Amtrol
Chester H. Kirk didn’t spend time looking for work after graduating from the University of Rhode Island with a degree in chemical engineering. Instead, he hired himself and founded American Tube Products Inc. with a loan of just $400. Kirk evidently paid the money back and then some since sales at Amtrol, as the company’s been known since 1972, reached $172 million.
Kirk’s original three-man production line started out making finned copper tube heat exchangers used in hydronic heating systems. But the company really took off when Kirk invented the Extrol expansion tank in 1951. The Extrol was the first pressurizing device that solved many of the flow problems that had vexed hydronic contractors and designers for years. Since the Extrol changed the way in which hydronic systems were designed, Kirk was able to introduce other innovative products that worked hand-in-hand with the Extrol. In addition, the Extrol formed the basis for the company’s further developments in cold water systems, backflow prevention, indirect water heaters, as well as refrigerants.
Through it all, Kirk’s catch phrase was, "Innovation isn’t just to be different ... innovation is also being right!" Kirk’s innovations are also marketed throughout the world, with $0.13 of every sales dollar coming from foreign markets. According to the company’s 1995 annual report, demand for Amtrol products in the Far East is expected to increase at the rate of 20 percent to 40 percent per year over the next several years. With that in mind, the company has earmarked $1.4 million for a new production, sales and service plant in Singapore.
Kirk remained in charge of the company as chairman and CEO until his death in February 1996. Today, West Warwick, R.I.-based Amtrol employs 900 and operates 10 facilities, including six manufacturing facilities, two distribution centers in the United States, as well as two additional centers in Belgium and Canada.
Brass Craft
In the last 50 years, Brass Craft has grown from a family business started in a basement to one of the country’s largest makers of plumbing supplies. The company owes much of its success to being started in the Motor City. Detroit entrepreneur Robert Zell adapted automotive flare and compression fittings to plumbing applications and invented the flexible water supply. Replacing the time-consuming cutting and threading of rigid iron pipes, Zell’s innovation provided for faster, easier installation.
Although the company is currently marking its 50th Anniversary, Zell actually made his breakthrough in 1939. First-year sales were $3,000, which merely supplemented the family income. But before the new product could gain acceptance, World War II shut down operations for nearly six years.
Zell reactivated and incorporated Brass Craft in 1946, along with his brother-in-law, Stan Rosen. Zell concentrated on expanding the line and developing better manufacturing processes. Driven by quality control, Zell personally oversaw the development of the company’s growing product line. Today, Brass Craft’s extensive line has more than 10,000 SKUs.
In the meantime, Rosen handled sales with an equally personal touch. Rosen routinely closed deals with a handshake, building a national network of distributors. Currently, the company’s distribution base consists of more than 5,000 wholesalers.
"Stan didn’t believe in credit managers," says former Brass Craft President Alan Barry. "He had a way of quickly sizing up a prospect and deciding whether that person would be a success or a failure. If he thought you’d make it, he shook hands and took you at your word that you’d pay as agreed. Stan and Bob’s methods were the first steps in building Brass Craft’s reputation for quality products and personal service. Our customers appreciated what we offered, and it showed in our sales."
By 1949, sales topped more than $1 million. Today, annual sales are more than $200 million. The company has seven plants across the United States and Canada and employs more than 1,300 people.
Mixet
With prospects slim for putting a Stanford civil engineering degree to use during the Great Depression, Dick Barkelew had to settle for odd jobs that paid $0.35 cents an hour. A couple of years later, he jumped at the chance to make $0.50 cents an hour working for a plumbing distributor. "One of the items we had that you see a lot of nowadays was basket strainers for kitchen sinks," Barkelew remembers. "We couldn’t sell a one."
Little did Barkelew know that his exposure to the plumbing industry would pay off in spades years later with a product that he definitely could sell.
During World War II, Barkelew worked for a Pasadena, Calif., munitions company that made rockets for the Navy. Through the grapevine, company officials heard that some kind of atomic bomb would likely put a quick end to the fighting. A call went out to come up with a consumer product the company could make. Barkelew came up with the design for a two-handle mixing valve.
The munitions company ended up shutting down so Barkelew patented his invention and began Mixet. The principle behind Barkelew’s original valve has remained essentially the same since the beginning. "It was literally just me for the first years," Barkelew says. "I’d assemble the valves at night and try to sell them during the day." Even after 10 years, Barkelew still had only three employees and that included his wife and brother-in-law.
By design, Barkelew stuck with the residential tub and shower market, and didn’t venture past the Southern California region until the mid-1970s. "I didn’t keep track of sales dollars as much as unit totals. In 1974, I figured we had half the Southern California market." Barkelew then entered the Phoenix and Dallas markets, where he says he quickly captured half the market in each.
Barkelew sold his company to Alsons Corp. at the end of 1984. At the time, Mixet’s sales were around $6 million and shipped 40,000 units a month.
State Industries
John Lindahl piloted a B-26 Marauder on 64 bombing missions over Africa, Italy and France during World War II. Courageous, no doubt. But the real derring-do came one day in 1948. That’s when Lindahl produced his first six water heaters — even though there were already more than 150 manufacturers doing much more of the same thing, including seven right in his hometown of Nashville.
State Industries actually started out life in 1946 as State Stove and Mfg. Co. Lindahl managed the new business launched by his father and a partner. Working part time with three other employees while attending college, Lindahl began making wood and coal heating stoves. Later on, Lindahl added cooking ranges and circulating heaters to the company’s line.
After deciding that the future of the company was in water heaters, Lindahl faced off against not only small independents like himself, but deep-pocketed conglomerates like Westinghouse and General Electric. Lindahl set tiny State apart from the pack through merchandising gambles and product innovations all designed to make the water heater more than a price-driven commodity hidden in basement. Throughout it all was the company motto: "Make it better. Make it last forever."
As soon as daily production hit 30, for example, Lindahl begin widening his distribution base by marketing his product to plumbing wholesalers and contractors, rather than sticking with his original customers, appliance distributors. (John’s father had started an appliance distributorship years ago and had 25 year’s worth of contacts.) In 1969, Lindahl established Apcom Inc., a subsidiary producing thermostats, manifolds, drain valves and other components. In 1976, State began a good-better-best merchandising campaign that distinguished the line by different jacket colors, special decals and other markings. In 1979, State became the first water heater maker to line the space between the tank and the jacket with foam insulation. That same year, State introduced the Sandblaster, an agitating device that reduces sediment accumulation. The company’s most recent innovation is the Duron line, which features a solid-steel outer tank that encases a seamless cast inner tank made of a composite material.
Lindahl’s market debut in 1948 marked the last startup in the U.S. water heater industry. But today, Ashland City, Tenn.-based State Industries now stands on top of that industry, making 10,000 units a day and employing 3,000 people
