirements and demands are going to vary. And I think what I love about what we're able to do is build that around our local customers' needs.
I told you I was going to change it up to something totally different. So we're talking about a lot of the things you do today and some things you've been building, let's say, your heritage and legacy around as a distributor. What does the distributor of the future look like? What are some of the newer things you've seen that you're doing, and maybe things that you're thinking of doing next?
People. I won't depart from it. Innovation is key, and digital transformation, again, we've talked on some of the buzzwords and some of the things that we need to truly understand, we need to invest in, we need to bring that solution to our customers, but people are key to that. You talk to our customers about what differentiates today, and the industry is changing, it's evolving, but out in front of customers over the last few days, the ability for them to call and get an answer when a website might not fully suggest whether it's available or what is needed. We've had some customers really reinforce the value in people. So that P is important today, it's important in the future. People is key, and our people, in making sure we've got the right individuals to support our customers, those people.
But we do need to be innovative, we need to be willing to invest. Again, when you think about where we sit between our customers and our suppliers, what's important to those two, and listening to what's important to customers and helping the manufacturing community create a new generation of product or a new firmware, a new software. Our manufacturers are brilliant and forward-looking and bringing new technologies, softwares, data-driven solutions to our customer base. We've got to be agile and work both sides of that with the end customer in mind. But ultimately a lot of what they rely on us for is bringing that innovation. You talk to customers, you read trade magazines, it's like, gosh, what are customers stressed about? What do they lose sleep about? People and expertise, the new technology and/or innovation, and maybe some of that old technology that leaves their equipment vulnerable. And we've got to equip ourselves to bring those solutions to them.
When you're on the cutting edge like you are, and you're maybe introducing these data-driven solutions, we use the term digital transformation a lot, but really what it is is you're helping customers leverage their data more effectively to produce more, reduce scrap, all the things that you can use that for. What is it like being a leader in that space? How do you get people to make that change? How do you coach them through that?
The why. How do you get people to do anything? You can tell them; that's never effective for long, if ever. Help them understand why. And that starts with our people: why is this important that we upgrade the backbone of our network, our customers' network infrastructure? Oh, so that they can get the data, get it upam, make quicker decisions, understand that there's a safety incident ahead, those types of things. The understanding of why is important, and that's us and then our customers too. And I think, again, we let our customers lead us a lot on, hey, what's important to you, where should we go, how should we be structured, where should our investment capacity be. But we need to help our customers too. They rely on us for some of that foresight: where do robotics fit, where does some of this mechatronics fit in machine building? That's new, that's designing machines differently. And we've got to help and be persistent, because they're busy, they've got machines to run, and that's going to require new engineering. We've got to be persistent and help them understand the why and the value. It's a different way to associate maybe what downtime is; it's going to alleviate the downtime. And we've got to understand it so we can then convey that importance to our customer base, but we've got to understand it ourselves first.
Well, I think one thing that you shared early in that answer that makes a lot of sense is you've been doing things more digitally around this warehouse and around your own operations, so you're not just showing up and saying, hey, you need to do X, Y, Z process so that way you can be more efficient, have less downtime, etc. You have a story to build off of. It's like, this is how we automated our warehouse, added new systems, etc., digitized our VMI program, for example, where you're not going in with paper and pencil anymore. So those are all great examples that you have in that area. Another area that I want to ask about, because we talked a lot about the product and the different ways you make that available to folks in the way they need it available, but what I think is also interesting is being a services-centric distributor as well. That's something that I think people are still getting their arms around, where it's like, hey, not only do you have the technology to get people going, but you also have, with your Industrial Solutions Network, a way to provide services from assessments to getting into something like cybersecurity as well. Where I'm really going with this question is, what is it like when you're breaking into an area that might really not look and feel like what a distributor has done before?
Again, there's a level of discomfort, where it's like, oh, hey, we've got to step our game up. We've got to have training; we bought this machine, we've got to have the safety systems around some of the mechanics, the basics, so we make sure we're ready to offer these things, we are ready to perform in these areas. Again, for me, we better be darn sure, as we strive to solve our customer's problem, we're not poking another customer in the eye, another delivery partner in the eye. And that's a nimble journey. And again, you just got to talk with your customers, you got to understand what they need, how do we offer that, and whether it's us offering it or bringing in somebody who's already built and scaled to do a lighting installation. They can buy lighting fixtures from us, but ultimately they need them up in the air, and unless they've got a robust maintenance crew, which many of them are struggling to keep fulfilled now, can we pull in a delivery partner and put those up? That's services. And we might not physically go install those, but we're going to offer that turnkey service to our customers. So we've got to get ourselves out of our comfort zone and be comfortable doing that, if that even makes sense. But we've got to align with the right delivery partners, with our own delivery capabilities ourselves. It's a balance, and I think that's going to be key to the future: turnkey solutions, turnkey problem solving for our customer, to where they turn to us and we go make it happen with some partners around us.
I like that answer. I also like that a big theme throughout this conversation, whether it's been talking about the mod center, whether it's been talking about services, you're looking for the areas that the manufacturing ecosystem, specific customers, the community as a whole, the areas that they need help, and you're figuring out, hey, is this something someone else is already doing, or is this an area where we can really add value, and is there a partner that we can pick up along the way to do that as well. So, cool overview.
I hope this has given everyone out there a better understanding of where industrial distribution has been and where it continues to go, because now I want to ask you just a little bit about Louisville as well as we get towards the end of our conversation. We talked about the ecosystem, but I want to talk about just Louisville specifically. We've been hanging out here for a couple days, it's a cool town. What makes this place special in general? Because I feel like it's a best-kept-secret town right now. While a bunch of people flock to Nashville for their bachelor and bachelorette parties, Louisville's up here doing its own thing, and it's pretty cool.
Believe it or not, I'll stay to theme here: it's great people. I'm not from Louisville. Came here, gosh, 12 years ago or so, to E-town, but down in this general area. It's great people, and you can fit into a sense of community, you can build a family here, raise a family here. So I think the people are key. But gosh, there's a lot of fun to be had too. There's good parks, there's good museums, there's good industry. There's a lot of good sports teams, whether that's collegiate, and I won't identify with either the Cards or UK here, but a lot of good culture, from horses to bourbon, and again industry in between. But it's people, and again, people make that all happen and people make that all relevant. So we've grown, as outsiders to the Louisville community, we've grown to call this home, and it's been a joy.
You're not the only person I've heard that from. I got a couple buddies that have moved down here as well that have said similar things. I think I kind of know where you're going to go with the answer on this one a little bit, based on the theme of our conversation, but I have to ask you: what's the manufacturing culture, I'm just going to say the manufacturing community, like specifically? Collaborative? How would you describe it?
Sure. Now I'll ask, upstream or downstream? We work with manufacturers, Ford and GE, we work with Rockwell Automation, local manufacturing, our customer base. Is that what your question is?
Yeah, local, local, let's go local.
Collaborative. Now, we better add value. They're busy, they don't have time for us to walk in and just simply waste time. We've got to earn that entry point, we've got to earn that presence in front of them, and if we can, then yes, absolutely collaborative. I think that's key to what we do, again, from what we have here and the technologies we want to bring, the solutions we want to bring, we learn that from customers often. But we've got to earn that time. They don't have enough to give as it is, and if we're going to get in front of them, we better
...add value. Tell me about how this translates to the culture at E&H, specifically within these four walls and the people in your region.
I think, again, it's being mindful of, hey, they have a job to do. How do we help them do that job? If we want to go make sales calls, we want to go get out in front of customers, but why? Have we done some homework? Are we showing up with a purpose and taking that approach?
I'll also say, understanding that we're a supplier to our customers, we're a customer to our suppliers, and behaving as such, to make sure that we practice what we preach and we are good to our supplier community as well. We've got to be good partners. We want to be loyal and be innovative. So making sure that what we're taking to our customers, we're behaving as the customer for our manufacturing facilities as well.
Big question for you in the final throes of this interview: what's the most critical thing, the one thing you would need to do as a distributor to keep your customers in business for the next 10 years? Kind of the linchpin. If you had to pick one thing that's going to continue to make you relevant, and more importantly your customers relevant, what would that be?
Yeah, and I'll say, continuing on, this is more of an answer to the last question: I think everything we do has got to be done with transparency and integrity, too, as a baseline. We can do all this all day and we can make decisions here, but the collaboration... You think about that, that's a big macro question in one big thing, but I think it's getting in front of our customer base, understanding what's core to them, what their goals are, what their challenges are, so we can come back and plan accordingly, build a business to enable that, to maximize that.
And whether that's on the manufacturing side, our manufacturing community, keeping a facility running, preventing downtime, understanding that; whether that's our machine builders and understanding their outlook, how much of a certain product are they going to need; or understanding, hey, what are their 30,000-foot outlooks, so that we can build a business and scale a business and make innovative investments that enable them and add value to them.
We've got to stay in front of our customers. Again, it's why we exist. If we can build that trust, add some value and stay in front of them, they can help us with the foresight to continue to put them first.
Nate, you've covered a lot of ground. Is there one lasting lesson or one takeaway you'd want the audience to walk away with when it comes to how they think about industrial electrical distribution?
No, I mean, there's more to it. Again, there's boxes and there's product in, but we're working to solve problems. We're working to understand how do we make manufacturing, how do we make our customers successful, how do we put them forward. We're a people business. We are here to service our people, and we've got some learning to do and evolution to do ourselves to stay current and stay relevant and stay cutting edge, or get cutting edge, perhaps. But it matters. What we do is more than just providing boxes. It's keeping some critical infrastructure facilities running and adding to that sense of community in important towns across the nation.
You know, we talked about this while we were walking around your facility earlier, but I feel like it would be wrong if the last question I didn't ask was: what is your go-to bourbon of choice, right before some of us are about to leave the bourbon capital here?
Woodford Double Oak. Woodford Reserve Double Oak. Again, I'm from Pittsburgh; whiskey in general was not my thing, and I'm far from a bourbon connoisseur. But you try a bunch of different bourbons, and very expensive bourbons, and Woodford Double Oak gets it done for me. Basil Hayden, if you forced me to throw a second in there, Basil Hayden is excellent. Both usually available and good bang for buck.
When you came down here, were you just surprised how ingrained bourbon culture is? I mean, I kind of expected it, but also just going to a couple bars and restaurants around here, I'm like, there's a bourbon of the week in every space you go. You can't escape it. I think it's cool that one of your number one exports is also very much appreciated here as well, versus something that's sometimes just like, that's for the tourists, right?
Oh no, no. You've got a better chance of finding some of the Kentucky-made bourbon in other states. I mean, it is a big part of what we do, and there's a lot of pride and probably joy in drinking it as well. It's a little bit overwhelming when you go to a liquor store, you look at the bourbon shelf and it's like, gosh, what decision to make? You can get paralyzed by it. But a lot of new distilleries coming up, good innovative distilleries, and again, it's a cornerstone to our market, and there's a lot of buying around that.
Well, the next time we do this, we've got to be doing it over a bourbon. I know we'll get a chance to do that at some point or another. I also have to say this has kind of come full circle on a personal note. When I first started Manufacturing Happy Hour a long time ago, I remember seeing your buddies at Renson House out in Kansas City doing a video series where they sat around spools, and it was kind of a joke series called Between Two Forklifts. When I saw that, I'm like, I should do something like that someday. So now that we're sitting here at a wire spool in your facility here in Louisville, Kentucky, it's pretty cool. So I just want to thank you for jumping on the show, and we'll catch up soon. Cheers.
Appreciate it, sir.
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