By Brooke Williams, CES
UPPER DARBY, Pa. — Located just 13 miles from Philadelphia, Upper Darby is a busy residential suburb with more than 80,000 residents and 20,000 vehicles commuting to and from the big city each day. Conveniently situated off Upper Darby’s main road, the new CES branch will certainly get a lot of eyes on its latest storefront.
With such a convenient location, Branch Manager Glenn Cathers believes the branch is going to receive its fair share of residential and commercial customers.
Cathers has been with the company for almost four years and was previously the Operations Manager at Philadelphia Central. Before working for CES, he worked with three different supply companies for 13 years and completed the Bronze edition of the EPEC training course, which has prepared him for any questions over residential electrical systems, light industry environments, and commercial and outdoor products.
Although the biggest challenge was finding the perfect spot, Cathers wanted to focus on University City and a location where people can come to them.
“The location we found was an old retail shop and we had to negotiate to win over this perfect and unique building,” said Cathers. “We have about 15 [parking] spaces on the side of our building and several spots in front of the store on the street side. This gives us plenty of room to spread out and keep products on hand.”
After finding the perfect building, Cathers and his team soon learned the building owner put a lot of work into the location before they moved in.
“We were shocked. When we went to look at our new location, all we really needed was to build the counter area and the offices,” Cathers said.
The branch also has its own unique features, including one unit that is essentially an old house with a basement.
“It is the only warehouse I have ever seen with this type of set up,” he said. “We’re currently figuring out what we plan on doing with it, but we’d like to keep it because it adds such a unique twist to our warehouse space.”
This isn’t the only thing that sets apart City Electric Supply Upper Darby. Cathers and his team are very knowledgeable with more than 40 years of combined experience.
“The Upper Darby location has a lot of experience. Multiple people at the branch have had schooling completed in our field,” said Cathers. “This is huge for our contractors. They’ll be able to come in with the confidence that even if they don’t know exactly what they’ll need, we’ll be able to help them out.”
With many reasons as to why Cathers loves working for CES, he kept coming back to how the company has a family feel and you are treated like a person rather than just a worker.
“Our team works very well together and with customers. We treat our customers like family, and we put their needs above ours when they come in. We’ll do just about anything to keep them happy and to keep them coming back. They mean that much to us as a branch.”
One of CES Upper Darby’s main goals is to get customers in and out of the branch quickly while still delivering the service they expect, even if that means leaving the branch for an urgent delivery.
“If a customer needs a product right away and can’t leave their job site, we are able to deliver it to them on the same day. We understand what it’s like to be in their shoes, and we never want to be the reason a customer can’t get their job done.”
Cathers’ favorite thing about being branch manager is that he was able to hire his father as his Outside Sales Rep.
“We have come full circle. I started in the industry because of my father and moved around a little. Once I became branch manager, I hired my dad,” Cathers said. “I wouldn’t have gotten my start if it weren’t for him, and with his industry knowledge and expertise, it was really a no-brainer.”
Aside from everything, Cathers is looking forward to growing himself and the CES network in Upper Darby.
Tagged with City Electric Supply