DALLAS — City Electric Supply is proud to announce that it has opened three new stores in the month of October. The new CES branches opened their doors to customers in Florida, South Carolina and Arizona. CES Davie, in Davie, Florida, is just 24 miles north of Miami, and Branch Manager Gilbert Avila is excited to be a part of the thriving city and anticipates plenty of opportunities.
“You couldn’t ask for a better location,” Avila said. “We’re in the middle of an industrial complex, close to the Hard Rock Café, so everyone knows exactly where we’re at. It’s easy for customers to get in and out, which also makes it easy for us to handle deliveries any time of day.”
Opening in the midst of the ongoing pandemic has caused a few hiccups along the way, but nothing the branch couldn’t handle.
“The main thing was just filling inventory,” Avila said. “New branch, new location, so you have to bring a lot into stock to get started. Luckily, we had TAMCO’s Port St. Lucie facility just up the coast from us, so we’ve been able to fill out a lot of our shelves with in-house brands — TAMCO, Tamlite, F4P, Centaur, MCG. It helped out a lot, and it should help expose our customers to the TAMCO family of products, too.”
With a strong network of CES branches already in the Miami market, the new location is also excited to make things even easier for existing customers.
“At CES, every branch complements each other,” Avila explained. “CES Davie is yet another location where we have a lot of customers who have jobs in the vicinity. This branch is making it so much easier for them to pick up here without having to drive further out and lose money or time. It’s really a win-win.”
And when it comes to new customers, Avila looks forward to showcasing City Electric Supply’s personal customer service.
“One of the great things about City Electric Supply is the personal relationship you build with customers,” he said. “It’s a one-on-one relationship where your customer isn’t just a number, but someone you want to make sure is getting what they need. With CES Davie opening, we’re adding to that personal service and the family atmosphere that’s so unique to CES.”
And Davie isn’t the only place that can now experience the CES atmosphere. CES Greenwood in Greenwood, South Carolina, is the first City Electric Supply branch in the city and the 29th in South Carolina. Branch Manager Brad McCall couldn’t be more thrilled to take on this new venture.
“There is a lot of building going on — lots of industrial, lots of residential,” McCall said. “We just opened October 12, but we’re already seeing a good mixture of business here. We’ve got school districts buying from us, and we’ve even opened up quite a few residential, commercial, and industrial accounts already.”
And one thing McCall and his team have already noticed about customers in Greenwood is their appreciation for personal customer service.
“It’s a small town with small towns surrounding it,” he said. “Customers really appreciate personal service around here, which makes City Electric Supply a perfect fit for this community. For me and my team, building that personal relationship is going to be big.”
With just a few competitors close by, McCall is confident the new store will find a lot of success in the rapidly growing city and its surrounding counties. After all, he’s got experience on both sides of the counter.
“After about 16 years in the field, I know the products,” he said. “Now, I don’t know everything, but getting to work with these products and then doing outside sales really helped me learn how it all comes together.”
District Manager Don Corbett recognized all of McCall’s achievements and decided he would be the perfect person to help CES expand in South Carolina.
“District Manager Don Corbett helped tremendously,” McCall said. “I’ve known him a long time, and we’ve helped each other and work well together. When he was looking for this Greenwood location, he did all the footwork to find the building. Even as we renovated the branch, he was always asking what we needed help with. He has a lot of responsibility in other locations, so having him so available is great for us!”
The new branch is already getting a lot of attention for not only personable customer service but the unique, open layout of the branch that gives customers a bird’s eye view of the products.
“It was a flooring showroom before, so I wanted to keep that huge floor open and put product up front,” he explained. “About 90% of what we carry is out in the open. Customers can touch, feel and see the product with their own eyes.”
But Greenwood isn’t the only new branch excited to impress customers. CES Gilbert South is the second City Electric Supply branch in Gilbert, Arizona, and the thirteenth location in the Phoenix area. And who is running it? Someone with experience on both sides of the counter, Branch Manager Steven Bauer.
“I can ask electricians what they’re doing or how they’re using a part, and I can tell them what they need,” said Bauer. “Usually, electricians get into a certain field, and they stick to it. I’ve worked as a salesperson in Wyoming and helped coal miners who work in high voltage and drag cables, but they’ve never wired a house before. With my background, there are a lot of electricians I can help.”
And with 250,000 residents, the opportunities are endless in the thriving city of Gilbert.
“Gilbert just keeps expanding,” he said. “They’re building a lot of homes and developing a lot of commercial buildings, even right across the street from us. When your supplier is just right there, you can’t help but work with them.”
As the new branch’s goals, Bauer hopes to open as many accounts as possible.
“We’re slowly building our customer base and targeting new customers who haven’t set up accounts with CES yet,” he said. “Right now, it’s mostly residential, but there are a lot of commercial opportunities near us, so we’ll be chasing those also.”
City Electric Supply has an extensive network throughout the Phoenix area, and this new location provides existing customers another place to go.
“Some of the big box stores here only have one location, but at CES, wherever you’re working, we’ll probably have a store close by,” said Bauer.
Bauer’s branch has the advantage of a large network, but they also have something else going for them — Bauer’s own electrician expertise.
“You’d work for several years as an electrician, but then the job would end and you’d have to find something else,” said Bauer. “That’s when I started working for distributors.”
Bauer hasn’t looked back since. Not only is Bauer excited to help new customers in the area, but he also can’t wait to train the next generation of CES employees with his knowledge and background in the industry.
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