Episode #216 – Special Nut Report

 

The fastener market may be going nuts, but marketing pros Rosa Hearn of BBI and Joe Shoemaker of AFC Industries keep a steady hand while getting the right messaging to the industry (1:07:11). Würth Industry USA managing director Chapman Revercomb joins senior news editor Mike McNulty on the Fastener News Report to read into the latest FDI rally (21:12). Perigee Manufacturing CEO Michael Topolewski breaks down the fall out from the recent SPS fire (11:45).  On the Fastener Training Minute, Carmen Vertullo presents the most important training topic EVAH! (57:13) Summer is kicking off, so Brian and Eric crave BBQ, as always.  FNR musical interlude: “Dead Man Theme” by N. Young cover. Run time: 01:47:56

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Special Nut Report

Welcome To Fully Threaded Radio Episode 216

It is Fully Threaded Radio, the voice of the FCH Sourcing Network. If you buy, sell, manufacture, import, or deal with tariffs about importing industrial threaded fasteners, this is the show for you. Coming from semi-rural Northeast Ohio, it’s Eric Dudas. I’m joined as always by the hardest-working man in the online fastener game, Brian Musker. 

You get a bit of blowback from the fasteners working thing. I’m not sure I qualify for that. There are many hardworking people in this industry.

In the online game, you’re at the top. There may be others, too. You’re right. Don’t sell yourself short, buddy. How have you been?

I’m great.

Recovered fully from Nashville?

Yes. I’m still passing through some of my little to-do notes I wrote to myself, but most of them are done.

That’s a fairly endless process. Hopefully, folks, you got to go back and read about the lovely, intelligent Lynn Dempsey during her floor interviews. We released a special report covering Fastener Fair USA 25. That was a lot of fun. Mike McNulty will talk about that. Getting ahead of myself a little bit here, we’ll announce that as we roll out the show on this episode 216 of the show. We’ll be publishing this time on June 12th, 2025. 

It was a great show, incidentally, but we still found that there are people who would walk by who are in the fastener industry who’d never heard of Fully Threaded Radio.

We put our heart and soul into this thing. It’s staggering when you find that out after fifteen-plus years. That’s fastener marketing. It’s a battle. It’s a lesson to be learned that you have to keep amplifying your message. That goes for everybody in this industry. Everybody in the world, really. If you’re trying to get people to share something that’s on your mind, it’s not easy. Bri, you’ve led me right into the feature segment for this episode. 

We’re going to be joined by Joe Shoemaker of AFC and Rosa Hearn with Brighton-Best International. They’re going to be hosting a very special breakout session this year at the International Fastener Expo in Las Vegas. That’s happening in September. This is an expanded seminar. It’s a breakfast meeting, all in one. They’ll be talking about that during our feature segment. We have a little fun while we’re talking about that, too. Thank you for doing that. 

We’ll look forward to that because Rosa’s last one was pretty cool.

As mentioned, Mike McNulty will be touching on Fastener Fair USA, the final wrap-up of that during the Fastener News Report. He’ll also be joined by Würth Industry USA Managing Director Chapman Revercomb. If you saw the last FDI numbers, bit of a shocker, this time on the positive side. A lot of people were surprised, Bri. Chapman and Mike will wrap that up for us.

I’m looking forward to listening to them explain how this can happen.

It’s a very insightful analysis. That’s the Fastener News Report. Warming that up for us, Mike Topolewski with Perigee Manufacturing up there in Detroit jumps in. He gave me an interesting analysis, his take on the SPS fire situation, and all the fallout on that when we were in Nashville. I asked him to come back and redux that for us. He leads us into the news. On the Fastener Training Minute, industry guru Carmen Vertullo presents what he terms perhaps the most important Fastener Training Minute ever. Did you take a guess at what that covers, Brian? Hint, it’s not hydrogen embrittlement.

No, I can’t imagine what it could be other than that.

I knew that would be your first guess. You’ll have to tune in. That’s the Fastener Training Minute. It’s going to be a fast episode, but it’s a good one. Thanks so much for joining us, everybody.

I’ll be waiting for Carmen. It gives you yet another amazing reason to read Fully Threaded Radio.

There are many. That’s a big one. The title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio are Star Stainless, right off the shelf. It’s Star. GOEBEL Fasteners, quality the first time. Go GOEBEL. Brighton-Best International, tested, tried, true, Brighton-Best. Fully Threaded Radio is also sponsored by Buckeye Fasteners, BTM Manufacturing, Eurolink Fastener Supply Service, Fastener Technology International, INxSQL Software, J.Lanfranco, MW Components, Solution Industries, Volt Industrial Plastics, and Würth Industry USA. Our email address is FTR@FullyThreaded.com. Brian and I are both out there on LinkedIn, so if you want to reach us, those are two good ways. We always appreciate your comments and feedback, so fire away.

Brian, out in Nashville, one of our neighbors was USA Fasteners. They’re an MW Components company. They snuck into the sponsor lineup without too much fanfare, but I was talking to Cara over there. She is a super dynamic outside salesperson over there. She’s going to be hopping on the show next episode. I’m looking forward to that. Man, she’s got a lot to say on so many topics. I don’t know how we’re going to whittle it all down, but we want to make sure to extend that special, newer partner welcome to MW Components.

I was telling them that going back to some of the early Las Vegas shows, MW Industries used to give out these little lapel pins. They were flashing little USA flags with flashing lights on them that haven’t been seen for ten years. I still have two of them.

I forgot about that. You’re right. Do show giveaways make an impression? I guess in this case, the answer is yes.

They did. A lot better than fridge magnets that don’t stick on fridges.

That again?

Right.

In other marketing news, I told you Rosa is going to be on with Joe Shoemaker for our feature. I got an email from her with a beautiful graphic. Some of you may have seen this, warming up this episode, folks. It’s on LinkedIn, special nut report. By now, everybody knows that we’ve got a big Tough Mudder race. Our team’s called the Tough Mudders in 2025. There’s a very good group of people. We need more. You should join on if you haven’t signed up already. Rosa and Team Brighton have produced a cool commemorative coin for all team members. This is an added incentive to joining in, but it’s just another creative marketing device courtesy of Rosa. If you want to get yours, check it out on the LinkedIn post.

That’s very cool.

All Tough Mudders are going to get one at the race. Get a hold of GHIII over at Brighton-Best International. He’s one of the guys who can get you signed up, Bob “GQ” Baer, or Bobby Wegner, over at Beacon Fasteners. That race is happening in Rockford, Illinois, on August 23rd in connection with MWFA Fastener Week. A week with no vowels, Bri.

It is in connection with the build-a-bed.

That’s the next day. A lot of people are coming in for that. If you’re doing that, you might as well just come a little bit earlier and be on the mud team.

Plan on having all that extra fun.

Your commemorative coin is courtesy of Brighton-Best International. We’ll be right back with more Fully Threaded Radio, courtesy of Brighton and the rest of our fine partners and friends, including you, everybody. Thanks so much for reading. It’s Brian and Eric. This is Fully Threaded Radio.

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Looking Back To The Recent SPS Fire

It’s the new segment. Mike McNulty will be coming up shortly. He’s got FDI results. He’ll be joined by Chapman Revercomb, President of Würth, this time to run down all that. He’ll also have lots of news headlines for us. There was a big headline back on February 17th, though. GlobalFastenerNews.com did a good job of reporting on this. There was a huge fire at SPS. Lots of you know about this. It came and went.

If you weren’t directly involved in that sector of the industry, you might have just seen it as a headline flash by, but this is a big deal. In Nashville at Fastener Fair, I was talking with Perigee Manufacturing President Mike Topolewski. He’s up there in Detroit, Michigan. He had a pretty good analysis. We’ve got a little bit of time looking over our shoulder at this. He’s here with us now. Mike, good to see you out there in Nashville, my friend.

It’s always great to catch up with you guys.

You rolled right into the booth. I don’t even know how we came onto the subject, but you blew my mind with your read on this whole thing. Why don’t you give readers a refresher on what happened over there at SPS and what this represents for the industry? What you were telling me was quite a dramatic read.

Back in February, there was a massive fire at the SPS Technologies Factory in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. The facility is reported as almost 600,000 square feet of manufacturing capacity. It was a tremendous loss, not just to SPS Technologies, but to the broader aerospace fastener market as a whole. Since that fire, there have been big concerns about procuring these specialty aerospace fasteners.

Just a little backstory, SPS Technologies is owned by PCC Fasteners, which just so happens to be owned by Berkshire Hathaway. It’s a very large outfit. They have numerous locations, not just in the United States, but throughout the world. This particular factory in Jenkintown has, as I understand it, been around for over 100 years and employs a tremendous amount of people. While it didn’t appear there was a loss of life, thankfully, this fire was a big blow to the aerospace fastener industry.

The GFN story that I looked at was citing an impact on the Boeing MAX 737 line, among others. That’s huge.

It’s going to have broad effects within the industry. There was a PR that I think Reuters was publishing, that threatens to slow down the production of some of the narrow-body jets, but certainly many other platforms as well. A Boeing spokesperson indicated that they did not expect a near-term impact on commercial production. I’m not sure how they came to that conclusion. I don’t know if that’s perhaps wishful thinking.

We’re on the other end of it as a specialty fastener manufacturer. We’ve seen a tremendous increase in the quote volumes for these types of products. The other factor to consider here is that SPS was the sole source for many of these fasteners. Going around that is not possible. If SPS owns the data or the rights to these products that end up in the aircraft, that presents an issue in trying to get these parts onto the aircraft through other means.

This is a 560,000-square-foot facility, according to the article I’m looking at. It’s offline. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be back at any time soon, if ever. What’s the fallout in the market as you’re seeing it?

First and foremost, with the items that SPS only produces, that will be a big issue. I’ve heard it said that the most expensive part of an aircraft is the last part in the assembly. Certainly, if you have a large air structure that’s being held up by a specialty nut or bolt, that’s not a good situation. That could be the case here. Other companies have the capabilities to manufacture these products.

The most expensive part of the aircraft is the assembly process. Share on X

Again, if they’re not listed as an approved vendor or an approved source, which is very difficult to do, or if SPS retains the data for that, there’s no way to proceed. Either the end users are going to have to find a way to address this. I’m sure they’re working closely with SPS. Truth be told, SPS has other manufacturing branches and capabilities. I’m sure that they have been looking at how to procure these parts through other means, but we have seen a tremendous influx in the requests for these types of specialty aerospace parts.

Is that translating into requests for quotes that you’re receiving? Is that what you’re telling us?

Yes, quotes and orders. These parts are critical to the supply base. It would be good to mention that we’re just coming out of a pretty interesting time with the pandemic and the supply chain issues that we’re all very well aware of. Within the aerospace industry, that was quite an issue. Whether it be raw materials that were difficult to acquire or some of the M&A activity that has taken place within the industry, this comes at a really bad time. The timing couldn’t be worse from our vantage point. Companies do stand to benefit to help pick up some of the slack here. We certainly have seen that, not just in terms of quotes, but in orders as well.

Everyone can relate to what you’re saying in that regard. For Perigee Manufacturing up there in Detroit, you were telling me it’s fortuitous because you’re in the midst of a build-out. You have expanding capacity while this is happening. Why don’t you mention that? Take the opportunity here. It’s what we’re all here for.

We’ve been fortunate. We’ve manufactured aerospace fasteners for a long time, but we had a concerted effort to expand strategically more into the market as an AS9100 registered and certified firm. We have the certifications and the manufacturing capability. We’re a precision-turned-component manufacturer using multi-spindle automatic screw machines, CNC Swiss, CNC lathe, and CNC mill capabilities. Prior to these supply chain issues in the pandemic, we had been expanding into this market.

Right after COVID, with these issues within the supply chain, and then with this situation with SPS, it has been very fortuitous for us with our position. It’s something that we were fortunate. The timing was right. Our capabilities were there. Top management has had a commitment to expand within aerospace. That is the fastest-growing segment of our business. We made an acquisition right during the pandemic to increase our capability and capacity, but we’ve also expanded within our current operation. We’re well-positioned to take on some of this work. We’re very happy about that.

That’s the fastener game. Thanks for that insight into the fallout of this SPS fire. This is a tragedy, but as always, business goes on. Companies like Perigee Manufacturing fill the gaps where they can. Speaking of filling gaps, the Fastener News Report is sponsored by Volt Industrial Plastics. They’re filling a lot of gaps these days. It was good to see Heidi out there in Nashville as well. Fully threaded radio title sponsors are Brighton-Best International, GOEBEL Fasteners, and Star Stainless. Mike, when you jump on the show from time to time, and we haven’t had you on for a while, it seems like we’re always all business. You’re a lot of fun to talk to. We always have good stuff to kick around as well. I appreciate you coming on and just getting it done. 

We take what we do seriously, but you got to have fun doing it. It’s always great, the conventions and the trade shows. We appreciate that. It’s a professional group, but we also do have a good time. I had a good time in Nashville. It was great to see you and your crew there. You got to mix it up a little bit.

You know a little bit about that. We were trading some war stories before we turned on the mics. You’re skating around with a little titanium in your body, so I know you know how to do it.

It is a surgically repaired shoulder. I guess it just comes with the territory.

Another way of saying that, you got fasteners in your blood, so you do. Thanks for being here, Mike. I got one more task for you, if you don’t mind. I think you know what to do at this point.

Seasonally Adjusted Fastener Distributor Index For May 2025

With news about screws that you can use, here’s Mike McNulty.

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Thanks, Mike. 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. After a three-plus season holdout, I finally broke down and parted with a $20 bill in exchange for a Cleveland Guardians standing room-only baseball game ticket. Evidently, Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Pope, is a Chicago White Sox baseball fan. DOGE will not be ending the ongoing 21st-century fiscal overspending bender.

A lot of people had a great time at Fastener Fair USA in Nashville, so I’m still focused on fasteners and ready to deliver the Fastener News Report. In this episode, Würth Industry USA Managing Director and President Chapman Revercomb joins us to reveal the latest results of the Fastener Distributor Index, also known as the FDI. Also, in our broadcast, we have our top story from MNP and Fontana, plus newsmaker headlines from Hercules Bolt, Star Stainless, BUMAX, Portland Bolt, E-Z LOK, Auto Bolt, MISUMI, Brighton-Best International, Endries, and more. On the back page report, we’re going to talk about Fastener Fair USA. We will get to that and all the latest FDI results right after this.

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The seasonally adjusted Fastener Distributor Index for May 2025 rose to 50.4 after posting a mediocre 46.9 reading in April seasonally adjusted. This was the third reading above 50 out of the last four. The forward-looking indicator, also known as the FLI, was 50.2, a nice increase over April’s lackluster result of 47.0, breaking a streak of four straight months of being below 50. 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 Würth Industry USA Managing Director and President Chapman Revercomb. Chapman, thanks for joining us on the Fastener News Report.

Thanks for having me.

It’s good to have you. Let the readers know. This is your first time talking about the FDI and the FLI. What do you think about these positive results?

I’ve been monitoring it for many years, so I’m glad to have the chance to give my $0.02 here on the topic, for sure. Thank you for that. Looking at it, it’s awesome to see the positive progress and a little bit of a bright spot. The name of the game seems to be uncertainty for everyone. That brings about certain challenges. When you get into the details of it, to see the large positive development on the sales indicator is the most exciting part because most of the gain month over month came from that sales piece of it.

The sales jumped up to a reading of 49.2 versus 40.9 last time, so that was a nice increase.

We all like sales.

We got to sell something to make some money. Sales went up. Employment also went up. Supplier deliveries all improved. Inventory dropped, and pricing was mixed. Any insights there?

The pricing is a very interesting one to me, to see that development, that anyone has a crystal ball on what that might look like with the general international trade environment that we’re in right now, and the uncertainty that comes along with it. Overall, my read on the topic is that everyone’s still waiting to see if we’re at the bottom of this cycle. Seeing some positive development is always a good thing because we’re all ready to see a little more exciting market out there.

All the excitement seems to be coming from outside the market. We get a lot of that in the comments on the tariffs. You mentioned pricing. It is interesting. If you look at the numbers in the chart that FCH Sourcing Network and Baird provide, the pricing is up, year-to-year is at 92.4. If you go back to October and September, it was down around 50 or 60. It’s taken a leap forward in the year-to-year. Even the month-to-month was in the 50s, and now, it’s up around 80. What are you guys doing to control prices?

If I had the answer to that, I don’t know if I’d put it on the radio. A lot of the pricing activity and the costing activity is driven by government activities. We’re not in a position to finance that for all of our customers, but we’re also not oriented to where we want to try to take advantage of it. We want to just be fair, keep it transparent, and work through it the best we can so that if, when, and as things change, we’re able to adjust quickly for our customers. We saw that with a major change in the Section 232 piece that really directly affects us on the hardware side. We’re just trying to be transparent, fair, and follow the laws of the land to the best of our abilities. We are 100% on following the laws, but being fair and transparent with our customers.

 

Right, not put the hammer on anybody like the government seems to like to do.

Everyone’s trying to do the best for their business, employees, and customers. It’s important we all work together. We expect that from our suppliers. We try to do that and extend that same courtesy to our customers.

That’s a good approach. Everybody appreciates that. You mentioned the 232. You’re talking about the doubling of the tariffs.

We had just finished nailing down our next round of analysis for our customers right before this meeting.

It might change again, so we don’t know. That’d be a little disclaimer.

It’s all about being fair and clear. That way, if there’s an adjustment, the math runs true, and we make it and move on.

We mentioned that inventories went down. That indicates that people are starting to burn through some of their inventory. Is that what you guys are seeing?

We are, to a certain extent. It all falls back to that uncertainty level and depends on whether people are in a position where they think they can invest in inventory for the future or not, or whether we’re trying to stay lean and make sure we have enough to support customers when activity is a little bit slow, but not get so exposed on what could potentially be higher cost inventory if there’s an additional trade policy change.

There are a lot of moving pieces in the inventory piece. Nobody wants to get stuck with tons of uncompetitively timed inventory. On the same side, we’ve learned when we come out of slow periods like this or out of 2020 or 2008, that it’s really hard to make up ground on inventory. We’re trying to be as precise as possible in making sure that when we do go invest in inventory, it’s for the right reasons and at the right cost, just to protect the business. I’m certain that everyone’s fighting that battle across the supply chain.

It is a fine-tuned balancing act.

It comes down to data and communication with the customers. If we’re not having open communication with the customers, it becomes much harder to predict what that demand might look like and when.

If you do not have an open communication with your customers, it is much harder to predict what their demands look like. Share on X

The last set of numbers we have is a little bit interesting to me, the six-month outlook. I would describe it as smoothing out. We had 33% of the respondents expecting things to be better, 42% the same, and 24% thinking it’s going to be worse. That was compared to maybe front-loaded numbers we had, which were 48%, 15%, and 36%. We’ve got a lot of people moving from the extremes into the middle. What do you think about that?

It’s probably a good spot to be. I’m on the same to higher wavelength, just because I have a fair dose of optimism. There are quite a few different things going on that, once the dominoes start falling, we’ll see a pretty big pickup in production in general across the board. What drives that, whether it’s interest rates or just people deferring investments for so long, we’ll have to wait and see what kicks it up. Knock on wood, I do think we’re nearing the bottom of the cycle. I’ve said that for a few months now, so we’ll see

That should be a good second half of the year. Before we move on to the comment sections, which are pretty extensive this time around, do you have anything else to add on the FDI numbers or the FLI numbers?

We’ve covered it pretty well. Uncertainty remains the name of the game, but the next couple of months will be really interesting. This is always a challenging time of the year to know what we’ll be looking at in the fall, but I’m excited to see if the positive trend can continue, especially on the sales piece. At least the way we look at it, that underlines everything. As sales go, inventories, deliveries, pricing, and everything else tend to follow. We’ll be watching it closely the next couple of months for sure.

Reading Comments From The Audience

Let’s look forward to the second half of the year. Let’s jump into the comments, which are once again, tariff-dominated. We’ve also got a few comments on RFQs, request for quotes. I’ll start going through these. You can jump in with any of your feedback as we go through. The first one is, “Tariffs are starting to cause demand to soften with customers. Prices are going up, and it’s been a challenge with many customers passing along. Challenging and chaotic times.”

The next one is, “Tariff uncertainty continues to depress demand, wait-and-see attitude, while burning off existing inventory. Manufacturing seems to continue to slow or delay product launches.” The next one again on tariffs, “Tariffs continue to be a distraction, and business strategies remain fluid. It’s hard to plan ahead when you can’t see what’s coming. Meanwhile, business is steady, maybe a slight falling off, but expect the same level over the next three months.” 

It’s almost like all these comments read our first discussion. To weigh in on the very first one, I think about the customers being very difficult to work with on the pricing. Everyone’s got to do their due diligence, do the pushback, and make sure that as a supply chain, top to bottom, we’re doing what we’re supposed to do. From my perspective, if you’re transparent and fair with the customers wherever you fall in the supply value chain, this is one instance where there really shouldn’t be a whole lot of salesmanship required. It’s a cut-and-dry.

You have to be transparent and fair with your customers regardless of where you fall in the supply and value chain. Share on X

Got to keep a little bit in your back pocket from one of my margins and hearing that stuff, but it should be a pretty open and transparent conversation. From the Würth side, that’s what we expect from our supply base. We know that’s what our customers expect from us. If people take the time and present it in the right way, I don’t think it should be a challenging discussion this time around.

Everybody should know what’s going on.

There are no longer tariffs. What do you mean?

What are you talking about? I never heard of that.

It adds stress to everyone to have to manage it.

I feel bad for people having to deal with it on a daily basis. Let’s see. The next comment was, “May was a challenging month for sales and new business, with many customers trying to understand their real cost due to the tariff confusion.” We got two comments in a row on RFQs. “We’re seeing a significant uptick in RFQ activity, suggesting elevated interest across the market. However, this hasn’t translated into firm orders, indicating much of the activity may be exploratory or price testing in nature.

Notably, there’s been a marked increase in requests specifically for domestically manufactured products, but these often stall once pricing is provided, likely due to sticker shock compared to offshore alternatives.” The other RFQ one was, “Way few RFQs this month, opposite of the other one, but we converted a higher percentage of them to make up for part of that loss. Still not a great month.” What do you think about RFQs?

It was very interesting to hear the two different experiences there from the different commenters. I can for sure say we’ve seen a lot of that price checking or just validating the increases that people have received from their supply base, and making sure that things are still competitive. I think that’s going to keep coming, and it should be. It’s a sanity check for everybody. “Should this be domestic now? Has something changed?” All of that stuff has to be done for sure, but we’ve also seen a lot of really quality RFQs. I would almost say they’re more formal sourcing projects rather than RFQs.

It’s good to see because a lot of times when you see pricing uncertainty, delivery uncertainty, or something, the big OEM types sometimes retreat and don’t look at pursuing big projects for new business or making substantial changes. Seeing some continued activity on that side has been a positive thing for us. When we look back at when we’ve had these events over the last years, sometimes, it’s a lot more quoting and price checking and activity than we’ve seen this time so far. I don’t want to say people are getting used to chaos. There’s a little bit more familiarity with major changes and how to navigate them, other than immediately sending a spreadsheet out to three other sources as soon as you get one price you don’t like. It’s like, “Show me why this happened.”

Make sure this is real.

How do we get back to a different price level if something changes? That section 232 up or down is a perfect example. If that changes back to 25%, then we’re going to have to have to make those adjustments together with our customers and suppliers. People are getting at least more experienced with external factors.

Yes, not being surprised by the surprises.

Going to a different playbook of “Show me why this happened,” versus, “I’m going to shop you with everybody.” It’s like, “He’s a part of them, too.”

It’s across the board. We got two more comments. The next one is “We are anticipating slower demand if the tariffs remain in effect at the current levels. As a result, we’ve seen a sudden price increase in the exchange rate of the dollar. It is now down 11%, which also impacts the price.” The last one is, “Currently, demand has been outpacing capacity, making it difficult to satisfy future customer needs. Year-on-year sales are up by 10%, good action.” Somebody is doing real well there.

You should congratulate them.

Somebody’s worried about the weakening of the dollar.

It’s a very dynamic time on any kind of pricing from what I can see anyway. It’s not just the value of the dollar, the purchasing power, and raw materials. It is quietly going through a pretty big change as well. It’s really a lot of different contributing factors to what’s affecting that pricing level. From a demand standpoint, I don’t want to say we’re anticipating further slowdowns in demand. We can expect things to eke along at this level for a little while as everybody gets used to what they’re dealing with and what’s going to happen. For the durable goods sector, at least, it’s been a ho-hum eighteen months at this point. Eventually, people are going to have to start buying some stuff regardless of what the financing of it costs here before too long.

Get over the prices, I guess. The thing that got my attention in the comments before we wrap them up here is that one person said, “Manufacturers seem to continue to slow or delay product launches.” That’s never a good thing when you’ve got something good you want to release and you’re holding back because of external activities.

That’s a hard one. You make counter-cyclical. Do you play the game for today, or do you keep playing for next year and the year after and the year after? That’s always the balancing act, not just for production levels or new launches, whether it’s investments, hiring, or training. Unless you guys know of one, we don’t know of any college where you can immediately go hire someone with a strong knowledge of hardware and industrial manufacturing, and how we support it. Getting people trained, up to speed, and delivering the service the customers want takes some time. Same thing as capital investments or anything else. It’s really hard to know when to put your foot on the gas and when to wait for the right time. We’re in that phase.

 

Before we move on from the FDI, the FLI, and comments on that, and give you a chance to tell the readers about Würth Industry USA, anything else you want to mention on the numbers and things?

We’ve covered it pretty well. I’m happy to see a little bit of that little green shoot back above the 50 mark on both sides. It is good. A couple more months, and maybe we’ll get to build some good momentum.

Good news heading into the summer.

Time goes so fast now. It’s already fall to me even though we haven’t started summer yet. If we can take some positive momentum, that would be good for everyone.

What’s The Latest At Würth Industry USA

What can you tell the readers? What’s going on new and interesting at Würth Industry USA?

I don’t think we’ve got any world-breaking new news, but a lot of continued positive changes we’ve taken. To what we’ve been talking about earlier, when we’re a little bit slow, at least our customers have slowed down a little bit. Things seem to be at a sustainable operations level. We’ve really been focused on the business model and where we want to invest for the next five and ten-plus years in the US market. That, for me, is the most exciting for being part of the Würth Group based in Germany, but being here in the US is how excited the group is about the US market and committed.

The investments we’ve made in facilities and continuing to work towards being a real national sales organization and purchasing organization are all coming together in a good time. Our goal is to be positioned when things do pick up to be able to really capitalize on that and keep expanding market share, but also still a better job for our customer base in general. Whether it’s new systems, buildings, looking at automation in facilities, or training, we are just trying to focus on the things we can control outside of what the sales and revenue level is.

It seems like it’s from the Würth playbook globally as well as here locally in the US, as you mentioned, that you keep investing and moving forward and getting prepared for the future, regardless of what’s going on.

Always. I’m not sure I can claim we’re going to come up with the new best solution ever for a thread-forming screw or something, but there are a lot of smart people that work on that. We think we can have a really good impact on the markets through our systems and just by being a reliable supply chain partner for our customer base. That’s the main focus for us, technology and systems.

When we say systems, we’re talking about Kanban Solutions, asset intelligence, demand planning, and all of the challenging stuff that used to be able to do well manually and just trying hard. It’s getting harder and harder as things get more complex. We’ve been focused on building out systems that will help us grow in the future. I know you mentioned it when we were prepping for this call, but sitting through the asset intelligence demo we did down at Fastener Fair is a big piece of it as well.

It was good. I attended that session. It was called Nowhere Smarter: The Future of Asset Intelligence. It was put on by Austin Roberts from Würth Industry USA. He teamed up with Joseph Martin from Dot Ai. It was pretty interesting stuff. It is combining technology systems and asset intelligence. Anything you want to say about that?

It is exciting. At first, I think we’re just starting to scratch the surface of it. We haven’t seen a ton of innovation and inventory management solutions over the last years. We’ve said everyone’s settled into RFID, which has some clear limitations. What we wanted to do was listen to what our customers and potential customers asked us. It’s great to know when I should buy more of something, but how do I know where something is in my plant or in a stage in the process of whatever the life cycle of that component or product is? How can we take that data generated over time and use it to make more intelligent decisions and add resiliency to the supply chain as a big piece?

When we talk about our supply chain, we manage two supply chains, or at least on the classical OEM supply business. We have our supply chain that we manage with our suppliers. We have the supply chain we manage at our customers through the VMI programs. Finding a tool to be able to give the customers the visibility that they want, but also be able to capture that data and use it to transition that to our supply chain with our supply base, is cool.

I hope that all of our work, integrations, and investments in this area are going to pay off here in the not-too-distant future for us as a sales organization. It has the potential to move supply chain management for OEMs in a new direction that will make things a lot smarter, leaner, and just less chaotic. If people know where the important things are and can plan accordingly, that sure does make it easier for people in a plant to spend their energy on things that add value rather than running around looking for a key component.

You mentioned people and technology. That was one of the things that caught my attention in the presentation. They talked about the transformation into industry 5.0, which was integrating the two, people and technology, rather than just everything relying completely on technology. That’s a small but important distinction.

I feel like we’re still getting used to the industry 4.0 context. They were already well into implementing and investing in tools for 5.0, which is a natural extension to get to where you bring it together. At the end, that’s our deal. We can all focus on the products that we deliver. It’s very important, but having the systems and meeting customer expectations is key. Our concept of the value propositions is that we always want to position our customers to be able to be competitive and be the best at what they do, not at what they ask us to do. This is a really good opportunity for us to raise the bar a little bit on that from where we have been in the past. It is exciting.

Focus on delivering quality products while meeting customer expectations. Share on X

Good approach. Suddenly, you guys are right at the leading edge of all the new stuff. Good job on that.

It can change fast, though.

If you’re working on it day-to-day, then you’re ready for those changes. I was looking at your profile. It looks like you’ve passed your dozen-year anniversary with Würth. 

It seems like a couple of weeks, and then a whole life at other times. It’s good. It’s been fun. I’ve gotten to see a lot of change in the Würth group over the years in the US. Our supply base has seen that, and our customers have, which is exciting. The most fun is that we seem to do a good job of listening to the feedback we get from customers and from our supplier partners, as well, and try to take the steps to improve the business. The most fun part of those twelve or thirteen years is getting a little chance to be a part of that, driving some change.

The last thing I’ll know is just an anecdote. I know that you guys at the sessions were handing out notebooks. In this day and age of high tech, and I’ll mention it a little later in the report, I still did see people using notebooks and using the old-fashioned, taking notes in the sessions.

There’s no right answer for that. I’ll be honest. I don’t think I carry a notebook around. I’m more of a OneNote-in-my-iPhone guy. There are a lot of different styles out there. The notebooks are a good example of that. There are tons of different approaches that can work for things. Thinking you have one solution for all of it might leave some people behind. I’m glad the notebooks were a big hit.

They are picked up and being used. Thanks for handing those out.

Notebooks have no place. I’m taking notes on this car on the back of a PowerPoint that someone printed out for me. I couldn’t bring myself to throw half-good paper away. I am recycling the back of it.

That’s a good practice, too. Thanks for coming on and sharing your insights with the readers on the FDI, the FLI industry in general, and with Industry USA. Anything else you want to close up with?

No. Just again from my side, thanks for having me. Thank you guys for doing this. It’s hard to find a good indicator for what the fastener market’s going to do. We’re lucky to have this one. It would be fun to watch it over the next few months and see how things develop.

I look forward to doing that. Thanks for coming on. I look forward to having you on again.

Me, too. Thank you, guys.

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Fontana Gruppo Acquires MNP Corporation And Other Top Stories

That was Würth Industry USA Managing Director and President Chapman Revercomb. The FDI number for May 2025 was 50.4 versus 46.9 in April. Visit FDISurvey.com to participate in the process and get a detailed PDF copy of Barrett’s monthly analysis. For our top story, MNP Corporation, based in Utica, Michigan, was acquired by Fontana Gruppo, a family-owned fastener business headquartered in Italy. Described as a key milestone in Fontana’s global expansion strategy, MNP says the acquisition unites two of North America’s largest and most respected family-owned fastener manufacturers, creating a new and unprecedented opportunity for employees, customers, and suppliers.

Fontana acquired Right Tight Fasteners, a major player in the Indian market, further strengthening the group’s global presence. Fontana has nearly twenty brands of fastener companies, including Camcar, Acument, and Ring Screw. MNP tells us, “For over 55 years, MNP has been proudly owned by the Berman family. As we move forward as part of Fontana, we remain committed to the same core values of excellence, innovation, and customer focus that have defined us for decades.

While this is an exciting new chapter, our drive for growth and success will continue, only now with expanded resources, a broader reach, and even greater potential for all involved. We look forward to this next phase and are eager to continue our legacy of delivering top-quality products and services to our customers while exploring new opportunities on a larger scale.”

Founded in 1952 in Italy, Fontana is a global leader in high-quality fasteners. It has branches in 32 locations and 26 production plants across Europe, the Americas, and India. With over 6,000 employees, the group generates €1.3 billion in revenue. Fontana has three research centers worldwide, over 200 patents, and a strong emphasis on R&D for the development of high-quality fastener products for many different applications. MNP Corporation employs around 1,000 people, based in five facilities located in Michigan and Illinois.

Next up, our fastener newsmaker headlines. In corporate news, Hercules Bolt Company was selected as the official fastener supplier for the new Tennessee Titans football stadium. Boom Axe and Star Stainless celebrated one year of collaboration and expansion in North America. Portland Bolt acquired Bennett Bolt Works. Arrow Fastener changed its name to Arrow Tool Group. E-Z Lok hired NorthStar Sales and Marketing and Desert Distribution as new sales reps.

The Nord-Lock Group acquired Energy Bolting Limited and opened a distribution hub in Malaysia. Auto Bolt announced Budd Sales as a new sales rep. Misumi Group acquired Fictiv Incorporated. Brighton-Best International opened a facility in Dubai. White Cap signed an agreement to acquire Advanced Fastening Supply, also known as AFS. Industrial Threaded Products, also known as ITP, opened a new facility in California. Kintner marked 45 years in the niche fastener market.

In personnel news, Endries International CFO Dan Crociata was appointed CEO, succeeding Michael Knight. The Tibbetts Group advanced Jon Bramham to the position of Group Commercial Director. Michael Turner joined Incora as Chief Financial Officer. TriMas appointed Thomas J. Snyder as President and CEO. 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. 

Let’s turn to the back page to talk about Fastener Fair USA. I attended Fastener Fair USA 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. I can report that it was a great trade fair and venue filled with excellent exhibits, informative education sessions, valuable networking opportunities, and loads of Tennessee hospitality. Educational high points for me included the Carlo Salvi presentation on warm forming of alloys and super alloys, the Würth Industry USA talk on asset intelligence, the Carver Labs demonstration on the Skidmore-Wilhelm bolt tension calibrator, and the Ask the Experts panel session with the Fastener Training Institute.

I also enjoyed the Fastener Industry Coalition award ceremony, which honored Craig Penland of Eurolink Fastener Supply Service with the first-ever Fastener Industry Coalition Social Media Impact Award. The show was filled with excellent exhibits. It was also co-located with an aluminum processing exhibition that featured heavy manufacturing technology and substantial booths. Some of my general exhibit observations included more colorful exhibits, appealing video displays, an increase in digital sourcing solutions, powerful testing equipment, and fewer fastener-making equipment suppliers. It was offset by the presence of many new faces, companies, and countries.

On the unique and local front, the Wednesday night party at Honky Tonk Central in the heart of the national entertainment area was a big hit and a lot of fun for hundreds of industry professionals. Eurolink Fastener Supply Service also sponsored a NASCAR simulator on the show floor that many people enjoyed. I enjoyed watching a group of three young fastener professionals from McMaster-Carr. They were not just using their smartphones and laptops, but filling individual notebooks with handwritten notes, observations, charts, and diagrams.

Also noteworthy was watching the folks from Brighton-Best International tackle the team-building job of taking down their massive exhibit at the end of the show. Finally, I can recommend Hap & Harry’s Tennessee lager beer and Hattie B’s Hot Chicken sandwiches. This is Mike McNulty of Fastener Technology International Magazine bringing you the Fastener News Report. Please send your news, pictures, comments, corrections, or complaints to me at McNulty@FastenerTech.com.

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Carmen Vertullo On Updated Fastener Standards

This is Carmen Vertullo with your Fastener Training Minute, coming to you from the Fastener Training Institute and Carver Labs in beautiful El Cajon, California. Our topic, like usual, spawns from an email from one of our clients. Even though this is a topic we have addressed before on several levels, we’re going to take it to a new level. I’m going to read you the email, and when we return, I will read you the answer with a little bit of embellishment.

It says, “Carmen, we have a very important customer to us that requires thorough inspection of MTRs on specific items, A193, A194, B7, et cetera, that we need to review and make sure the material and chemical compositions are in the required ranges needed. We want the most current revision year standards stated on the MTRs. We are curious about your opinion and knowledge as far as the best route to take. Will the IFI book meet all the criteria to review all this information, or would we have a quicker, easier time, which is going through ASTM?

Ideally, we want a browser that we can look at versus digging through a book each time. Let us know your thoughts and expertise on the subject. Cheapest options or most reliable options would be very helpful. Thank you so much.” That is an excellent question. Even though this is not a technical Faster Training Minute, when I return, I’m going to tell you some stuff that probably is, if not the most important, right up there with the most important kinds of information that we have ever addressed on the Fastener Training Minute.

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Thank you, Carmen. I am Jo Morris with the Fastener Training Institute. We have a jam-packed summer with some fantastic education plans. Join us on Wednesday, June 18th, in Anaheim, California, for Fastener Basics, instructed by Kevin Chavis from Star Stainless. This is truly a must-have class for everybody in the industry. We cover how to call out parts, terminology, washers, nuts, rivets, hex heads, and really so much more. It’s perfect for anybody new to the industry, or honestly, anyone who just wants to know more about the products that they buy and sell.

On June 20th, we have a co-produced webinar with the IFI, Learning from Our Mistakes: What the Lemnhult’s Wind Tower Collapse Can Teach Us About Fastener Fatigue. You’ve all heard the adage, “We can learn from our mistakes.” It’s never truer than after a man-made catastrophe. Join Laurence Claus, who is the Director of Education with the Industrial Fasteners Institute, who will instruct this webinar reviewing what the root cause was, what went wrong, and how we can prevent it from happening again. This webinar is excellent for anyone wanting to learn more about fatigue and fasteners. Learn more about good fastener design, installation, and manufacturing practices.

In July, come for 1, 2, or 3 days of fastener education at Carver Labs in beautiful San Diego, instructed by our esteemed and famous one and only Carmen Vertullo. He will be presenting on July 14th on  Fastener Specifications and Terminology. This is a great class to learn about fastener standards, fastener terminology, what resources are there to you, and a whole bunch more. The next day, July 15th, Understanding the Bolt Joint. This class focuses on fastening applications of all kinds. It has an emphasis on fastener selection and installation strategies. 

The next day, July 16th, this is a brand new class. Carmen is going to be teaching and presenting on Infrastructure Fastening. This is all things structural, everyone. You’re going to learn about structural bolting assemblies, proper specifications and installation practices, waterworks applications, fastening for gasketed joints, troubleshooting, and how to handle the hardest jobsite problems. There’s a whole bunch more to those three days, so I hope you can join us for our summer school training. For more information and to register, please visit our website at FastenerTraining.com. Thanks everybody, now back to Carmen.

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Welcome back, everyone, to the Fastener Training Minute. If you are paying attention, you would know that I just read an email from a client who needs up-to-date fastener standards information so that he can adequately satisfy his client’s need for them to properly review the material test reports that come with their fasteners. This client would be a distributor buying or importing products for their customers. He wants to know, “What are my best options?” He wanted to know, “Is the IFI book the best option?”

The IFI book is a good option. However, it’s not the best because it’s in paper format. Anything that’s printed obviously could be obsolete as soon as the next version of whatever standard you need comes out. The IFI has another option called the online book of fastener standards. That is always up-to-date. As soon as the fastener’s standard changes, they put it in there. The standards that are in the IFI online book are the actual standards as published by the consensus standards organization. They’re 100% complete. They’re not reformatted as if they would be in the IFI book. It’s a very good value.

As soon as the fastener standard changes, they are updated in the IFI online book. Share on X

I don’t know exactly what it costs. It is a subscription service, so you got to pay for it yearly. If you want more information on that, go to IndFast.org, click on ‘Resources,’ and you can find out how to subscribe to that or how to buy the IFI online book. The downside of that is it only includes inch fasteners, other than those few ASTM standards that also include metric. You want ISO standards as well. You can get that through the ISO online browsing platform, which you can also purchase through the IFI. It gets it to you through the Canadian Standards Council. That is an incredibly good deal.

It’s cheaper than the IFI online book, and it has more standards in it. Between those two documents, you would have a very good, up-to-date, complete list of fastener standards. There are some other standards that you might need from time to time, such as plating standards that are not fastener standards or quality standards, such as ISO 9001. You would have to find a separate way to get them. They can always be purchased directly from the consensus standards organization, such as ASTM or ISO.

If you ever have any trouble getting your hands on a standard or information from a standard, you can always contact me, CarmenV@CarverEM.com, and I will help you. One thing you might do, and people do this a lot, I do it too, is if I need a standard, I will google that. Hopefully, I’m going to find somebody that’s put it online, and I’m going to download it. That’s not fair, and probably isn’t legal. All these standards are copyrighted. I, for example, even for my best clients, could not give you a standard.

I can snip a table, a paragraph, or a page out of it and send it to you. Most times, that’s all you need to answer a question. Even on the IFI online browsing platform and the metric ISO online browsing platform, you cannot save those files. You cannot print them out, but you can screen snip. That’s very powerful.  can’t tell you how many times I’m on the phone with someone or I’m answering an email. I open that up and snip it. It’s gone in fifteen or twenty seconds. The work is fast.

The other thing is these are all searchable databases, so you can search them, unlike having a hard book in front of you, which you can’t search. Those are your best options for having the best up-to-date fastener standards information. I would encourage you, even if you don’t have a customer that’s climbing on you, to make sure you have all the right information. These are relatively inexpensive resources that will make you a better fastener supplier and a better fastener professional and certainly distinguish you amongst your peers in the fastener industry.

 

I’ll just share one more thing with you. We just had an audit for our ISO 17025 accreditation. Our assessor was very impressed with how we proved that we always had the most up-to-date standards through these online platforms. Finally, I would say, if you’re an interested technical person, join the Standards Committee. As members of the Standards Committee, you also have access to the standards that are on the committees that you serve on.

At ASTM, you only get one book at a time, but you can change that up year to year. That is another way. Being on the Standards Committee, you not only have access to the standards, but you also have access to the drafts for the standards that are being changed. You get to see stuff coming down the pipe, and vote on it, and influence it as well. That’s it for how to stay up-to-date with fastener standards. I hope you learned something. This has been Carmen Vertullo with the Fastener Training Minute. Thanks for reading.

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Rosa Hearn Of BBI And Joe Shoemaker Of AFC Industries

We’re back from Nashville Fastener Fair. It’s on to Vegas for the International Fastener Expo. We are going to have to recalibrate our thinking. I’m looking forward to it. I got a whole summer to get ready for that. Who knows what’ll happen, but I do know what’s going to happen in September. That’s Jackpot Marketing: Winning Strategies for Fastener Businesses. It’s a topic that all fastener distributors should be looking towards. There are lots going on in that department. You might recall. Rosa Hearn led a presentation. It was a breakout session. She packed the room. There’s a redux of that. I think it’s going to be new and improved. She’s got a partner for this as well. It’s Joe Shoemaker with AFC and Rosa with BBI. They’re both with me now. Hi, Rosa. Hi, Joe.

Pleasure to be here.

Hi, Eric. How are you? Hi, Joe, too.

Hi, Rosa.

I’m sure you guys are already collaborating, and you’re both pros in the area of marketing, for sure. I’m looking forward to this. It’s another year in Vegas. I guess before we dive into all that, there’s so much to do. You guys are marketing people. Rosa, with BBI’s 100-year anniversary, you guys are probably going to be pulling out all the stops.

We did. I wish I had more time to do it at Fastener Fair, but this year, we decided to do it at IFE, because that’s where we normally do our annual cocktail party. We’re going to do something special. We’re going to do something different, and then we’re going to make sure that everybody has a good time for our 100-year anniversary.

I am looking forward to it as well. AFC’s got a lot of fun things planned. We’ve got some announcements that will be coming out over the coming months. We’re excited to not only be part of this but to have a presence with Rosa at this marketing event coming up at IFE.

Speaking of Nashville, I went to the WIFI breakfast. I saw Angela from AFC. No joke, everybody went up to her and told her what they did to hire you as the marketing guy. She received so many compliments, and so I took advantage of that. I’m like, “I have Joe for this marketing workshop that I’m doing.” They all told me that I did a great choice, that it was a fantastic choice. You have a following, Joe. It’s one of the reasons why I asked you to do this with me. Thank you.

That’s very kind of you to say. I feel the same about you. You’ve obviously carved out a nice niche for yourself within the organization and within the industry. I think of Rosa the Riveter, and now I think of the marketing applications of what your impact has been. You need to change your nickname to Rosa the ROIveter for return on investment and marketing. It’s a pleasure to serve with you. You may not know this, but Rosa and I, a couple of years ago, served on the inaugural marketing panel at IFE. It was an event that was moderated by our friend, Mr. John Kovach, an all-around great guy. I now have the pleasure of working alongside him.

Rosa elevated things and stepped up that game. I was able to attend the conference that she put on. It was a couple of hours. It felt like standing room only. I’m excited to be participating in it once again this year with her. Hopefully, we’ll be able to elevate the quality of content even more and leave people with an even better understanding of what marketing can do for us.

It’s nerve-racking when you get asked to do this. You’re like, “Is anybody going to show up? Is there something I can teach?” The reality is, I’ve gone to a lot of marketing webinars, and sometimes, they’re very generic. I’m like, “Come on, people. Tell me how to grow my business. Tell me how to market this thing.” Because people don’t know my business, I just thought it was right to tell people, “This is the fastener industry. This is what we do. This is the way we’re doing things.” It’s one of the reasons why I decided to do this. I got such wonderful feedback that they asked me to come back. This year, I wanted to step up the game and invite Joe because I know Joe did a wonderful thing for the North Coast Fastener Association. I think you did a marketing seminar, or what was that?

I was asked to give a presentation. Marty Nolan and Mike Robinson had reached out. I’m still on the board with them. They had asked if I wouldn’t mind doing a presentation on marketing. There’s been a lot of, rightfully so, interest in AI and what AI can do for a business, specifically for a marketing function. I took that opportunity to educate people a little bit on marketing and the impact that marketing could have, but also how AI would lend itself to scaling and to helping streamline processes.

Rosa, I don’t know how you feel about this, but I know in talking with Eric, people think of advertising when they think of marketing. While that’s true, we get a bad rap. Advertising is a facet of the marketing mix, but there’s just so much more that we can contribute as marketers to an organization. There are probably a dozen things that come to mind. Our goal is always to internally educate our company on the value that we can bring, but also educate the market on the value of what our companies bring to them and their business.

It’s funny that you say that marketing gets a bad rap because some of these marketing boards that I’m on, they don’t even want to call themselves marketing people anymore. They’re calling themselves a product marketer, a creator, or something different, but they don’t want to be called marketing because it has such a bad rap. I don’t know. Marketing is so important, coming from sales, coming from product, and coming from so many angles.

Marketing is such a crucial leg of the business that it still dawns on me, why aren’t people putting more focus on this? Why aren’t people putting money into this? Why aren’t people putting more people in this? That’s one of the reasons why I’m trying to do the marketing workshop, because I want to express that. I got so much good feedback like, “I didn’t realize this is how people thought,” or “This is what we can do with it.” Eric, you went to my workshop. What did you think?

I did. I was also in attendance when Joe presented at the NCFA. One thing that nobody can deny these days is the impact and the overwhelming feeling that people have about the onset of all the AI tools. Both of you relied heavily on that for your presentations. Joe, yours was very compressed because of the format at the NCFA. You were jamming a lot into a tight format. Rosa, when you and Haley were presenting, you had a much more expanded presentation and all that.

By the way, folks, that’s going to be September 17th from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM. It’ll be a breakfast format meeting at the International Fastener Expo. That’s the presentation we’re going to be plugging during this conversation. Got to make that marketing note there, Team. I thought you did a great job of it. There are so many nuances to this. I agree, so many sub-disciplines under that umbrella of marketing, it does get overlooked or misunderstood in a lot of organizations. You two are setting out to focus on that in a little bit and target it specifically for the fastener industry during this presentation.

It’s funny. I see this marketing workshop as a CFS kind of thing. The reason I say that is because there are a lot of us who’ve been in the industry for a very long time. They go, “Why do I need to be a certified fastener specialist? I already know everything. I’ve done everything. I know what everything is called.” Once you take the class, you just come out with such awe, like, “I learned so much. I didn’t realize that this is what they do, or this is what they think. It’s just amazing.”

I try to compare myself to that and say, “I get that you know what you’re doing, especially if you’re a marketer or an owner. You understand how your business is run, what you want to promote, and what you want to do. When you come out of this, I want you to take something and just grow on top of what you’re already building.” There’s so much that not only can Joe and I teach you, but I want to learn, too. I want to learn from other people. It’s why I was happy to have Haley with me because I learned a lot.

One of the things that she said was that your website is the strongest and most powerful salesperson that you have. If you’re not spending as much money as you are as your top salesman on your website, then you’re doing yourself a disservice. I took that to heart. I thought that was a really good point to come across. I can’t wait to see Joe. I want to see Joe. I was so mad at myself that I didn’t get to see him at NCFA. I’m excited to see where you’re coming up with, Joe.

Your website is the strongest and most powerful salesperson you have. If you are not spending as much money as you can on it, you are doing yourself a disservice. Share on X

The more we can do as marketers to remove the mystery of what we contribute to the organization, only strengthens our position and improves our overall value within it. What I mean by that is the more we can make a direct line between, “Here’s the stuff we’re doing,” and “Here’s the impact to the organization that is the result of that,” whether it’s leads generated, pipeline dollars, or sales, the closer we can get to that one to one relationship, the more credibility the marketing function gets.

Frankly, the more they’re seen as being strategic within a company, rather than a cost center. If done right, you can elevate not only the brand but your own contribution as a marker within your organization. I know we’re starting to see some of that stuff. I know that Rosa’s certainly contributed to BBI over the years and will continue to do so. I’m excited about being able to talk with folks and, as Rosa said, learn and see what the topics of interest are going to be from the folks that are going to be in attendance.

If it’s anything like the last, I’m imagining we’re going to have people that are a little bit more sophisticated and have more specific questions around, “I’ve already got this, but help me get over the hump here,” down to, “What is marketing? What can it do for my company?” That cuts across manufacturing and distribution. There’s a lot of crossover in general senses from things like market research and analysis to brand management, in some cases, product marketing, certainly content marketing, and digital marketing. These are all things that we’ll be prepared to talk through and navigate along with our attendees to help them get a better level of comfort for really just what marketing can do to the organization.

We focused on beginners and advanced. If you’re a beginner who didn’t know, you’re starting your marketing department, or you’re a salesperson going into marketing, it was a beginner’s class in the first hour. The second hour was more geared towards the advanced. This year, it’s completely different. I think our focus is strategy. Considering we have Joe with us on the lineup, strategy, and how these advanced people come is the way to go.

I like the fact that Joe’s with me because it’s two different perspectives. He’s from the distributor side. Even though technically, I’m a distributor, it’s on the wholesale supplier side. My way of marketing is completely different than his way of marketing. The fact that we touch different sectors, which are construction, industrial, MRO, electrical, or whatever our situation is, comes across in the way we market. Like I mentioned, I hope people come. If not, do me a solid and just come support us.

It never hurts.

I get it. They are charging this year. I believe it’s $59, but it comes with a full breakfast, folks. Understand that you’re going to eat breakfast anyway. Your company’s paying for breakfast anyway. You get a threefer. You get Joe, myself, and breakfast. I’m hoping that people show up. It’s going to be on the last day of the show. I think it’s one of the Jasmine ballrooms. We officially haven’t gotten the letter or the ballroom number yet. You can register now. You can go to the website at IFE, and then start registering and signing up for it.

Folks, we jumped right into the conversation. You’re into the thick of the meat of what’s going to be covered. I didn’t plan that. That’s what happens when you invite two powerhouses on with you. The title of the presentation is Jackpot Marketing, fitting for Vegas, Winning Strategies for Fastener Businesses. There is a jackpot involved with this, too. There’s going to be a pretty sweet giveaway that one attendee will win.

Moving The International Fastener Expo To Phoenix

We’ll explain that a little bit more before we close out here. I got a challenge for you guys. We heard that the Vegas show, I don’t know if we’ll be calling it that in the future, because it’s very likely, since we don’t have official confirmation. Everybody’s talking about the International Fastener Expo moving to Phoenix in 2026. You guys are emerald. How do you market that to the fastener industry?

That’s a tough one. You’re going from a location that’s hot to one that could be even hotter, number one. I enjoy the Phoenix area. I don’t know that it competes as well with things to do, places to eat, and shows to see things obviously for Vegas. That’s a tough one.

It’s a huge change, very much so. I get that. I know I threw you a curveball on that one. I don’t hold a candle to you guys in the marketing department, clearly, but I will say that my mind immediately goes to audience targeting. I think about who I would prefer to see at these shows, walking down the aisles. A lot of the distributors that are there would like to see other distributors and people who are doing the sourcing. I first think, how do I get those people there? What’s the advantage of having it in a place like Phoenix versus Vegas? The first thing I think of is the old throwback to Columbus, where there wasn’t a whole lot else outside of the show to distract people. Therefore, you have a chance to get people in a more concentrated setting.

There’s some credibility to that. Focus on what you come for and not necessarily be distracted. There are a lot of things you can do in that greater area, but certainly not with the ease and accessibility as you would compare it to Vegas. I wonder what’s driving that. Has there been any chatter that you’ve come across to offer some subtext as to what may be driving that decision?

There’s no secret there among a lot of people, what we call Vegas fatigue. It’s been a long time, Joe, that we’ve been going there.

That’s true.

It’s one of these things where there’s no right answer. I will add. I don’t know how many Fully Threaded readers will remember this. I came out. It was after the show. This question was cycling around. I came out and officially put my money down on the side that they should stay in Vegas. I gave all my reasons why. I’m not a big fan of Vegas either, folks, but I just came to the conclusion. That’s probably what’s best. They did the opposite. I don’t think there is a right answer here. We’ll see what happens.

I would say that when you go through situations like this, where there’s a market change in venue, there’s a freshness or a novelty that could come along with being somewhere new. There may be perceived cost effectiveness for folks thinking it’s going to be less expensive to travel and stay there versus Vegas. Sometimes, offering a different atmosphere is appealing. It invigorates people that maybe to your point, it’s been long in the tooth out in Vegas. Let’s try something different. Let’s take a fresh look at the show. Maybe we’ll send more people because it’s more affordable, et cetera.

 

I was very fortunate to go to Fastener Fair Stuttgart. The trade shows over there are different. We’re talking three days of pure business from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, three full days with no parties and just meetings. We’re talking 30-minute meetings with your suppliers and with your customers. It’s 100% business. Here, it’s a little different. By the first day, we’re done, and we all want to go home now. I appreciate the fact that it’s in Phoenix. Because it’s in Phoenix, as a supplier, we spend a lot of money to put up a booth, to bring people, and to try to advertise what’s going on, what’s next, and new products.

To have people come in, stay for a little bit, and then go gamble or go see a show, it’s heartbreaking because you are spending all this time in your booth trying to meet people, trying to network, and trying to get to know people. The fact that it’s in Phoenix, I feel like that’s going to give us a little bit more face time with our customers. I get it. As a customer, one might think, “How boring. There’s nothing to do.” We should think of positive stuff. I’m pretty sure IFE or even Fastener Fair comes up with stuff to do. To give them a chance, this is a great opportunity.

My idea in adding this to the conversation wasn’t to divert into that age-old quandary or debate about how the show should lay out, where they should be held, or anything like that. I was just thinking, “How do we develop a strategy for a big issue in the industry?” That location idea is certainly one I don’t think there’s a right answer to.

My approach to that would be starting fresh or starting new.

If you were to look at that as a classic marketing practice, you’d start out with your strategy. You’d start out by identifying what an ideal customer profile looks like for that show. That would largely drive things like location, activities, timing, audience, outreach, et cetera. I’m sure they’ve thought through most of that IDP work and arrived at if we make this change, it’s going to be a positive impact over one that would be perceived as negative, or else they probably wouldn’t have made it.

How To Handle The Audience Selection Process

Let’s move on to our audience selection. How are you looking at the audience selection for shows like this? How do you use modern tools to assemble those lists?

Fortunately for us, there’s a whole host of tools that help us get that process really off the ground very quickly. You can look back. This is part of what the research component is from a marketing standpoint. Identify what you feel are your best customers. If you could wave a magic wand and have everybody that looks like this customer be on your roster, you’d be okay. You start to dissect that slightly and find out what characteristics they possess that make them unique and a good fit for your organization.

Once you have that ideal customer profile developed, there are tools online that will allow you to go out and find lookalike folks that look, sound, and feel very similar to the ones that you’ve said we want more of. There’s an additional suite of tools, whether it’s an InfoUSA or ZoomInfo, that will allow you to drill down and find contacts specifically within those organizations by title, job function, and even provide you with contact data details, email, phone, et cetera. Pretty quickly, you could know what good looks like. You could identify matching or similar cohorts within your industry that seem to check the boxes of being compatible. You could even go down, drill down, and find out the roles and the contact data within those organizations to be able to begin your outreach campaign.

That gets you to square one. What you want to look at from there would be more of how you create and craft messaging that would resonate with that audience that you’ve identified. The challenge is that we largely deal with commoditized products. There’s not a lot that’s sexy in the things that we sell, but they’re extremely critical. Just imagine a production line being down because they don’t have a supply of fasteners that they need to be able to build their product. It’s a low-cost item, way down low on the bill of materials, but it’s critical to have available when you need it.

That assumes quality, et cetera, and there are no issues with that. After you’ve crafted that messaging, it helps you stand out and create a differentiation for yourself, and then you begin to contribute those people into your pipeline funnel. The idea is to have someone raise their hand, identify an area that they have an interest in, and then you continue to serve content to nurture them along that process to where there’s a level of trust that’s built. They ask for a quote. They show interest in buying something, and then you engage your sales group. It becomes a marketing qualified lead and turns into a sales qualified lead.

Hopefully, it turns into a customer and then a raving customer. That customer is out there actively promoting your brand as much as you are because they’ve had a positive experience. The cycle is pretty predictable. The actions, the tactics, the strategy that underlies all of that is really where the fun part is. Rosa, myself, and a number of folks that are in the same boat within our industry from a marketing standpoint are all faced with that challenge of how we come up with a strategy that’s a winning one for us and helps our brand get noticed in that sea of sameness that’s out into the marketplace.

The sea of sameness, how profound.

Listening to Joe, I feel like I’m listening to Carmen Vertullo, but in marketing.

He’s laying down the secret sauce right there.

I’m going through that now. I’m sure Joe is too with the marketing workshop. You don’t know who’s going to come. We got manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and possibly an end user. We don’t know who’s showing up. Even if they do show up like a company, you don’t know what you’re going to get. Are you going to get a salesperson? Are you going to get an engineer? Are you going to get an owner? Are you getting the marketing person? If it’s the marketing person, is it the marketing director or just a marketing coordinator? How do you gear your presentation towards that? How do you pick what you’re going to do? That’s what we go through.

When he was talking about that, he was talking about personas. Find your persona. Find the person that you’re going to talk to. That’s who you cater to because that’s going to be 80% of your base. In my case, I’m going to talk to my customer base, the distributor, preferably the marketing, or the ownership. That’s two personas right there that I’m catering to. That’s how I’m going to structure my presentation for those two people. I’m hoping someone from the media or somebody from a manufacturer can take that and try to apply it to their situation. You have to pinpoint who your audience is because that is what’s going to make your presentation shine.

You have to pinpoint your target audience. That is what will make your presentation shine. Share on X

You packed the room. I’m sure you’re going to have a lot of repeat folks. There’ll be new people. I’m looking forward to it. That’s for sure. You guys have given a little preview of some of the things that will be discussed, but you’ll be providing specific tools and specific strategies. Marketing-wise, this is a jackpot. We’ve got a prize to describe. I want to hear about that in a second. Plus, we’re going to have this amazing breakfast that’s going to be included in it. I got to tell you the story about my memory of an early Vegas show. This is back when it was still NIFS, and McGuire and Bannister were running it. 

I remember they used to try on the second day to have these keynote speeches. They since abandoned the idea because they realized that, let’s face it, the fastener people were not showing up at 7:00 in the morning. Their way to attract everybody was there. They had the largest pile of Long Johns on this long table that I’ve ever seen. There must have been 2,000 doughnuts there and nine people in the audience this one year. They all had pretty red eyes, too, if I remember correctly. It wasn’t the biggest marketing success that year.

I was shocked. It’s starting at 8:00 AM the next day, the last day of the show. I’m thinking all these parties that people are going through. I’m like, “You came. Thank you.” Anybody that came, thank you so much. I hope you come this year.

Where can you get a better deal? $59 to feed your belly and your marketing mind? That’s a two-for-one. It’s the best deal in Vegas.

What is the lucky jackpot winner going to receive? What’s the big takeaway for this one, Rosa?

I’m going to do a Brighton-Best box full of goodies, as well as a $100 gift card to commemorate our 100-year anniversary. You’d better bring an extra suitcase for the extra stuff.

Once again, the presentation is happening on September 17th at the International Fastener Expo. That’s the morning of the second day of the show, 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Be there. A lot of us will be. I believe registration is already open on the website. We should announce that. It’s FastenerShows.com. That’s the Emerald International Fastener Expo website. Is that true, Rosa?

Yes, that’s true.

By the way, Joe, you’d mentioned John Kovach earlier in the conversation. A little example of some BBI marketing in action, a BBI and Fully Threaded joint effort, we did the Ironclad gloves fall giveaway. Kovach was one of the winners of that. I can’t even remember what the photo he submitted was, but it was some awesome outdoor photo. He won himself a pair of camo ironclads. That was awesome.

It’s good that he’s a winner. He’s a winner in my eyes, regardless. He and I have had some good banter. I know you’re an outdoorsman as well as he is. He was showing me some stuff about one of his deer hunting adventures. Not being a deer hunter, he was educating me on a morning sit versus an evening sit, et cetera. I thought I would impress another friend who is a deer hunter with my vocabulary that I just picked up. He politely told me just to stick with playing poker. 

Stick to marketing?

Yes. I didn’t win him over, but I appreciate the education nonetheless.

Valuable Marketing Tips From Rosa And Joe

He knows a lot. That’s for sure. You guys both know a ton about marketing. Before we wind down the conversation and see everybody out in Vegas, what do you have going on at AFC you can share?

A couple of things come to mind. We just kicked off a new slogan for us. People often ask, “What does AFC stand for?” As we started to think about it internally, our teams are geared towards delivering what we like to strive for, which is best-in-class service and support. We realize that we’re one of many people that can be chosen to partner with our customers. We want to make sure that when people think of AFC, they think of always the first choice. We live that. Our teams live that every day, and the level of service commitment that we bring to our customers and support their business growth.

Secondarily, we’ve got something fun happening. I’m also on the board with John on North Coast Fasteners. They have an upcoming Corkscrew Cheers to Fasteners event. Wine tasting was a big hit over the last couple of years at Sharon James Cellars. A twist would be that not only is there going to be wine, but there’ll be bourbon. For those of you that enjoy a good bourbon or certainly a glass of wine, you can register. The registration is open. You can find the links on the North Coast Fasteners Association‘s LinkedIn page. I am looking forward to seeing everybody there. 

Vince Dimora has something to do with that winery, doesn’t he?

There’s a connection. I can’t remember if it’s his in-laws or a family member, but he’s connected there. It’s a wonderful venue. It’s a wonderful time. If there’s one thing this industry does well, it’s collaborate and share stories over an adult beverage. We’re looking forward to seeing folks out there and continuing that tradition.

It’s been known to happen. Keep up the good work over there at North Coast. Rosa, you’ve got so much going on. Where do you start? Give us just a thumbnail, please.

I’m going to try. Not only are we expanding our metric fasteners and stainless fasteners, but we are also bringing in so many more containers on both metric and stainless. It’s crazy. We’ve also partnered up with some fabulous suppliers out there. We’re bringing in aluminum plastics. We’re bringing plastic fasteners, key stock pins, snap rings, and a lot of domestic, including domestic sockets and hex head cap screws. 

Also, Brighton added a location. I don’t know if you saw it on social media. It’s BBI Dubai, which is exciting for us. We’ve grown 165,000 square feet in Edmonton, Canada. We added Canada’s social media. You can now follow us. If you’re a Canadian out there reading, then you can actually follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We also partnered up with the Mud Run. The famous Mud Run that is happening in August, we partnered up with them to do a very special prize. I’m hoping down the line, you guys get to hear about that.

By the way, going back to your slogan, Joe, when you said that, “What does AFC stand for?”, I always thought it stood for A Fastener Company.

America’s Fastener Choice, there’s a whole bunch of things you could fill in the blank. 

You could have a lot of fun with it. You guys have a lot of fun with everything that you do. We’re going to have a lot of fun in September at your marketing presentation. It is September 17th, 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM FastenerShows.com to get yourself registered. Breakfast is included, plus the chance to win a fabulous prize courtesy of BBI. I’d be shocked if that pot didn’t get sweetened, also. Hint, Joe. Thanks so much for being here, guys.

Thank you. It’s been a pleasure. Always good talking to you. Rosa, I look forward to talking with you and presenting when we are together in September. 

Thank you, Joe. I appreciate you doing this with me. Thank you, Eric, for helping us promote this. Thank you.

Joe Shoemaker, AFC. Rosa Hearn, BBI. It’s Fully Threaded. We’ll be right back to wind this one down, folks.

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Episode Wrap-Up And Closing Words

Brian, summer is cooking along. Speaking of cooking, I spoke to Rob Reynolds and hadn’t talked to him since Brisket Fest. He was one of our pit masters. He produced another mouthwatering brisket this year. As it turns out, along with a few buddies, they’ve got an event coming up. He’s doing six briskets and four pork shoulders. They’ve got a whole slew of cookers. They’re going to get their tribe together and do it upright. 

You have to have a lot of people to eat six sides of brisket.

I don’t think there’s any danger of it going to waste, Brian. Don’t worry.

Just like in our case.

Good for you, Rob, INxSQL Software. He is a big supporter of the NFBBQA, that being the National Fastener Barbecue Association, folks.

You just dreamed that one up.

That’s been a long time coming. It’s growing, Brian. Keep your eyes open for official merch, NFBBQA, folks. When we were in Nashville, I had to return a very sensitive piece of barbecue equipment to Rob. We had to do it incognito. You and Lynn helped out with this. He carries this machete around for cutting up brisket. This thing is a bona fide machete. It looks like you could cut a cow’s head off with it if you needed to.

It looks much sharper than your regular machete, and much more dangerous, not the thing you wander around the show floor carrying in case you’re arrested.

You wouldn’t want to walk around with it. I had a Solution Industries hoodie in the back of the truck. I wrapped it up in there when I gave it to you to return. I was concerned that I’d get that back because I have a little sentimental attachment to the hoodie. He told me he got everything back home safe and sound. The statute of limitations is clear, so we’re all safe on that. We can now reveal that.

I think you’re wildly undercutting the statute of limitations.

Summer’s here. It’s time to cook. We’re ready to get out of here and do a little bit of that on our own. I have a barbecue on my mind. I’d like to thank our guests on the episode, Rosa Hearn with Brighton-Best International and Joe Shoemaker with AFC Industries. Make sure to sign up for their marketing session out there in Vegas this year. It is well worth the price of admission, and who knows, maybe you’ll win that giant prize package, too. If nothing else, you get a whole lot of knowledge, breakfast, and a great networking opportunity.

They had north of 40 people, so I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a big success this year. Also, Chapman Revercomb with Würth Industry USA joined Mike McNulty on the Fastener News Report. Good job, guys. We also heard from Mike Topolewski with Perigee Manufacturing up there in Detroit, Michigan. Always good to hear you, Mike. Thanks for being here, and Carmen Vertullo at the Fastener Training Minute. The title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio are Brighton-Best International, tested, tried, true, Brighton-Best, GOEBEL Fasteners, quality the first time, Go GOEBEL, and Star Stainless. Right off the shelf, it’s Star.

Fully Threaded is also sponsored by Buckeye Fasteners and The Ohio Nut and Bolt Company, BTM Manufacturing, Eurolink Fastener Supply Service, Fastener Technology International, INxSQL Software, The International Fastener Expo, J.Lanfranco, MW Components, Solution Industries, Bolt Industrial Plastics, and Würth Industry USA. You know the email address, folks. It’s FTR@FullyThreaded.com. Let us know what you think. We think we’re very glad to have you reading our show. Thanks so much for the kind words and pats on the back out there in Nashville. 

I just want to butt in and say something about how lucky we are to be in this industry and have such great friends in this industry, including our sponsors. We had a bit of an issue that came up out in Cleveland. We had a bit of trouble working out how we were going to get our booth equipment back. It was a bit of a problem overall, but one of our great sponsors, BBI, stepped in. Jun, Peggy, GHIII, and Steve all found a solution that helped us get a big problem out of the way. I would like to thank them very much. It’s a great sign of why this is a great industry that people who have business relationships can really come up and give you great, friendly things.

Thanks for pointing that out, Bri. That was unexpected. We didn’t ask for any help, but they saw that we needed some. It was just offered. It’s a great tribute to Brighton and to the industry. We appreciate it. We appreciate you reading the show. We’ll be back soon with another one, assuming no more severe injuries, barbecue-related, farming, or otherwise. Stay safe, Brian. I’ll try, too.

Yes. You do, too.

I’ll just say for Brian Musker. This is Eric Dudas. Get out there. Sell some screws. Maybe cook some ribs while you’re at it. We’ll talk to you soon.

Keep reading, folks. Contact us if you have any comments.

 

Important Links

• Special Report: Fastener Fair USA 2025 Floor Interviews
• Mike McNulty on LinkedIn
• AFC Industries
• Brighton-Best International
• Würth Industry USA
• Perigee Manufacturing
• Carmen Vertullo on LinkedIn
• Joe Shoemaker on LinkedIn
• Chapman Revercomb on LinkedIn
• Mike Topolewski on LinkedIn
• Fastener Distributor Index
• Fastener Technology International
• Carver Engineering and Manufacturing
• Fastener Training Institute
• Industrial Fasteners Institute
• International Fastener Expo
• North Coast Fasteners Association on LinkedIn