Episode #206A – Out Of The Rut

 

Fastener industry optimism keeps the latest FDI numbers strong as AFC VP of sales John Kovatch joins Mike McNulty on the Fastener News Report (19:55). There’s more good news for fastener mud racers as Jake “Valdez” Davis of BTM Manufacturing announces dates for next year’s huge MWFA event (7:15). PLUS: Brian and Eric launch the new IronClad gloves “Out of the Rut” contest. Run time: 53:30

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Important Links

• Brian Musker on LinkedIn
• Mike McNulty on LinkedIn
• John Kovatch on LinkedIn
• Marco Rodriguez on LinkedIn
• Jake Davis on LinkedIn
• Tough Mudder
• Episode 186 – Like a Glove
• George Hunt III on LinkedIn
• Jill Lewis on LinkedIn
• Bobby Wegner on LinkedIn
• Bolts and Nuts
• Pac-West
• North Coast Fastener Association
• FDI Survey
• Endries International
• Fastener Tech
• FTR@FullyThreaded.com
• Carmen Vertullo on LinkedIn

 

Out Of The Rut

Austin Adventures & AI Training Insights

Coming to you as usual from semi-rural Northeast Ohio. Of course, Brian Musker‘s with us. Brian, are you doing all right?

I’m doing really well, actually.

You’re in the fully threaded West studios.

I am. Yes. Looks a bit glum outside, but inside it’s all rosy.

Not as far West as we were earlier. How’d you like our recent trip out to Austin?

I love that, actually. It’s very exciting to be working with a group of really smart, creative people again.

For those of you following along, the new version of FCH that we have code-named Luigi is well underway. We’re making some progress. Brian and I were out there last week doing more work on that, and I enjoyed that too. We’ll talk a little bit more about that as the episodes unfold. We’re doing this one. It’s episode 206, part one. We’ll be dropping it. Let’s see. What is it going to be on November 20th, think 2024. Folks seem to be fairly receptive to last month when we did this. Everything’s in flux. Hopefully, it’ll smooth out as time goes on, but this is what you get for this episode. Brian, the trip to Austin, what was your favorite part of the whole thing, though?

It’s very interesting because one of the things we’re doing is training one of these AIs and actually seeing it like grow up is a little bit like watching a kid grow up. You train it, you feed it stuff, and then ask it a question, and you realize it’s actually learned things that you’re sending it or training it on. It’s very interesting. The same thing, these breakfast tacos that everyone seems to eat in Austin.

 

We’d start each day and order in this giant bag of tacos, and everybody would just saw through that thing in no time. They were great. What was the name of that one? It started with an M.

Like Mika or something like that. It was like breakfast bits of Tostitos, and I guess omelet or something, all stuck together, and it was very tasty along with breakfast barbacoa.

That was the one I liked so much, yeah. They know how to chow down there in the Southwest, at least around breakfast time. The stakes at night were pretty root and toot and good too. I don’t mind going down to Austin when we need to, but now it’s back in the saddle fully threaded. We’ve got McNulty. He’s got all the headlines for us, and the FDI was a big one. The October numbers really popped. He’s got John Kovatch with the AFC to figure all that out. Why is the PMI really slumping, and the FDI is on fire? Those guys will wrestle with that one.

They should because no one understands it.

McNulty’s also got Marco Rodriguez with Cresa and his quarterly commercial real estate report on this one. There’s also another big headline that we’ll get to right before we go off to the news. That involves the Tough Mudder race. I had a quick conversation with Jake Davis to fill everybody in on this. It’s quite exciting. If you’re a Tough Mudder or if you always wanted to be, you’re going to like this one, and we’ll roll that in just a sec, Brian. Stick around until the end of this one. We’ve got another exciting ironclad gloves contest to announce. I didn’t tell you about this one, Bri.

No, you didn’t.

You might remember back in ‘23, it was episode 186, we had the Beaver Combat Glove Contest, and that went over pretty well. We had a couple of winners on that one. We’ve got another contest. This one is going to center on the Ironclad Tactical line. I got this idea sitting up in a tree over the weekend.

No, I’m sure.

Rosa was very helpful in helping us make this a reality. We’re going to give you details on it at the end of the episode. You can score yourself some ironclad tacticals, and these are awesome gloves. I can personally attest.

I’m more into the gardening one at the moment.

I could use these. Your index finger and thumbnail might get a little dirty. That’s all right. Before we cut over to this conversation with Jake, let’s give a big salute to the partners of the show who make it all possible. That includes the podcast, the Fastener Distributor Index, and the FCH sourcing platform that is getting a major facelift as we speak.

The title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio, Brighton-Best International, Goebel Fasteners, and Star Stainless. Fully Threaded is also sponsored by Buckeye Fasteners, BTM Manufacturing, Eurolink Fastener Supply Service, Fastener Technology International, INxSQL Software, J. Lanfranco, Solution Industries, 3Q Inc., Volt Industrial Plastics, and Würth Industry in North America. Let them know you appreciate it, folks.

Let us know what you think of the podcast the email address FTR@FullyThreaded.com. We’re also out there on LinkedIn from time to time. LinkedIn is where I first saw news, although I heard hints, Bri, about the whole rugged maniac, Tough Mudder thing. This one’s going to be Tough Mudder, not rugged maniac. They did go out of business last year and hosed us on the whole fastener week thing, but it sounds like things are back on track. You and Lynn had better start training.

I’ve been worrying about that, actually. I’ve been thinking about it would be more than worrying.

We’ll get Jake’s take on that, and then we’ll get to everything else in this new and improved version of the show.

Cool.

Tough Mudder Returns: Fastener Week 2025 Kick-Off

It was just about a week ago, I saw a post on LinkedIn from GH3, that’s George Hunt III. It said, “Calling all rugged nuts, both active and in spirit. A little birdie told me there will be a Tough Mudder in your future. Training begins now.” Jake Davis, BTM manufacturing. What could you tell us about this cryptic post from George?

We are back, baby. That’s what I’m going to say about that. We are after a one-year pivot or hiatus from an obstacle race. We’re thrilled to look at the dates and align ourselves once again with the MWFA fastener week. Saturday, August 23rd, Rockford, Illinois, the Tough Mudder is back, which you can go back to, three years ago. That was our original group, about 9 or 10 of us. We’ve certainly grown over the last 3 or 4 years of having something. That’s Saturday before, and I’m stoked about the whole thing. My only asterisk to it is that the training starts now.

That’s the one who got you in this whole thing for you, isn’t it?

My training is much more delayed, but I am vowing to do more this year in 2025. That is a goal.

I’ll tell you what, Jake, let’s have you return to the podcast in the near future, and we’ll build that part of it out. We’ll spend some time going over that. Maybe you can give us some tips and stuff, but right now I really want to hear the backstory of this because it all seemed in question. We want to keep this as a tight segment here, but I appreciate you being able to drop in on the spur of the moment, too, by the way. How did this all happen? When we found out it was so late in the year, GQ was really worried that the board would never go for it. How did you pull this off?

Just didn’t have any dates released yet for the Chicago area. We knew that they would be back and most likely back at Rockford. When we were talking about it about a month ago and just looking at the dates for Fastener Week, it still hadn’t been released. Thankfully, they did release them, and we circled back as a group, our rugged nuts committee, and then just the MWFA board to be able to look and see if it was still possible to pull it off.

As I said, absolutely thrilled. There’ll still be some committee work to decide on the size and scope of the race. I got multiple options. Again, the 5K with 12 plus obstacles of 15K, which is 20 plus obstacles. There’s a new thing here, again, based on my record of training, I’m going to pass on it’s an infinity multiple laps, which is a maximum amount of time, eight hours. I’m just going to take a hard pass on that one right now.

Maybe GQ and Kirk Zender can do that one or get some YFPS in on this. While I’m with you, I’m definitely on board for the 5K at least. I’m very excited. I know a few people were disappointed. Everybody, if you didn’t hear it, go back to the, I believe it was March 3rd special episode that you and I and GQ did when the Tough Mudder, or actually it was the Rugged Maniac, went out of business. They hosed us this year. We made do, and we did a walkathon, a thing, I don’t know if we were actually all walking that or not, but I mean, we made it through.

We had a mixture. Still had the pre-gaming and the post-gaming, which are almost just as important. It’s a wonderful group, a wonderful fellowship. The fraternity of it all. That’s everybody included in that. It is just growing, and it’s special. As I said, we love to be able to put it at the beginning, the unofficial start to Fastener Week, and just thrilled to have it back.

Coming from a fellow Mudder, I will consider it an honor to get all dirty with you again, Jake Davis. I’d like to say this too, before we cut this loose. Again, with your promise that you’ll return in the near future, so we can expand on this. We’re going to announce it before McNulty comes on after the break, but the MWFA board just shifted over to its new lineup for 25. That means your tenure as president has come to a close. Congratulations on a job well done. As a long-time MWFA guy, I appreciate all your effort.

Thank you, Eric. Appreciate it. As I said at our scholarship dinner, it’s been an honor just within my 28 to 29-year fastener career, and just as strong as the board that sits with me and behind me. I am just looking forward to another great year in 2025 with the MWFA.

Again, we’ll expand on that idea right after the break. The fastener news report is coming up, then of course. Everybody, the big news from this mini segment is that the Tough Mudder race apparently is back. It’s going to kick off Fastener week 25. Would you say the date was August 23rd?

Saturday, August 23rd, Rockford, Illinois.

Got it. Probably the next day will be the bed build, and then all the festivities of Fastener week will ensue, ToughMudder.com, if you want to get an eyeful of this. It sounds like the actual race we’re going to be doing is on the bubble, but no need to hold off. We’ll have more details on this show, and I’m sure LinkedIn and elsewhere, you’ll be able to pick all that up. Thanks, Jake.

Anytime, Eric. Appreciate it.

Fastener News Report: MWFA And North Coast Association Updates

It’s the news segment already. Still not quite used to this creeping up so fast, Bri.

Nor am I, actually.

That could be worse. Speaking of news, as if that Mudder story wasn’t big enough, a couple of headlines, I don’t believe, made the news report. Association News will cover that. The Midwest Fastener Association has announced the election of its new board of directors for 2025. Heading up the MWFA this year is Jill Lewis.

Cool.

I think you’re going to see a pattern here. The first three names I’m going to name are all Mudders. Jill Lewis, president, vice president. It’s Bobby Wegner. Treasurer, George Hunt III.

All three.

That’s right. Matt Delawder is going to be the secretary for the year. The MWFA is in good hands. The best dressed of all the associations, Bri.

Of course.

Following suit, the North Coast Association also announced its directors for 2025. This is another changing of the guard. Mostly the president this year. This one shocked me. It’s Gary Graham. I don’t have his company name here. He’s doing that online thing with Andy, and I know those guys are going gangbusters. Anyway, multiple fully threaded golf award winner, Gary Graham, president, and CFA 2025. There’s your headline. Vice president, Krista Osborne, recording secretary, Kim Arnold, and the treasurer, the perennial Ken Graham, who is Gary’s uncle. He’s held that position for many years, Bri. The dark horse of the association. I never see him at the meetings, but there you have it. He’s the treasurer for 2025.

Gary. We’ve known him since he first turned up in this organization, I think. He and Andy grew up in this industry. Now they’re just cranking it online. Set the world on fire with what they’re doing these days. I just cannot remember exactly. It’s BoltsandNuts.com. I don’t know. I don’t want to get it wrong.

It’s one of those. It’s either bolts and nuts or nuts and bolts. I think it’s bolts and nuts.

One other piece of association news before we hand off to Mike. Of course, the fastener news is sponsored by Volt Industrial Plastics as it has been for many years. We sure do appreciate that. The Pac-West has announced its spring tabletop conference. This conference, of course, dominates the West Coast in terms of regional shows. Don’t miss it if you’re out that way.

If you’re in the Midwest or even in the East, it might be worth getting out there because you make a lot of context when you’re there. It’s happening March 12th through the 14th. The whole conference is, let’s see, when is that tabletop actually? That’ll be on the 13th. It’s happening in Anaheim, California. The website for further details, Pac-West.org. Strongly think about getting out to this one, folks, because the Pac-West, of course, is the grooviest of all these fastener associations. You know that, Bri.

I know, but you have to be a little careful because you’re running out of adjectives for these different organizations. Best dressed, the grooviest.

Don’t worry about it, Bri. I’ve got that covered. The title sponsors of Fully Threaded have us covered. They are Star Stainless, Goble Fasteners, and Brighton Best International. Again, don’t forget to stick around because after the news, we’ll be announcing this Ironclad gloves contest. It could score you a pair of these sweet tactical gloves. I’ll have some visuals up on LinkedIn about this pretty soon. That’ll be coming. Now, do you know what time it is, Bri?

Yeah. It’s time for news about screws that you can use.

Here’s Mike McMulty.

You’re right.

FDI October 2024: Navigating Optimism Amidst Market Shifts

Thanks, Brian and Eric. This is Mike McNulty from Fastener Technology International Magazine, bringing you the Fastener News Report, which is sponsored by Volt Industrial Plastics, makers of the world’s finest plastic fasteners. The latest, most important election of our lifetime is complete, and the sun is still rising in the morning and setting in the evening.

The US Constitution is still awesome and functioning as it should. The elitist identity politics movement is circling the drain, and woke is likely broke. Despite its flaws and past failures, the USA is still the greatest country on earth. I am still focused on fasteners and ready to deliver a fastener news report.

The US Constitution is still awesome and functioning as it should. The elitist identity politics movement is circling the drain, and woke is likely broke. Share on X

In this episode, AFC Industries vice president of sales and marketing, John Kovatch, joins us to reveal the latest results of the fastener distributor index, also known as the FDI. Also in broadcast, we have our top story from the FFS group and newsmaker headlines from Endries, the Wurth Group, and BTM manufacturing.

Lancaster Fastener, Auto Bolt, Avantis Fasteners, California Screw Products, Fastenal, SPAX, Engineered Fasteners, Portland Bolt, and more. On the back page report, we’re going to talk about near sourcing in North America. We also have Marco Rodriguez, VP of Cresa, with his latest quarterly industrial real estate roundup covering several fastener distribution markets across the USA. We’ll get to all of that and the latest FDI results right after this.

The seasonally adjusted Fastener Distributor Index for October 2024 dipped slightly to 56.5 vs. 59.0 in September. This was the second-highest FDI of 2024. The forward-looking indicator, also known as the FLI, also rose for the second straight month to 52.6 vs. 50.5 last month, which suggested some optimism for the end of 2024. Fastener Distributor Index data is collected and analyzed by the FCH Sourcing Network and Baird. The FDI seeks to identify demand, pricing, and outlook trends within the American Fastener Distribution Industry. To get some insight into these results, we’re going to talk to AFC Industries Vice President of Sales and Marketing, John Kovatch. John, thanks for joining us on the Fastener News Report.

 

Mike, I’m happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

You’re welcome. It’s good to have you back on. The last time you were here was in June, in the summertime or the beginning of the summer. Now we are heading into the end of the year. What do you think about the latest FDI results?

June was positive, and so is October. I think we’re looking at a very emotionally driven indicator here. I mean, it’s very interesting. This is October that we’re talking about. These don’t take into account the election results, which will be very interesting in November. The FLI is positive as well. I think that people are definitely looking forward to better results coming up. I know you’ll get to it, but the six-month outlook is also pretty positive. It’s very positive. I don’t know where the positivity is coming from. I don’t want to be the negative one, but PMI has been sub-50 for 7 months. Fastenals’ sales, which I know a lot of people pay attention to, have been flatly declining for eighteen months. MSC has been eight percent down here, I think, was the last number I saw. I don’t see it, but I’m happy that other people do. Hopefully, it’ll be something we all get to enjoy here soon.

As I was reading the report and preparing for this, I was thinking, “The fastener industry just must be more positive than the rest.” As you mentioned, the PMI dropped to 46.5, which is its lowest level of the year in the seventh straight month of below 50.

In sales, the numbers were up to 61.8. I haven’t talked to many people who claim to have a really great sales trend going on. As I said, if it’s positive and we can all jump on the wagon, let’s hope it picks us up on the way.

Let’s get into some of the numbers. You mentioned sales were up. Also, delivery customer deliveries were up. Employment pricing and customer inventories all went down, and respondent inventories were flat. Does that tell you anything?

Yeah, I look at the correlation between customer inventories and sales. Is it demand, or are we replacing the customer’s inventory because they slowed down? Everybody knows customers, everybody in the industry is trying to burn down inventory, and all industries right now, because inventory is expensive. At some point, those customers have to replace that inventory, and maybe that’s what’s spiking some of those sales.

The month prior, we had the 59, which is the highest of the year, and this is the second highest. It’s got some optimistic folks out there, and that’s good.

We’ll take optimism. I don’t want to crush optimism. That’s great.

That’s a good segue for the six-month outlook, which exploded. We had 50% saying it’s going to be better six months from now. Thirty-three percent said it’s going to be the same, and only 17%, roughly one-sixth of the respondents, think it’s going to be worse. That’s up significantly from the last one.

Yeah, it is. I’m good with that. As I said to start, it’s an emotionally driven indicator, but at the end of the day, we’re going to pull out of this. I’ve heard some pretty positive things. I think I wasn’t there, but somebody saw an ITR presentation where they talked about it turning around sooner than later, too. I was hoping, and I think I was on in June, I talked about it turning around before the end of the year, that didn’t happen, although I guess we still got 6, 7 weeks left, which is scary. I think we’re probably into the end of the first quarter next year at this point.

It looks like we’ve avoided the recession that everybody was predicting for a long time. Maybe that’s where the optimism comes in, like it’s too late.

Yeah, it could be.

Before the holidays.

We’ll stay positive.

I did not go back and look, but I cannot remember the last time the six-month outlook was combined 83% are expecting things to be the same or better by six months down the road, which takes us into the spring of 2025.

It has to be a while ago. I certainly haven’t heard that number anytime recently.

Despite all these good numbers, Baird had a few comments on the report. They said that they think that the fastener market conditions and the overall industrial economy will continue to remain soft in the near term. They do see some reasons to believe that an inflection could be ahead.

They’re a little more on par with what I’m thinking, too, as far as things are a little flat to sluggish right now. I don’t see the great numbers that we see on the FDI, but I do agree with them that there will be some opportunity for this to pop back hopefully soon.

As you said, the next survey will be post-election. If it follows the stock market, it’ll be the highest of the year.

If it follows Tesla stock, I’ll be thrilled. We’ll see what happens.

AFC Industries: Respondent Commentary, Growth, Acquisitions, And Industry Involvement

Let’s jump into the respondent commentary. In general, as you expect from the results, it was fairly positive. One respondent reported a “Near record month of sales.”

Awesome.

Good for them. Many people noted improvements in the supply chain. For example, one comment was, “Problems with overseas product are starting to ease with the rail yards finally clearing out and the shipyard strike resolved.”

Supply chain really hasn’t been an issue here for several months. That’s a good thing, because when this does turn around, we’re going to be leaning pretty heavily on those suppliers to perform. Hopefully, maybe this has gotten us through all of our pandemic hangover, and we’ll be on smooth sailing from that point.

Just to temper that a little bit, one person did comment that there are some problems in the LA Port where “Container deliveries have jumped to ten weeks.”

You remember we redirected a whole bunch of stuff to other places for a while, as we were expecting the other ports to be longer. That’s not surprising. That’s a short term.

As we mentioned earlier, this survey took place before the election, but we have one final election comment related to a seasonal slowdown. Burton was coming, “This year is worse because everyone is waiting to see which idiot wins the presidential election.”

I’m going to leave that alone, but I do think it had a bigger impact this year for the election than in the past. People would argue this was the most important election ever. Believe what you want to believe, but I do believe there was a lot of emotion behind that. There is some truth to it. You’ve got taxes on one side, tariffs on the other, and a lot of uncertainty. I can see where it would have an impact on this year, maybe more than others.

Your tariff comment tails into our last comment, which is about tariffs. It’s, “Most Americans don’t seem to realize that we, the buyers, pay the tariffs, not the seller.”

Most Americans don't seem to realize that we, the buyers, pay the tariffs, not the seller. Share on X

Yeah. We, the buyer, pay for everything. Fill in the blank with tariff or anything else you want it to be, but that’s the reality of it.

There are always unintended consequences of these.

There are.

Tariffs, aka taxes. They’re not social or economic scientists. Waving their wands in the background.

I prefer government out of some things, but we’ve got an economy to create here. We’re all part of it.

Good. Anything else you want to add to the FDI or the FLI before we move on, and let’s give you a chance to tell the audience what’s going on at AFC Industries?

No, not really, Mike. As I said, it’s not a whole lot different than the prior month. I think there’s emotion in it. I’m very interested to see what happens in November. I’m waiting for the next person to have to explain that one.

Very good. November snuck up on me. We’re almost at the halfway point here. Anyway, so all we can do is one day at a time. This is the time we get to talk about what’s going on in AFC Industries. I notice you’ve hired quite a few people since you last appeared on the program.

We did. We hired a VP of operations for our aerospace division. We hired an IT vice president. We hired a friend from the fast industry, Joe Shoemaker, as our VP of marketing. We’ve added some great talent to the team, and happy to have them all here.

That’s good. I was looking at your LinkedIn feed. If you’re still looking to hire people.

It’s always a role to fill. That’s a good thing. I support these employment numbers that are on the FDI.

That’s definitely a good sign when you’re adding some good talent to the group and still looking for more. I also saw that one of your employees won a Wi-Fi Women in the faster industry scholarship, Alicia Show.

That’s awesome. We’re really proud of her and really proud to participate in the industry associations, and Wi-Fi does a lot of good things for the industry.

You guys are in a lot of associations.

We are. I try to participate in them. The local ones here, when I can, and then our folks around the country will participate in the others, and we really enjoy what it does.

North Coast Fastener Association: Events And Updates

Good. Speaking of associations, I see you’re a board member on the North Coast Fastener Association. Anything you want to tell me about what’s going on there?

We just had our last meeting of the year before the holiday party, and we’ve elected a couple of new folks to the board. I want to welcome them, and we’ve got a lot of great events coming up next year. Of course, never surpassed the boat trip for the Fastener Fair, but maybe if it comes back to Cleveland the year after, we will. Just check out our webpage, and of course, we’ll post things on social media too. We’d love people to come participate in the group.

That was a good event, and you guys do a good job for the local fastener industry. Anything else going on at AFC that you can tell us about?

There’s a lot going on all the time. Working on a new hub and spoke model for our distribution centers to help support our customers. I made a couple of acquisitions recently, about Circle Bolt from Optimus and about Forward Industrial in the UK. Just recently, we did a tooling add-on that we haven’t quite announced yet, but just a smaller tooling company to go to that group. Really building out our verticals for tooling, aerospace, and components. Always a lot going on.

Very good. It’s good to hear. You guys do a good job. Glad to hear that things are going in the right direction, and we’ll get on the sales bandwagon. That’d be even better.

That’d be awesome. We look forward to a good ‘25. We’re in budgeting season, like probably most everybody else is. It’s looking positive. We’re not doing badly. Everybody will get through this. We’ll have a great ‘25, especially based on the six-month outlook of the FDI here. We’ll all be in good shape.

I’ve been to different economic presentations for the fast new industry and other industries, and they’re all pointing to a pretty solid 2025 and good growth for hopefully the rest of the decade.

That’s what we’re hoping for. The looming 2030 great recession that’s going to end the world.

I was thinking about what you said.

We’d better enjoy it for the next five years while we can. They tell us, “It will come right.”

The debt and demographic combination will be painful. Somewhere down the road.

Eventually, everything’s painful. We’ll get through it.

Very good. I want to thank you for coming on the program and sharing your insights. It’s always good to talk to you and have you on the program.

I appreciate you having me on, Mike. Always a pleasure.

That was AFC Industries Vice President of Sales and Marketing and NCFA Board Member John Kovatch. The FDI number for October 2024 was 56.5 versus 59.0 in September. Visit FDISurvey.com to participate in the process and get a detailed PDF copy of Barrett’s monthly analysis.

Top Story: SFS Group Expands With Acquisitions

Now for our top story. The SFS group acquired Pro Fastening Systems, also known as PFS, which enables SFS to further expand its market presence in the Midwestern region of the USA. PFS is an established special distributor of fasteners and sealants for the commercial and industrial construction industries. With four locations in Arlington, Illinois, Chicago, Illinois, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Indianapolis, Indiana, PFS generated sales of about $30 million in 2023.

The company was founded in 1980, and it currently has 40 employees. The PFS business will be incorporated into the Triangle Fastening segment of SFS. Local PSF sites will be retained, and all employees will be kept on, and the business will continue to be managed by the existing management team. In addition, the SFS group acquired EPRO in Slovenia. EPRO is a family-run enterprise specializing in the distribution of fasteners, fixings, fall protection systems, and accessories for roofs and facades.

The company generated sales of €4 million in 2023, and it has ten employees. SFS says these acquisitions will bolster its construction industry market share in the American and Adriatic regions. Next up, our Fastener Newsmaker headlines. In corporate news, Endries International acquired Assembly Fasteners, Inc., also known as AFI. The Worth Group issued a €500 million bond. Nefco acquired Sheinberg Tool. BTM Manufacturing partnered with Wing Hamlin.

The Fisher Group won Factory of the Year in the Czech Republic. FDH Aero signed an agreement with the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China. Lancaster Fastener expanded its machine screw range. Portland Bolt & Manufacturing announced a $4.3 million expansion of its operations in South Carolina, and All State Fastener Corporation opened a new location in Taiwan. In personnel news, AutoBolt welcomed John Varley as VP of Sales and Marketing.

Rob Janssen succeeded Paul Reitz as CEO of the Nedschroef Group. Adrian Hernandez is the new president of California Screw Products. Andreas Zill transitioned to Vice President of Engineering for the Adventis Fasteners Group. Black Hop promoted Brooke Bedford to Category Director and appointed Matt Roers to lead the company’s packaging product category. Martin Dahlgren was named Managing Director of Bumax Sweden.

Rob Trembicki assumed the role of Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Clickbond. Fastenal named Donnelly Papenfuss Executive Vice President of Strategy and Communications. Simpson Manufacturing appointed Matt Dunn Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Corey Lovett joined SPAX engineered fasteners as a territory representative. AFI Industries welcomed Brian Bagwell as Vice President of IT.

Century Fasteners co-founders George Stieglitz and Jack Schlegel were added to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Wall of Honor. You can get details on all of these stories and more in Fastener Technology International Magazine and the Fastener News Report monthly newsletter, both available online at FastenerTech.com. Next up, and before we turn to the back page report, we have Marco Rodriguez, Vice President of Cresa, with his latest quarterly industrial real estate roundup covering several fastener distribution markets across the USA.

Commercial Real Estate & Labor Market Insights

It’s Marco Rodriguez with Cresa, your industrial real estate partners. I’m here to present the third quarter industrial real estate update, giving sellers of threads, rivets, and clips what they need to know about the big concrete boxes they work in and keep their products in. We track all major markets, but for the sake of time, this report only covers seven metro areas.

Down in Atlanta, the weather has cooled off a bit, but rents rose 7% to $9.54 per square foot, still the lowest in the top seven markets. As the air chills in Chicago, rents increased 4% to $9.65, and Dallas rents are doing much better than the Cowboys at $9.69, which is a 6% increase over the same period last year. The sun is finally starting to set on the West Coast industrial rents. The Inland Empire was practically flat at $13.75, and LA was actually down 4% to $18.30.

Miami is caliente with the highest rents among the top 7 at $20.22 and a whopping 3% increase. Finally, my good friends in New York and New Jersey are paying $9.67, which is also a 3% increase. Wait, there’s less. What about sales prices? Most FTR listeners are likely leasing their building, so we decided to replace sales price information with wage and unemployment data.

Here are the third-quarter wages for the laborer occupational code, which is a classification for most warehouse workers. Atlanta is at $18.46 with 3% unemployment. Chicago is at 20.64 with 6% unemployment. Dallas is at 18.48 with 4% unemployment. The Inland Empire is at a whopping $21.37 with 5% unemployment. Oddly, LA is at $19.80 with 6% unemployment. That might have something to do with the additional labor supply in the LA center.

We look at Miami rage rates are at $17.94 with 4% unemployment. Finally, New York has one of the highest rates at $21.35 with 5% unemployment. Listeners might be wondering why a real estate company tracks labor rates. That’s because companies typically spend about $5 to $7 in payroll for every dollar of rent. Selecting the right warehouse location can save more on transportation and wages than a marginally higher rent. If FTR listeners have questions or want to learn more, I can be found on LinkedIn at Marco Rodriguez with Cresa.

Selecting the right warehouse location can save more on transportation and wages than a marginally higher rent. Share on X

Near Sourcing In North America: Trade Shifts & Economic Outlook

Now let’s turn to the back page to talk about near sourcing in North America. A recent ITR economics blog post titled, “Near sourcing trend. Elevating US trade with Mexico and Canada as China is left behind.” Says the following, “We have been saying for years that near sourcing was real. According to the data, this near-sourcing trend is in full swing. If you ask a random person on the street to identify the country we, the USA, get most of our stuff from.

Their answer would likely be China, and they would be wrong. We import more from Mexico than China, and we import almost as much from Canada as from China.” Personally, I think that the rest of this decade should be quite interesting and challenging, filled with lots of opportunities and new technologies, especially in North America, when near-sourcing trends and the intrinsic strengths of the USA are taken into consideration.

My enthusiasm is often tempered by the elephant in the room, the Mount Everest-sized pile of debt accumulating here in the USA. Last month, I heard a reputable economist say this, “Financial spending deficits by governments will damage long-term growth in the same way that termites destroy a house from the inside out.” The same person noted that China getting WTO status and then being allowed to ignore its conditions was the worst trade agreement development ever for the United States of America.

North American trade agreements have been good on balance. Perhaps near sourcing in North America will soften the blow of our reckless government spending and borrowing. It’s also important to note that the spending problem is not just in the USA, so we may be able to weather the storm ahead better than most.

Episode Wrap-up & Ironclad Gloves Contest

Back with you to close down another, what’d you call it, Bri, streamlined edition of the podcast?

Yeah, streamlined. Good word.

I can live with that.

Concise, could do.

Zeroed in. We’ll see where we take it, but this is what we’re doing for now. It’s an ongoing thing. Bri, speaking of ongoing things, Tough Mudder training will be ongoing for many Mudder veterans. How about you and Lynn? Are you going to ramp up a little bit, or what’s your plan?

I don’t know. I’m going to see, I’m going to think about it more carefully this year. It comes to the viewers. I could have done it last year, but then something else came up. It’s typical for us.

That all got wiped away when the race got canceled. You guys are following everyone around, taking pictures, whether you’re on the course or just providing support. You guys walk a ton of miles. Either way, it’ll be great to see you out there again. If you’re interested, folks in participating in this year’s Tough Mudder race that’s ahead of the MWFA Fastener week in August 2025. I’m sure you’ll see details amply available on all your favorite social outlets.

You’ll have a lot of fun too. It’s a fun day. It’s a fun weekend, actually.

If that’s your idea of fun, like Jake, I won’t be doing that infinity version though. Could you imagine running through that course over and over for eight solid hours? Who does that?

You’ve got to look for something much better to do.

We’ll hear more about that over the coming months. I’m sure we were going to have GH3 break this news because originally it was his LinkedIn posts that inspired it, but he’s in fastener training this week. He’s an MBA. I thought he was a CFS already, but another one’s coming on board. That’s happening here in Cleveland, as a matter of fact, Bri. Anyway, Jake Davis was here for BTM manufacturing. Thanks to him so much for jumping on and filling us in. Also, thanks to Mike McNulty and John Kovatch of AFC. Appreciate your analysis and comments. I agree with them, Bri. It’ll be interesting to see the next FDI results because those will be the first ones post-election.

I agree, actually.

Lots of comments leading up to that whole thing were contingent on what the outcome would be. We’ll all be on the edge of our seats for the next FDI report, which we’ll cover in an upcoming episode. We’re going to get to the ironclad gloves contest in just a second, and we’ll finish up that way. I just want to say, in addition to our guests, we also thank the partners of Fully Threaded Radio.

Ironclad Gloves Contest: Your Chance To Win!

They make it all possible. Let them know you appreciate it. The email address is FTR@FullyThreaded.com. You can also send your out-of-the-ruin Ironclad gloves entries to that email address. We may tighten up the rules of this as we go. It’s a little loosey goosey at the moment. For those of you who remember back in March of ‘23, that was episode 186. I’m pretty sure, Bri. We had the Beaver Combat Gloves Contest. 

Yes.

That was fun. We had a few winners on that one, and those are awesome gloves. Actually, we let everyone choose their own style. That was the whole point of it, wasn’t it?

Yes, because they may not all want the same gloves to catch beavers.

You’re right. They came up with their own, and that was the basis that we gave them. This time it was a little different. As I said at the top, I was sitting in a tree stand, and it was getting a little colder, and I was thinking about, “Maybe Ironclad has the gloves.” I went online, sure enough. Man, these are awesome gloves.

Thanks, Rosa, for sending these out. She sent enough to share with our audience, at least to a couple of you. What we’re going to ask is for the out of the rut Ironclad gloves contest, we’re going to ask for something outdoors-related, doesn’t have to be hunting necessarily. I know, face it, some folks are a little squeamish about that whole part of it, but you don’t have to kill anything to be part of this contest. We just like to see something that is outdoor-related.

 

If you’re even more creative, have a fastener connection or a predominantly fastener-related connection. How about that? We’re looking for a photo that’s outdoor themed. Use your creativity, send it to FTR@FullyThreaded.com. Maybe you’ll win a pair of these awesome tactical gloves. They’re missing the index finger and the thumb, Bri, but they’re an attractive camo. I’ll put graphics up on LinkedIn in the near future. I also like them because these camo liners that I’ve been wearing while it’s still been warm out, they fit right under there.

Clearly, you haven’t seen the snow from the Zay.

It’s still heading our way. We always get what you get about a day later out here in the Cleveland area. It’s coming. The next episode of Fully Threaded Radio is coming, folks. Don’t worry. In these new shorter formats, we’ve got one right around the corner, and it will feature Carmen Vertullo‘s training minute. I know a lot of you look forward to those every episode. Don’t worry. It’s coming your way. Sounds good, Bri?

Yeah, we can manage with it, actually.

Excellent. Thanks, everyone, for tuning in. We’re going to put it in the can with that for Brian Musker. This is Eric Dudas. Get out there, sell some screws. We’ll talk to you next time.

Do let us know what you think of this different format. See you next time.