HUB Industrial Supply in Lake City, Fla. provides blades, safety equipment and other consumable supplies especially to the pallet industry. Its product line includes many proprietary products designed in response to input from actual users in the industry.
“There are many places pallet recyclers can go to buy their consumables,” said Samuel Lacey, national account manager for HUB Industrial Supply. “We’ve always tried to give people as many reasons as we can to buy from us.”
A strong product line and highly responsive customer service ethic are the two main reasons for HUB’s success, according to Lacey.
“When a shop is willing to give us a try, we’ve been pretty successful in making them happy,” Lacey said.
Products offered by HUB fall into two general categories: exclusive high-quality HUB products as well as a strong inventory of name brand safety, janitorial and shipping consumables. In terms of specialized innovation, HUB has a reputation for solving problems and making better products available to address the unique needs of the pallet industry. HUB’s exclusive brand of band saw blades, recip blades and cutoff wheels are continuously being improved and refined based on feedback from end users.
HUB’s approach and reputation have built a base of loyal customers that rely on the company.
“From my perspective, HUB Industrial balances extremely well the need for quality products, great service and price,” wrote one customer, in a recent email to HUB president Gabriel Curry. “It is also evident that HUB continues to seek out better alternatives for its customers. There appears to be a consistent drive for a culture of continuous improvement.”
The philosophy behind having so many common consumables in stock is so clients can save time and money by getting 80-90% of their supplies on one pallet using one purchase order. All the items included in HUB’s 52-page catalog, the Pallet Program Savings Guide, are guaranteed in-stock and guaranteed to ship the same day.
HUB has had clients in the pallet industry going back to the early years when HUB was a regional supplier of fasteners in Florida. Since the mid 2000’s, the company’s business model shifted to cater to the needs of a handful of targeted industries, and the success of that strategy has led to steady growth and expanded reach year after year. HUB now has pallet clients all over North America and three more industry specialists besides Lacey to cater to their needs.
“When we first started connecting with some of the really big block pallet recycling plants, we got a little more than we could handle,” Lacey said. “But we’ve increased our capabilities now to where we can handle as much business as anyone can throw at us.”
Keeping things fun is another hallmark of the HUB culture. The latest promotion comes in the form of “The HUB Challenge.” Pallet disassembly workers can win prizes by getting the most cuts out of a single HUB blade. Details of the promotion can be found at www.palletinsider.com/challenge or by calling 800-743-9401.
