FTR Unthreaded: Link Magazine Publisher Leo Coar

 

With a long view on the fastener industry and numerous careers to reflect on, Distributor’s Link Magazine publisher Mr. Leo Coar recounts the launch of his flagship businesses and shares thoughts on a range of topics. From the shift away from domestic manufacturing and rise of the master importers, to the early days of the fastener shows, to the impact of AI tech on fastener distribution, a true legend of the industry tells it like it was, and the way he sees it in the days ahead. Run time: 47:31

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Listen to the podcast here

 

FTR Unthreaded: Link Magazine Publisher Leo Coar

Fully Threaded Radio: Leo Coar, A True Legend

This episode is a big one. It’s a conversation with our true legend of the industry, the publisher of Link Magazine, Mr. Leo Coar. It’s been a long time since we talked with Leo on the show. During this conversation, we cover a lot of ground. You’re going to like this one. He’s been in the industry for many years. Link Magazine is going on 48 years and he started that well into his career to give you an idea. During that time, he’s had many various endeavors, both inside fasteners and in some other surprising ways that he’ll touch on.

He also touches on his thoughts about the industry, in general, where it’s been and where it’s headed. He even speculates on the impact of AI on fastener distribution. I tell you this conversation headed off into some directions I wasn’t even expecting. Towards the end, you’ll hear a rather abrupt change in direction right as he’s finishing a particularly poignant commentary on this particular stage of his career, if you want to put it that way.

Leo Coar is an amazing guy and someone you should know in the fastener industry for sure. This episode of Fully Threaded Radio as well as all the others is made possible by our partners. The title sponsors of fully threaded Radio, Star Stainless, Global Fasteners and Brighton Best International. 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, Volt Industrial Plastics and Würth Industry USA. It’s probably one of the most important episodes we’ve done in a long time. I know you’re going to enjoy it. Here now is my conversation with Leo Coar.

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Leo Coar, good to have you. How are you?

Thanks for having me.

It’s been a while, Leo. I was looking back at the web page and believe it or not, 2017, it was episode 112.

Time goes fast.

Are you find yourself saying that more and more these days?

I’m just hanging in. Whatever happens, happens.

I think that was the message last time. You were fairly optimistic about the prospects for the little guy and we were talking a lot about small fastener distributors at that time. We’ll touch on that a little bit more.

I’m a little worried about them now to tell you the truth.

Living The Dream In Naples, Florida

Lots of stuff going on. I don’t blame you for that. Let’s bring everybody up to speed with where you’re at, though, before we get into it. Are you down in Naples, Florida?

Yes, we’ve been here about 35 years. Before that, we were in New Jersey.

Refresh my memory. What caused you to make the move?

I was having breathing problems up there. I was a manufacturer’s agent and I wanted to get out of that business. We had an aluminum fastener supply in a magazine, so we decided to move the family down here. The air is better and it’s much better here.

It’s served you well for many years. The last time I saw you, it was down in Naples. It was 2019 when you and Tracy rented that yacht and took the NFDA out on that dinner cruise. That was an amazing day.

That was a nice night.

We see Link and the whole team at all the shows. You guys do them an amazing job. Ironically, though, I’ll just mention this very quickly. We just came from the Fastener Fair in Nashville, as you know. Your team was there, Tracy and company. The show was co-located with an aluminum show yet no sign of aluminum fasteners.

I knew that show was going to be there. I talked to them about going but there’s so many things. How many things can you go to? That show might be good for us. I don’t know. We still distributed. How many distributors would be at the aluminum shop? Not sure.

I don’t know how many people make the connection between Link Magazine and Aluminum Fasteners, the company we’re talking about, not generically, but that is a core family enterprise.

It is. Back then, I took a look and said, “What can I be in? What business can I be in that the big guys aren’t going to chew me up?” I saw that nobody was concentrating on aluminum fasteners at the time. They had 28 distributors, but they told all those twenty guys they had to buy a certain amount of fastener to be a distributor. They all bought the same thing. We walked in and they wouldn’t give us the line, so we bought all that inventory from all the distributors. Ultimately, they didn’t bother with them anymore. We took over the aluminum faster business in the states. It’s been good for us. It’s a small business but a good one.

 

From Fasteners To Policeman: Leo’s Unexpected Careers

That’s the important thing. When I was talking with Tracy in Nashville, we cooked up this idea about getting you back onto the show. By the way, I do thank you for being here. We communicate here and there. I work with you on the magazine a little bit, and I’ve been badgering you to do this for a while. Thanks for finally jumping in. Tracy was telling me about some of the amazing things that you did before you got into fastening. You’ve had several different careers. I wonder if you could just give a quick punch list on that because it’ll amaze people.

I’ve been in the fastening business since 1954. I come out of the Navy. I was going to make the Navy a career and all my friends came home at the same time. We had some good parties so I thought, “Let me get a job and see what happens.” I applied for a job at Southern Screw company. The girl who interviewed me was the assistant manager there. She’s been my wife for 68 years. We hooked up, got married and it’s been great. We have a good family. Southern Screw trained me to run one of their four warehouses. There were only four warehouses and not a lot of warehouses opened up.

A lot of things I did after that. At the same time, I was in the fastener industry. I just did them at night and weekends. I did that and I was playing hockey at this rink. The guy didn’t want to own it anymore. He was going to go bankrupt and so we bought it. A couple of hockey players and myself bought it and we ran it for twenty years. It had one of the best hockey programs in the East Coast. We started five years old and played until 80 and we did. It was great.

A good story about that, though. When we bought the business, we didn’t have a lot of money. We had to cut the ice. We had a jeep and a blade. It took us forever to cut the ice and it wasn’t great. The ice wasn’t great afterwards. I called Frank Zamboni in California. I said, “Frank, I got no money but I need a Zamboni to make this thing work,” because every two hours you had to cut ice. He said, “I’m coming to New York and let’s talk.” I met him in New York and talked to him for about an hour on a half, and he sent us a free Zamboni.

He said, “I’m going to make a loan for you in a bank, but I’ll pay the loan. Until you guys get established then you can pay to pay Zamboni you owe.” We kept that Zamboni for years. The best thing we ever did and the best he ever did. Ultimately, we paid it off and he was a friend for a long time until he died. Madison Square Garden didn’t have a Zamboni. I had a Zamboni and Madison Square Garden didn’t have one. They had a union problem. That was just one of the businesses.

I was a policeman. I was a volunteer guy in a small town I lived in. They came to us one day and said, “We don’t want to hire a full-time guy. If you want to be a policeman, you’re already trained.” I said fine. The two other guys and myself became regular policemen. I did that for about 8 or 9 years. All my other things got a little too involved and I had to drop out of it, but it was a good time for all those years. I work from 4:00 to 8:00 at night, 4:00 for 12:00 and 12:00 to 8:00 in the morning on weekends. It was just a small town. One cop on a desk and one or two cars on a road. We did it for a long time. It was a lot of fun and it was interesting.

I met a lot of people. Sometimes not people you want to meet, but it was good, though. I’ve been in a bunch of businesses. I was a rep and I didn’t get a branch from Southern Screw company. There’s only four and I didn’t get one. I saw that it wasn’t going to be for me and it would take too long, so I became a rep then I became a national rep. I had a national rep organization for years. In 1974, it’s the best year we ever had. ‘75 was the worst year we ever had. The country was in a recession. The fastener industry was in a depression. I had to close the national rep organization not because the company didn’t want to pay commission. A lot of companies went out at that time.

They just couldn’t sustain it. I kept thinking, “What am I going to do now?” Around ‘75 and ‘76, my sister-in-law, Mary Ann, who you might know. She became my partner in the magazine. There was no magazine in the industry at the time and we decided a publishing magazine. She and I got together. We partnered up and started Link Magazine. We’ve been doing this for many years publishing magazines. It’s been good for us and good for the industry.

I know what the industry needs and what they’re looking for. They’re looking to train their people and get them more knowledge. That’s what we do. We try to provide that for them. That’s another thing we did and then I saw the aluminum company in the ‘80s. I decided to try that and I built aluminum, which is still going pretty strong. I bought a factory in Detroit. A nut factory, wolverine nut and I know I could get orders. We had plenty of orders. I couldn’t get anybody to work. The crew I had just was terrible.

The industry needs training and knowledge, and that’s exactly what we provide. Share on X

They worked there before and I hired them to work for me. They just were not good workers. I couldn’t hire anybody. I just looked at it and said, “This is not good,” so I closed it down, then I built another factory, stainless steel, threading rod and dolphins. That was going pretty good, too. One day, I bought a finished product while I was paying for the wire. Nobody wanted that product. All of a sudden, imports came in and they took over that business, so I had to close that factory.

There’s been some bad things over the years. I had to close different businesses out. You’re not got the last twenty years and politics in that town changed. They didn’t renew our lease, so we had to get out of that. I ran another rink for another guy for a couple years. We’ve done a lot of things. I kept busy for a long time. I had a football stadium and concession stands and a football stadium. We ran that for a lot of years. It was good.

That was an off-shoot of the hockey rink.

The people we ran a rank for saw we were running it pretty good. They said, “Can you take over the football stadium?” I said sure. It was football season. That’s the only season we had there. That was good.

Who drinks more beer, hockey guys or football guys?

Hockey guys.

I played hockey with a lot of Mohawk Indians. They almost beat us in the drinking category but they were building ambition those days. They play hockey in my ring.

According to legend, it takes them a little less to chief the desired effect.

I don’t know. They were crazy guys. They were high walkers. They were walking on the bridge. They’re good hockey players that could skate. They could shoot and didn’t want to hit you, so it’s good.

How Zamboni Revolutionized Ice Resurfacing

It takes a lot of guts to play hockey in a serious way in those minor leagues. It takes a lot of guts to do a lot of the things that you did and thanks for that summary. It’s an amazing one. I didn’t quite know all those details either, even though I was familiar with some of them. The people reading are going to be very impressed because, let’s face it, everybody in the industry at one point or another, stumbles in the Link Magazine and you said 48 years. Congratulations. I’m looking forward to seeing the stops that you guys pull out for 50. I’m expecting some centerfolds there, by the way, Leo. I don’t know what.

I always wanted to do that but Tracey always says no.

Again, I didn’t say what but I like the way you think. Let me just make sure that I understand this before I ask you about a fastener related question on all that. The Zamboni year. What was that? Do you remember what year it was when you got it?

That was in the early ‘70s and we ran it for twenty years.

That was around the time when the Zamboni was taking the NHL by storm. Is that right?

It was. He was the only guy I came up with a machine in one roll around the ice rink. Madison Square Garden didn’t buy a Zamboni because the union said it’s going to kill jobs because they would have ten guys shoveling the ice between periods and hockey games. Finally, they got a Zamboni. They got two Zambonis.

Every rink in the country now has a similar machine. If it’s not Zamboni, I don’t know what it is but they’re all using machines. They come out and do-little cleanups with shovels and make an entertainment scene out of it here in Cleveland. I’ve been to a few minor league games. They’re a lot of fun.That’s fantastic. You were mentioned in that summary then in the mid-‘70s. In ’74, you had a boom year and in ‘75, it went bust. If my history memory serves, that was just the pre-harder years before everything fell on its ass.

High interest rates and 18% interest rates.

What I want to know is what stage was the offshoring of the fastener industry at that point? That was when the made in Japan movement was starting?

It was before that. Southern Screw used to put a sign in each keg and said, “By American.” I did nothing. They didn’t see what was coming and I don’t think our industry saw it. Imports were coming in. It was a dirty word in those days but the smart guy’s coming. People like Joe McGrath and Cambridge. He’s got a wonderful company now. He’s brilliant. He took over what could have been Southern Screws Marketplace but they had a guy that didn’t respond to imports. Even though it was owned by another company, he fought them on it, so they just closed. They just closed the business.

There were so many manufacturers in those days, even big manufacturers. When they talk about, “Let’s reinvest in the fasteners in the United States.” It’s not going to happen. Nobody’s going to put millions of dollars into a heading plant. First of all, you can’t find anybody to work that knows that product, how to make it. Nobody even wants to or maybe nobody doesn’t want to. The manufacturers are here now and are going to continue to do well. They’ll probably buy more equipment, but they’re not going to build factories like there were then, the big companies.

So many manufacturers closed, and when people talk about reinvesting in U.S. fasteners—it’s not gonna happen. Share on X

It was huge. They just watch it go and take it away from them. That’s what’s happening now with these tariffs. The importers are getting hurt a little bit. We’re all getting hurt a little bit. Not sure where this is going to come down with these tariffs but it’s got to hurt somebody. I know he’s trying to level the playing field for all these countries but at the same time, he’s hurting a small guy, too. Somebody’s got to pay the price for these things. I don’t know how it’s going to unfold.

The Evolution Of Fastener Manufacturing And Imports

Let’s back up a second here. When we were in the early and mid ‘70s, the offshoring was in full force. It started in Japan, at least that was in a lot of people’s minds. Now, it’s centered in China. It’s elsewhere, let’s put it that way. There came a time when the new version of the fastener company was a master importer. What I want to ask you is, when was the high watermark for that from your perspective? In other words, we had a porteous, Heads and Threads and there were others. What was the high watermark? When do you think it was reversed?

It was in the ‘70s and the ‘80s they came on strong. They took over the business and it is now. They own it now, too. You talked about Japan. They didn’t want to make standards anymore. They want to make specials. It went to China and China doesn’t make standers anymore so it goes to another third world country. You see India and Vietnam making all the standard products now. It just keeps going to a third or fourth level country. It’s easy to make. If you ever see those factories over there, the labor is cheap and the prices are cheap, too.

Let me come back to that, though. When do you think was the high-water mark for that master importer?

By the ‘80s, they had taken over. It started in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and by the ‘80s, they owned it.

Who was the first giant to fall?

Rockford products. I represented Rockford. It was one of the best factories I’ve ever seen. They were huge and mostly specials but they made standards too. There’s a lot of them. Even the ones that are left are less than what they were. They had some of the best workers overseeing these factories. They would sit there and teach you as a rep would go in. They will show you how it was being made, how you made it and the quality control was great. There’s still factories in the country here that are doing well but on standard stuff, it’s all imports.

The heyday of the master importers, and I’m talking again when Reynolds was big, Porteous, Heads and Threads. Those must have been great years for Link Magazine.

It was good. They eventually sold those companies off to other people but it was good for us. The whole industry was doing well with it. It’s not just us.

Link Magazine: Behind The Scenes & Writer Recruitment

How did you recruit all the writers that you get for Link?

Tracy knows everybody now. She likes everybody.

Everybody likes her. That’s what it is.

It is. True. She’s a wonderful person. She has a heavy load here. She does everything. I come in and make mistakes.

You’re cracking the whip in the background.

She cries with me. She fixed my errors but we know everybody. We went to this trade. The trade shows were great. We did trade shows, too. Mary Ann and I ran regional trade shows around the country and developed locations. When the Columbus show moved to Vegas, that was big. Maguire and Banister ran a great show. People love going in the early years. They didn’t want to go to regional shows. They went to Vegas, so we stopped doing that. We did that for a number of years. That was fine and fun. It helped the magazine. It helped the industry and the magazine. We had some good shows and good locations.

Do you remember the first year that NIFS was in Vegas?

I don’t remember but Columbus was the place. I don’t know if you ever went to Columbus but it was the place to go for a show and then they got bigger. I don’t know the reason that they left Columbus but they probably tell you. When they moved to Vegas, it got big. It was a good show.

That would have been because Vegas cannibalized Columbus. There just wasn’t enough energy in the industry at that time to keep them both going. It was clear that Vegas was more popular at that stage. I was able to go to Columbus I think the last three years that they had it. Don’t hold me to this but I’m going to guesstimate the last year of Columbus would have been about 2009.

You’re probably right. I don’t remember the exact year, but those were great years in Columbus. They ran a good show. Mike and Bananas know how to run a show. They ran it for a lot of years in Vegas.

Maguire had an American fastener journal. Did you guys always get along or did you butt heads? You were direct competitors.

Mike and I were very good friends then we had a little falling out and we’re friends again. He wanted to do a magazine. He has an idea for a magazine. It wasn’t the same idea I had for mine and he’s been successful with it. He sold it out to Fastener Technology and those guys run it good, too. Even though it’s the same marketplace, it’s a different view. I think we’re more technical. We like technical articles and we strive to get those articles. We do well with it.

I’ll give you an idea. When our magazine comes out, we get 50,000 to 70,000 hits. Bosses tell their people, “Read the magazine. Acknowledge that you’re going to read and you’ll remember because at some point you’re going to be faced with it if you have a customer that has a problem with that.” They do it. They make their people read it.

 

If they’re smart, they do.

They do. It’s almost like reading.

I’m going to ask you again, though. How did you recruit some of your writers? That’s not an easy thing to do. I know trying to get people on the show, some people want to come on, which is great. I appreciate it a lot but there’s a lot of folks that I’d like to get along with for various reasons. They just want to hold that knowledge closer or they just feel like they’re not comfortable sharing it. Do you find that in your business?

No. We shared everything. Why do we try to help people?

What don’t you do? I’m talking about authors that you recruit.

I have great authors. You’ve seen the offices we have. They’re just wonderful people and great writers. When I started, I wrote all the articles in the first year. I would travel to a factory and we’d interview them for an hour and a half or so and I’d write an article about them.

Under your own name?

No. I wrote under about five or six different names. I have some stories about that.

Do you care to share any of those?

We have one writer and we got a complaint on one of the articles. I said to the guy, “I told that guy to not do that thing. I’m going to fire that guy,” so I fired him, which is me. We didn’t use that name anymore. In the early years, it wasn’t easy to get writers. Now, we have wonderful writers. They’re great guys with great knowledge of this fast-paced industry and far better than I’ve ever had.

If somebody submitted an article by Herbert Pingelfinger, would you accept it or would you immediately smell a suit in there?

We’d go in and find out. The thing is, we know everybody. We know just about everybody that writes. I have 30 people I’d like to call and we get the articles we get. Every writer doesn’t write for every issue. You’ve read a couple of my articles and they’re great. We try to keep it to a guy who wants to talk about his own business or try to help guys out starting. We got a couple of inventors for this issue that’s coming out. We try to get people that have something to say about the fastener industry that would be interesting to the distributor out there.

Regarding all the photos that you have in every episode, that’s a big hit. Everybody likes to see their picture in the magazine. When did you start that?

We started at the beginning. In the first magazine, we had pictures. Those days, we had a guy named Louie Van working with us with Marian and I and Tracy came. We all have cameras. That’s what we do. We go to NFTA meetings at the shows and just take pictures of everybody and send them a copy and then use the other copies for the magazine.

In all those years, did you ever get any complaints or did you ever get anybody in trouble inadvertently?

We were very careful about that. I know where the trouble is.

As far as you know.

As far as I know. I know where it is.

I’m surprised to hear you say that but I’m not really. It’s a pretty clean industry. There’s not that much scandal swirling around and believe me. I’ve looked for it and I don’t see much of it. There’s a little but not that much. We don’t air it as a rule.

I don’t need to and I know a lot of it. What’s the point? There’s no point in writing stuff about that. There’s always a scandal if you’re looking for it.

It’s just the way you want to present things and it clicks. Nowadays, we call them clicks. You’re in this media business. It’s a fastener centric media business. That’s what Link is. You’ve been operating in this very rapidly changing environment but you’ve kept the same model. You have a website. You’ve got the digital version of the magazine. Any ideas on the readership digital versus good old-fashioned hard copy these days?

As I said, we’re getting to hit about 50,000 to 70,000 hits every time the magazine comes out on digital. That’s a big time.

The Shifting Landscape Of Fastener Distribution

That’s good for this industry. How many fastener distributors do you think are in North America? Do you have a feel for that?

Around less than 13,000. What we’re seeing is, people are selling their businesses and you see it yourself. People are selling their businesses and businesses are getting bigger but they have bigger operations. Financial people are there. They like to spend. We get that call all the time like, “Do you know who’s for sale? Do you want to sell?” They’re all financial people. A lot of those guys went busted years ago.

They bought distributors and they didn’t have the money to back it up. That was one through our industry. Now, there’s a lot more money out there. People are buying companies. They have money and they’re stronger than they were then. We’ve gone to that period now in our industry where the people wanted to buy distributors and think it’s a great industry. It is, then they get in and screw it up.

For the guy who knows how to do with the right way, do you think they’re still an opportunity for that little guy?

There’s an opportunity now. There’s a lot of people that are reaching an age where they don’t want to own the company anymore. They want to retire. They’re in their 70s and they stayed too long. I’m in my 90s and I stayed too long, but it’s a great industry. I don’t travel anymore but I’m here every day for a portion of a day.

Like me, there’s a lot of people out there that want to sell their companies. They just got to know who they are. You don’t want to turn somebody over to them that doesn’t have the money to back up what they’re trying to buy. I don’t think there’s a lot of cash sales now. Not so much but buying it in the future. You just stock and then the company goes under. You lose everything. That happens a lot here.

 

The Joys Of Retirement And Enduring Friendships

Leo, a few minutes back I wanted to ask you about this but we meandered off. Returning to this idea about when you were playing hockey and you said you had this rink and it was for ages 8 to 80. It reminded me of an old-timer fastener distributor who you may know because he’s from the East. We went back with him to FCH. I’m talking about from American Imperial, Jay Mont. Do you remember him?

I know him well. He’s got a unique company. He’s got thousands of items in stock and he has been around a long time. He knows the industry pretty well. I think he sold the company and is living somewhere in Florida. Hopefully, we’ll get a hold of him shortly. He advertised in a magazine. I don’t know if the new guy is or not, but Tracey deals with the new guy.

I know that he made a sale. He’s still working for the company and I’m not even sure if he’s keeping the name. Bobby Woessner, his key guy, is still there. That was a requirement. I don’t believe they had all their inventory in a database. I think they manage that thing pretty manually. They may have updated that at the time, but Jay and Bobby were a team. What made me think of it again is Jay was playing tennis. I’m not sure if he still is because I haven’t talked to him in a year or so, but he was playing tennis up until his late 80s.

I never played with him but I knew he was a tennis player. I played a lot of tennis back in the day.

Is that right?

I play hockey and tennis.

You were quite the athlete. Do you ever get into any mud racing?

No. I know you do that.

In a way, yes. I’m involved with it, but that’s a whole other animal. Maybe if you were ten years younger, Leo, I’d be actively recruiting you but I’ll give you a pass.

I don’t fly anymore. I don’t get on an airplane anymore. I don’t travel well. My wife doesn’t either. She just turned 90 and she went back to college. She’s going back to get a degree.

Is that right? In what?

For just a degree. General studies. She’s a smart woman and taught me a lot over the years. It’s been a good marriage.

That’s the way to stay young, be athletic up until your late years or for as long as you can. Keep learning. Stay active. Keep your mind and your body active. Unless she’s going for her law degree, then we can talk offline about that, Leo, but good for her.

She just wanted to get a degree. It’s something she always wanted to do. She’s raising kids, grandkids and great-grandkids and is involved with the family. We have a big family. At this moment, she decided to do that. It’s a lot of work. She spends a lot of time on it.

Older students tend to be pretty good students because they take it very seriously.

She called out her professor and said, “What do you mean I didn’t get a 100?” He gave him 92 or something like that. She calls him on it and he’s like, “When I correct this, I’ll upgrade you again.” She said, “I know the answers are right.” Tough student.

I love it. Let’s backtrack again. When we were talking about the beginning of the trade shows. You said you were doing a couple shows. You were doing regional shows when Maguire and Banister started. When Columbus got big, the American Fastener Journal was rocking. You guys were rocking with Link. Were you allowed to even attend those early shows with Link Magazine? How did that all work?

They were both open to us being there and they were competing against me. I wasn’t competing against him. It was good. Banister always runs a good show. Everybody is welcome. He knew how to run a show.

He was ex-military. He ran it like a ship.

He did. He didn’t take any crap from anybody. He was a tough guy but he was good. You know the show was run right when they ran it, both of them.

What was your favorite thing about those shows that is missing from the current crap of shows?

Going to shows and just spending 2- or 3-days meeting people and maybe a golf game thrown in. Those are good times. It is a time to sit, have a drink with a guy or just sit and talk at the booth. You’re going to those booths at 8:00 in the morning and you never stop until they close the shop. People are coming by your booth. It was always busy. Talking was great. That’s what Tracy did. My daughter Jill goes to the shows now and that’s what they do. They just meet people, talk to them and like them. They like them.

I agree, but we still have all those things. Is there anything from the old shows that that’s missing that you think they should bring back?

They have the Hall of Fame thing. I don’t know how that runs now or who runs it. I’m not sure who runs it. That was a good thing.

When did you make it into the Hall of Fame?

In 2014.

I remember that.

That was nice of them to do that. I was a competitor and they still gave me a Hall of Fame, which is great. I appreciated it.

It’s been done pretty fair and square. Those first early years were just Maguire, Banister and I don’t know maybe one or two other guys and a bottle of scotch and they would put a list together but they had to. They get the thing off the ground.

We would contribute the names to a lot of people. We know everybody and who was good, who did something special. In those early years, there were some good guys that went in there. I know there’s a lot of people who still want to get in but they feel that it’s not right to put their own name in.

You can’t lobby for it. It doesn’t look good.

The Birth Of A Sourcing Network: Fastener Clearing House

It’s like going to Augusto. You can’t say, “I want to be a member.”

I’m sure you don’t but I remember the first time I met you. It was at the Vegas show. Brian and I had just launched the FCH sourcing network. It was a fasteners clearing house and we bought it. I believe it was a quarter page ad and I wrote an article. You want to talk about pseudonyms. I used a pseudonym for that first article.

I can’t remember my reasoning behind that trivia question. If you could remember the name that I used, I know you won’t but anyway. I did use a pseudonym and I remember walking up to you. I said, “I’m going to pay this guy for our ad with a check that I’m going to hand to you.” That’s what I did. I walked up to you at the booth and handed you a check in an envelope. That was how we first met.

I don’t remember that but that’s not unusual. A lot of guys did the same thing and we booked a lot of business at those shows.

I bet.

Is your business being a good business now?

Are you asking?

Yes.

It’s on fire. We’re doing things that we never imagined that we’d be doing in ways that we never anticipated. It’s always exciting. It’s hard to watch certain parts of the industry struggling when you’re benefiting. I don’t think we’re taking anything away from anybody. The chaos is helping us because we’re getting inquiries like you can’t believe.

This is happening now.

When you first saw FCH, what was your first reaction? The basic idea in our earliest version wasn’t unique. We were trying it in a slightly different way but did you have any impressions when you first saw it?

We were going to do that. I was going to do that at one point before you did it. I was thinking about doing that in a different way because digitally, we know who the customer was. We know where to get inventory and how to buy the inventory from the people that didn’t want it anymore like surplus inventory but we didn’t. We didn’t go that route. I don’t know why. Maybe I was just busy.

Maybe you took a close look at it and said, “This is a trick bag man. We better steer clear.”

A lot of people wanted to do that or try that. They wanted to get in that business and they didn’t succeed for one reason or another. They went at it the wrong way or I don’t know why they didn’t but you’ve done it right.

Part of it is that we’re not concentrated on surplus or odd stock. That’s a chunk of it now. It’s how we got a toehold but if we were relying on that alone, we would not be where we are, believe me. Do you remember the Manufacturer Fastener World? Manufacturer’s Fastener World up there in Michigan, the giant warehouse.

I don’t know those people but I know of them.

I thought maybe you had some impressions because on anybody, they’re one of the best known at least in the Midwest of a company who just bought a ton of that material. They made a pretty good go of it for a lot of years.

A guy in Chicago did the same thing. I forgot his name. Back in the day, he had surplus inventory and by the end of a run or something. They went out but they don’t do it anymore. They tried. It’s not that it hasn’t been tried. It’s just that they didn’t succeed and a lot of them didn’t succeed. Not the easiest business to be in.

It’s its own animal. That was your idea when you first saw FCH. What did you think when you first learned that there was a show for the fastener industry?

I listen to every one of your episodes.

I’m honored.

They’re good episodes. You get to hear people that you haven’t seen or talked to for a long time. It’s a great show.

I appreciate that. Do you have any memorable episodes?

Not that I want to bring up now, anyway. A lot of times, the memory fades on me. I’m doing alright. In the past, when I was so active around the country. I go to all these manufacturers and I know everybody and it’s sad that the end is coming. My faster end is coming in. That’s life, but we got good people here. Mary Ann left a great daughter here, Tracy. Mary Ann passed away years ago and she was great. Tracy’s even better.

The Future Of Fasteners: AI And New Opportunities

Before we close out, we were talking at the beginning of the conversation about harder times and we’ve been through so many changes. You were telling me offline that you see some changes ahead and you have a few ideas about what the fastener industry might look like as we are going down this road, at least a few hunches, let’s say. Care to share any of those?

On the supply side, those guys are going to get bigger and bigger. They’re buying up companies and getting bigger. That’s a change. They’re going to get stronger and they could do a pretty good job. Whether the financial people own them or are going to sell them, I don’t know but these companies are looking pretty good.

Do you see any specific opportunity areas for guys who may be reading and they’re hungry to go off on their own?

If it did, I’d start it myself. There’s always opportunities. You got to see what your market is. When I started these companies, I looked at the market and said, “Who’s in the market? Who’s doing what? Can I be better?” I work harder. Can I work hard and be better than them? Some didn’t work out and some did. I had a pretty good life in the fastener industry. I don’t know what I would do now if I were a young guy in this business. I don’t know what I would do or where I would go or where this tariff is going to leave us. What’s going to happen? Distribution is going to be as strong as it’s been. I think it will be but will it be down in the future? Who knows?

There are always opportunities—you just have to look at the market and ask, can I be better? Share on X

Have you given any thought to this whole AI movement? Is that a world that you pay any attention to?

I do. I bought books to read it and I’m still confused. On one hand, it’s a wonderful thing and on the other hand, it’s a dangerous thing. As you know, with AI, you can get anything you want. You want an article, you get an article. You’re stealing from your own writers. I would never do that. This AI is going to be something else.

They claim that pretty soon we only work two days a week. That gives people like me an opportunity to be a winner again because I worked ‘till 5 to 6 days a week and so will a lot of other people. With AI, I don’t know where it’s going to go. It’s scary. It scared somebody like me. I saw an ad. Not in the fastener industry. They had the guy made up all on AI like real people but they weren’t real. You got to worry about that.

We’re the publisher of a magazine and it would shock me if you hadn’t received a few articles that you take a look at and you say, “Something’s not right with this.” You come to realize this whole thing was created by AI. Has that happened to you yet?

No, it hasn’t because I know my writer. I know the people who write and they can do that. They are the people they just steal from. They’re not going to do that. They’re wonderful writers. They have a talent that’s unbelievable. I don’t see that happening. I’ve seen enough articles from AI that it’s not right. I haven’t gotten any yet, though.

If there are any young aspiring fastener authors out there, the message from Leo is, don’t send any AI for the moment. Is there anything that you are looking for? Be it organically generated or maybe just a touch of AI, let’s say.

I’m always looking for good technical articles. I love technical articles. As long as I can back up the guy who wrote it or the company that is about it, I’m publishing it. I seek technical articles all the time and I get them. There’s always something new coming around.

Should the young aspiring authors for the previously mentioned guys, regard that as an open door to submit to you if they’ve got anything?

Absolutely. We’re always looking for good stuff. Always looking for good articles. We have great writers as I said before. When I get an article, I look at it, check and see where it came from and who it is. If it’s good, I’ll put it in.

Do you ever reject articles?

Yes. The self-serving guys who are not doing the right thing. I just throw them away.

Good to know. How do people get a hold of you, Leo?

They know us. It’s (800) 356-1639. Give us a call. I’d love to talk to anybody.

That’s so hardcore old school. I love that, but LinkedIn would be another way, right?

LinkedIn and our email addresses. There are several ways. If people are interested, they know how to get a hold of us. I like to talk to people and I like them to call me then we can go from there.

I appreciate you talking to me now, Leo. I appreciate you listening to every episode of Fully Threaded. I didn’t know that but I’m honored.

It’s good stuff. The show is great. It’s great for our industry, too. If people listen to it, they’ll learn something.

Leo Coar, you’re the publisher of Link Magazine. You’ve had a lot of different lives in the fastener industry. I wish you many more and I appreciate you being here.

Thank you, Eric, and let me be on your show. I love it. I’ll be talking to you.

Talk to you next deadline.

 

Important Links

• Leo Coar on LinkedIn
• Leo Coar on X
• Distributor’s Link Magazine