Stanion Wholesale Electric Company recently hosted United States Representative Ron Estes for a tour of its facilities and a conversation about key issues impacting our supply chain.
Estes represents the 4th district in Kansas, which covers Wichita and the South-Central part of the state. He serves on the Ways and Means Committee, the Budget Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee. His website lists some of his accomplishments as “a leader on passing landmark tax reform, rolling back burdensome regulations and implementing trade agreements with some of Kansas’ biggest trading partners.”
Stanion CEO Bill Keller guided Estes through the tour of Stanion on Thursday, February 20. He provided tED magazine with this recap of the event:
“We first talked a little bit about the history of our company. Representative Estes and his staff enjoyed learning about the history of a family-owned company that now has the third generation working in the business. They also appreciate our business model of being in smaller communities.
We talked about the differences between wholesale and retail business. Wholesale distributors have far fewer customers but sell much larger volumes to those customers at lower margins. Repeat business is much more important in wholesale vs. retail. Wholesale distributors provide many more services beyond stocking material and making sales, and the service offerings of distributors continue to grow. Extra value-added services are a much more important factor in wholesale vs retail. Representative Estes asked us about the expected changes in our market, the geographical size of our market, the impact of technology on what we sell and how we do business, what type of customers we service, how we get products to customers in remote areas, etc. We talked about the value of our extension of credit to our customers and how distributors become the bank for many customers.
He was impressed by the wide variety of the products we stock and by our wire-cut center. We talked about the business methods of independent distributors vs. national chains and how independents could remain competitive with the national chains.
We emphasized to him the importance of maintaining LIFO for inventory accounting. We talked about potential income tax changes for corporations and individuals. We emphasized to him how frustrating, expensive, and time-consuming extensive government regulation is for business. Government regulations often interfere with the balance of business and employment relationships. Over-regulation is a more serious problem for smaller business than large. We are hopeful that we are entering an era where government will be more efficient, reasonable, and responsible to us and for us as businesses and citizens.
Representative Estes and his staff asked good questions and were very interested in learning about what an electrical wholesale distributor is all about.”
If you would like to schedule a visit by your representative or senator and need help, NAED’s commitment to advocacy can help you. Contact NAED’s Director of Government Relations Bud DeFlaviis at bud@naed.org with your request.
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