Special Report: Fastener Fair '24

The biggest fastener industry event of the spring, Fastener Fair USA ’24 rocked Cleveland, was a huge success and a boatload of fun! The lovely and talented Lynn Dempsey hit the show floor with her mic in hand: Jason Baines, Lee Parker, Bob Chiricosta, Mallory Nichols, John “Cool Hand” Butler, Hans Fuller, Lonni Kieffer, Boris Elbaum, Marty Nolan, Kevin Chavis, Henning Cybulski, Jake “Valdez” Davis, Dustin Henderson and many more!

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Special Report: Fastener Fair ’24

Fastener Fair Dates And NCFA Distributor Social

There was a good crowd as Fastener Fair USA 2024 wrapped up in Cleveland. Eric Dudas here with you. It’s the Fully Threaded Radio Special Report. We’re wrapping up Fastener Fair for you. Hard to believe it’s all over. It was May 22nd and 23rd, 2024. The beautiful city, the great weather we had, the complimentary coffee, and fully carpeted hall didn’t hurt.

It was the people of the fastener industry that made it the success it was. The lovely and talented Lynn Dempsey was on the show floor talking to as many of them as she could. We’ve got a couple of montages to share with you on this Special Report. The conversations you’re going to read spell it out pretty clearly. There was a lot of business getting done out there. There was a lot of fun being had.

The North Coast Fastener Association had a major success holding their annual Distributor Social aboard the Goodtime III cruise ship the night before the show opened. That was just a whole lot of fun, a boatload of fun, if you will. NCFA President Mike Robinson tells me they had just about 400 people aboard. A big salute to the NCFA Board for pulling that one off. Let’s jump right into some of this. We’ll talk a little bit more about what went down at the 2024 Fastener Fair USA.

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We are at Fastener Fair opening day. I’m here with Kenneth Damiao, LRKD Industries in New York. We were talking about Fully Threaded Radio and Kenneth had some great things to tell us. Could you tell our readers?

Learning About The Fastener Industry And Business Expansion

I’m just starting off in the industry. I’m a family-owned business. I’m looking to learn a lot more about the industry. Fully Threaded Radio is a very good resource for me and a good way to pass time when I’m driving. I learned a lot from the Action Jackson episode. I learned a lot about sales. It’s very inspirational to me. As somebody that’s just starting off, there’s not as many mentors for me to go to directly. Having an online resource is a good way to dip my foot in the water.

Brian, Eric, and Action Jackson is going to be going nuts. Tell me a little bit about your company. What are you doing?

We started off as a steel fabricator and erector. We’re a TC bolt distributor. We do hex bolts. We’re moving towards threading B7 studs and different sorts of products around the same realm. I’m trying to expand the business more towards the construction supply. Rivets, screws, more structural bolts, and some custom fabrications in that realm.

What are you hoping to do at the show? Are you just looking at competition? Are you finding suppliers? What are you doing?

I would say all of the above. The main thing is to learn. I want to learn a lot more about the industry. This is my second show. I came to a show in 2023. I’ve been going to international shows since 2022. This is the first time I’m at a show and I have a little bit more knowledge. Before it was blindly showing up, taking business cards, looking at catalogs. Here, I have some agenda, so to say. I definitely am looking to learn a lot.

The main thing about this show is learning and gaining a deeper understanding of the industry. Share on X

Good luck.

Thank you very much. Listen to Fully Threaded Radio.

I just finished an education seminar with Andrew Green on AI for Fastener Distributors. Guess who I’m here with?

I’m Joe Thomas from LMC.

I’m Jeremy Neill, also from LMC.

They were here for the entire seminar. Tell me what you thought, folks.

Applying AI To Fastener Distribution

It was great. I don’t know a lot about AI. I didn’t realize that there were multiple categories of AI and how we can apply it to distribution. I feel like I have a good understanding of how we can apply AI to distribution and help our customers.

We work for LMC, as I said, which is a national buying cooperative for independently owned building material locations across the United States. We have members in every state, about 1,800 locations. The varying degree for which they bring technology in is quite extreme. We have some people that use CRMs, ERPs. We have some that are very much old-school with AS400s and stuff like that. Just him talking about the different scales and availability and explaining AI better was very productive.

Enjoy your time here at the show. You’re walking the show and good luck with the coop.

Thank you very much.

I found one of our favorite people here over at Goebel.

I’m Christian.

You had some things that you wanted to tell me about that’s new over here at Goebel. What are they?

We just launched a new product line. It’s our Duo-Lock and S-Lock. It’s a structural blind rivet part. That’s the newest product feature that we have at this show. We also brought on Mike Derenne as our new sales engineer. We’re pretty excited about that.

I saw you on the boat. North Coast had a boat ride there. What did you think?

It was great. A lot of people, a great venue, a great little cruise on the lake.

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This is Lynn and this is “Meet the Neighbors.” Here’s my neighbor.

Boris Elbaum, owner of company called Mr. Washerman.

Boris is a character. We’ve had great fun with Boris as our neighbor here. Your booth’s been busy all the time.

You see we’re doing this all for fun. Money is sub-product. If we’re doing this right, the sub-product is big. If we’re not doing it right, nobody comes. Nobody wants to see you. How are you going to make money?

That’s true. Your booth has been busy. How’s the show been for you?

The Philosophy Of Making A Pitch, Not A Sale

Excellent. The whole purpose of the show is not to make a sale, but to make a pitch. Nobody buys from you when you want to sell. Everybody buys from you when they want to buy. What you need to do? You need to make it in a such a way that they remember you. Make a pitch. Enjoy the time. Communicate with people. Smile. Make happy people around you. People love to be happy. That’s it.

The whole purpose of the show is not to make a sale, but to make a pitch. Share on X

The chocolates help, too.

Chocolates help big time. That’s how we retain customers. They take chocolate and then they come back for chocolate.

We’ve been at your booth a lot.

See? That works.

Tell us about the company.

The company’s been in existence since 1966. It used to be in the City of Los Angeles, California under the name of Del Smith Manufacturing. In 2006, I bought it out and in 2023, I moved it to Houston, Texas. My personal background is more from stamping process. Not from the fasteners. The company, they’re making washers. It’s basically a stamping process. We start to gravitate more to all kinds of custom stamping just because it’s my background. I know how to do it. That’s what I can sell. That’s all.

We’re doing that. We’re probably more a custom stamping company than the washer company. We do still a lot of washers keeping in mind one thing that we do special washers. If it’s a catalog washer, that’s not about us. There is a lot of guys who are doing that. When it’s somehow strange, it’s a strange material, a strange dimension, and a strange configuration. It’s not a washer at all, but can be stamped. That’s us.

That’s you. As I said, you had a lot of customers. There must be a lot of strange stuff out there.

The world is filled completely with strange stuff. It just seems to us that it’s filled with the standard stuff. Not at all. Why? We are all different and we love to be different. We’re using different things for different things.

That’s a great way to say it. It was very nice meeting you and having you as our neighbor.

It’s totally mutual. It was a pleasure. That’s probably the most important part of the show. It’s got to be pleasant. What’s the pleasure? People don’t have more pleasure than pleasant communication. That’s our biggest pleasure.

People don’t experience greater pleasure than meaningful communication. That’s our greatest joy. Share on X

I’m walking the Fair and I’m here with?

I’m Jeremiah Alexander with AnchorBoltExpress.com.

I understand this is your first time exhibiting here at Fastener Fair.

Anchor Bolt Express Exhibits For The First Time

It sure is. It’s going well. We’ve had a lot of people come up and talk to us. We are a full machine shop. We also run an e-commerce platform that sells stock anchor bolts to small contractors all over the country. We make 1/2 inch to 2 1/4 inch anchor bolts that we can ship in one to two business days.

Sounds like a plan. I hope you have a good show. You’re here tomorrow also, right?

Yes.

Have a great show.

Thank you very much.

I’m walking down aisle one here. How’d you get one? I’m here with Kevin Chavis with Star Stainless Screw, a division of LindFast Solutions Group. How’s the Fair going?

It’s going well. The attendance has been good. It’s been nice to see everybody.

What’s going on with you guys?

Things have been good. The industry’s bee solid. Everybody’s optimistic about what’s going on in the world. We’re getting through this.

The FDI was 51.6 or something like that. Would you agree with that or are you up higher?

That’s about right. All’s good.

Any new products coming out?

We’ve added a ton of products. We’ve added rivets and hose clamps. We’re in the middle of adding some other things. More to be announced.

Thank you. I’m here with John Butler from Martin Supply.

Located out of headquarters in Florence, Alabama. I’m located in Panhandle of Florida. Relocated, she said.

John and I just attended the seminar on Ask the Experts. Our experts were?

Carmen Vertullo and Laurence Claus.

Being on the edge of the fastener industry, some of the time I didn’t know what the heck they were talking about. There were so many initials. I’m leaving this to you. Go ahead. Tell the audience here because they’ll know more than me what was asked or talked about.

Technical Specifications And Fastener Education

I can get to that, Lynn. First, I want to say congratulations on 200 episodes. It’s a lot of recordings. A lot of people you guys have talked to. We value what you guys bring to our industry. That’s fantastic.

Thank you.

You’re welcome. I appreciate you guys. It was a very good session. What was discussed? What is going on with ASTM, ASME? The different specifications that are out there ISO, IFI, and DIN. There was a lot of questions about how are things changing from DIN to ISO. Do they think DIN is going to go away? How do we make specifications? Who can be involved with the different groups to make changes within our industry?

It was very interesting. For me, this all comes back to education and talking about why we’re here. When you bring other people to the show that have never been to a show before, you’re bringing them here to learn about our industry and learn products that are out here. I come out here and I still learn parts. I’m getting a little gray, a little older, but we continually learn.

That’s what it comes back to. For me, it’s learning about different specifications, what we need to be aware of. I came up about how long do you need to bake product to truly get hydrogen out of a product. There were some softballs thrown out there for them to talk about. There was even maybe a difference of opinion, shall we say, when it comes to certain parts for screws and for plastics.

It’s a great session to attend because you’re going to learn different things. Even though you have two experts up there, they’re going to differ on opinions. It doesn’t mean one’s right or one’s wrong, but it’s an opinion. We come here to get these types of opinions on what are going on. Carmen does a great job with the Fastener Training Minute with you guys.

Mike McNulty, another one, he gets out there. He talks to people that are taking care of our industry. Let’s go over the FDI and talking about what’s going on. That’s how we learn things. Get involved. Get out here to associations. The other session that I attended was, “What have you learned that you wish you knew back then?”

It was Craig Penland, Heidi Volltrauer, and Robbie Gilchrist. What that came to again, it came down to train your people. Remember Ed Lacerra, who was a rep at a Kriscot Sales. He’s gone from us. Ed came in and taught me fasteners. I didn’t go out there, wasn’t able to go to cold headers all the time, and see all these different products or how they’re made. He brought those to us. That’s what’s one of my takeaways here. It’s, again, education. Bring your people to these shows.

Nice talking with you, John.

You too, Lynn. You take care.

We’re over here at the booth. Josh Winkler from Eurolink brought us over.

I’m Henning Cybulski from Eurobolt in the Netherlands.

Why did you come over?

I came over because we do have such a good relation with Eurolink. They visited us with the Fastener Fair in Stuttgart so often. For us, it was the time to say, we have to come over and to see the US market and making some some new network.

Josh, why did you bring Henning over?

Henning mentioned that he rides his bicycle to work every day and listens to the Fully Threaded Radio. I just thought it would be cool to bring him over to let him know that the Fully Threaded Radio has reached foreign countries. I’m sure it’s in many, but I wanted him to have a chance to meet you guys.

Is there anything we should add?

I can’t say yet. That would be something I could take with me. I would let you know.

Thank you for stopping over. Thank you for bringing him up.

Thank you for the show.

I’m here with Baron Yarborough of KT Bolt. Tell me about it.

KT Bolt is right outside of Houston, Texas. We’re a hot header. We make structural bolting. We do A325, A490 and get into some stainless 304 and 316. We’re running hex bolts from 1/2 inch up to three-inch diameter. They’re real big boys.

Tell me about Birmingham. I’m here with Lee Parker.

Birmingham makes headed bolts, hot and cold. We make anything threaded and bent without a head on it. We service the waterworks industry, structural market, and metal building industry.

Is Baron behaving over at KT Bolt?

Never. He’s doing a fantastic job.

That’s good. We’re just checking on you.

They’re lying for me over here.

How’s the show going?

The show was going great. It slowed down a little bit this afternoon. We had some good flow, meeting with some great customers. There’s a good amount of distributors out here who made the drive. I always want to see more of them, but it’s a good show. The North Coast Fastener Association knocked it out of the park last night with their cruise.

The ride was fantastic.

Way better than just going to a bar and drinking with buddies. We got to be on the water drinking with buddies.

I agree with you.

They did a fantastic job with the tour. It was awesome.

The Rock Hall of Fame tonight is going to be great.

That was awesome the last time we did it. It’s going to be awesome this time.

You’ll find me in the museum because it’s a little bit loud for me.

I’ve never been. I’m excited to go.

Stainless Steel Shortage And Economic Outlook

It’s a great museum. Great, we’ll see you. I’m sitting down here with Hans Fuller, Fuller Metric. You attended the panel discussion on the state of the industry.

We had a junior from Star there. He was talking about little microeconomics. He was talking about stainless steel and that there is a bit of a shortage. Again, nickel prices are going up, not because of lack of demand only because of speculation of risks. Stainless is going up again. It went down for a while. They’re not sure where it’s going to go, but it’s going up.

Fully Threaded Radio | Fastener Fair 2024 — Fastener Fair 2024: Nickel prices are rising, driven less by demand and more by speculation and risk concerns. Stainless steel prices are climbing again after a brief decline, and the market remains uncertain about where they’ll go next.

We had a couple of diverging opinions about where things are going. From BBI, his outlook was very much things are okay. They’re going to maybe slow down a little bit, but it’s going to be waves. It’s going to be up and down. It’s going to be not such a big deal. The sky’s not falling. We got into a little bit about the long term. It got into the bigger picture with the US economy and just printing of the money. Eventually, the debt will end up catching up.

From Kerr Lakeside, Mr. Charlie Kerr, I wouldn’t say he is a prepper. Basically, from some of the guys he’s listened to that said, “Within ten years, something big is going to come.” His idea is going to have lots of inventory and not much cash on hand because you’re going to potentially lose money. If inflation goes high, you’re going to lose money.

If you have inventory, then you’re not going to because that’s going to keep its value as things go up. There was a bit of opinions whether that’s going to happen or not happen, depends on who you listen to. In the short term, everybody had the feeling things are getting softer. We’re still not through burning up of inventory at our distributors or even the end users, except probably the A items.

The very common things that we all use every day, that’s flushed out. We’re back to normal stocking levels. Jun felt that. He says for the C’s and the D’s item, these things you might have another ten years of stuff because everyone overbought so much. We’re going to see a bit of that still going to be with us for a while.

I’m here with Jake Davis from BTM.

Lynn, good to see you again.

He’s walking the show, which is something new.

A little bit new. I walked Nashville in 2023 as well. I just want to show support for Fastener Fair in behalf of Mid-West Fastener Association. It had been a while since I’ve seen any of my fastener friends. I needed to get out and see them for a bit.

Your fastener fix. You’ve put on these shows and everything and then you’re experiencing. Tell me how it is.

It’s been good. We’re Wednesday afternoon, so the lunch crowd hasn’t come back yet. It was very busy. We had some mixed reviews early on. Everybody that I’ve talked to, just asking, feel like a good amount of people in the aisles, good conversations, and pretty busy on day one.

That’s great. We’ve been very busy at our booth and we’re at the end. The crowd went through all the aisles.

It certainly takes a while, depending on where you’re at. I asked Nick Penny of Vogelsing who he paid to get his booth because it was row one, primo spot. He didn’t elaborate.

I can investigate that. I’ll see Bob tomorrow. I could find out how that goes. We’re from the Mid-West, so I have to ask. What’s going on with MWFA?

We had a great year so far. We feel like we’re just hitting our stride. It’s starting to get busy. We’ve got the Screwed Up Open. We’re excited about an event that we’re going to have in Milwaukee, July 11th, 2024 in the afternoon. The Brewers game. We haven’t been back to Milwaukee in some time. We felt a great opportunity for our fastener friends, suppliers, distributors to maybe cut out early on a Thursday afternoon. Go watch some baseball with all your fastener friends. We’re excited for that event.

It’s a nice stadium there. The Brewers, you’re talking to a Cubs fan here.

No opinions given here on any baseball teams. We love all of them. That’s what we’ll just say.

I am here with Mallory Nichols with Advanced Components.

Young Fastener Professionals Panel Takeaways

My name is Craig Beatty. I’m the President of the Young Fastener Professionals.

Craig here happened to run a panel. What was the panel?

We hosted a panel with Robbie Gilchrist, Heidi Volltrauer, and Craig Penland on the topic of what they wish they knew when they first entered the industry.

You were running around with the microphone for the audience and everything.

I was feeling very Vanna White running around with a microphone. “You next, then next you.” We had a ton of questions. It went by quickly. By the end, I was having to say, “This is the last question. We have no more time.”

What did you learn from your panels?

Robbie Gilchrist had a great tidbit on just the importance of face-to-face interactions and continuing the networking. Now, there’s a lot more Zoom calls, a lot more virtual communication. To keep attending the trade shows and how important it is to have the person-to-person interactions. Craig Penland had a great take on being an early adapter of technology. He did an anecdote about he wished he had paid more attention in this typewriting class. How that lack of investment in time there still translates. It was very applicable to all the evolving technology. You don’t know where it’s going to go but it’s important to learn it while it’s being introduced.

Even with the rise of Zoom calls and virtual communication, nothing replaces the value of face-to-face interaction. Trade shows remain essential for building real, lasting connections. Share on X

Here’s my question for you. I had typewriting class too. I did pay attention, Craig. Did you guys have it? They probably called a keyboard.

It was a basically we had a computer class. You would do the amount of words per minute. We would simultaneously learn cursive in elementary school and typing. One of those panned out.

You’re going to sound just like us in a few years.

We’re aging ourselves, Craig.

What do you have planned for the young professionals?

I’ll be attending a lot of the Pac-West events which are original to obviously the West Coast. Our next event will be officially the IFE in Las Vegas, September 9th, 10th, and 11th. We usually try to do something special and make our booth a little different each year. In 2023, we had professional headshots. We’re still honing in on what 2024’s going to be. The programs we have moving forward are going to be exciting. I hope to develop the new entrance.

As past president, you’re on the Board. You like stepping back or are you both feet in?

I’m stepping back a little bit because we have a few new people on the Board. I want to give them the chance to step in and take over some things. I’m helping with social media still. Anything they need from me, I’m happy to do. I’m always here. We were talking all three together, including Jake. We were saying it’s just so fun still to do all this stuff, do the events, and be involved. I’m happy to stay involved as long as I can.

For your first panel thing, you did a very good job. I was very impressed.

I was a little nervous. I haven’t done a presentation since I graduated college in 2014. I was very relieved to see that the microphone was attached to the podium. I didn’t have to worry about what to do with my hands.

Before we end this, give a shout out to the company you work for.

I work for Bay West Fasteners out of Kent, Washington. I’ve been working there for about ten years. I will be for the foreseeable future. Thank you.

Thank you.

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You get the idea. There was strong traffic this year at Fastener Fair. Day two as well. That surprised a lot of people. Although, not Bob Chiricosta. We’ll hear from him when we queue up this next package of sound. It was a very well-attended Fastener Fair. You also heard some commentary about the breakout sessions. They were surprisingly strong as well. We’ll hear more about that coming up.

I hope to package a couple of those sessions separately in future Fully Threaded Radio shows. I’ll get them out there in one form or another. I was very glad to have those captured for posterity. I’d to thank everybody who stopped by the FCH Sourcing Network booth during Fastener Fair. We did a brisk business and said hi to a lot of people.

Brian gave away a surprising number of pens. Some of you got the message and coerced him into that. He did a good job of that, as he always does. We had great neighbors. We always enjoy getting to know them. You’ve heard from a couple so far. You’ll hear from one or two more in a few moments. We saw so many of the sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio.

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

Good to see most of you out there, guys. Thanks for keeping us going. We’re going to keep going in just a minute with more from Lynn. I’ll just say again that the second day traffic surprised a lot of people. It was very strong compared to many shows where it tails off. A lot of times. it’s just the exhibitors talking to one another. That has a lot of value as well. These shows are always valuable.

This time, it was just very nice to see more distributors piling in. There were also some extracurricular activities that were happening with Fastener Fair including a second day excursion to Brighton Best. Most of you will remember that BBI opened its massive expanded facility here in Cleveland. If you haven’t gotten out there yet, make sure you see it eventually.

It’s something to behold. A little bit less publicized, we had a pre-Fastener Fair barbecue out in the country. We’ll be talking more about that later. Didn’t make too big of a deal out of this because I knew a lot of people wouldn’t be able to attend it. Being on a Monday and many people coming in from out of town. Again, we’ll talk about it some more later.

I want to say here that we had a little disc golf competition during the barbecue. It was a fundraiser for the Sleep in Heavenly Peace Bed Build. We did raise a few hundred bucks. I’ll congratulate the big winner of that competition. That was from Würth Industry Vince Dimora. Home town boy wins big. It was a pretty dramatic, sudden death conclusion to that competition too. It was a lot of fun. We’ll talk about it later.

Those extracurriculars, including the NCFA boat ride and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame party are the things that make these events exciting. The fastener industry knows how to make the best of them. Let’s jump into the second montage featuring the lovely and talented Lynn Dempsey out and about on her show interviews at Fastener Fair USA 2024.

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From their busy schedule, I’ve got Bob and Blanca here. They’re going to talk about Fastener Fair and how’s it going and everything. I think it’s going great. Do you guys agree?

This is Bob Chiricosta. We’re in the middle of Fastener Fair here in Cleveland. This has been our biggest show ever as far as attendance goes. We’ve had the most people attending. The aisles have been crowded. The exhibitors are very happy. We had our networking party at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was a huge success.

Everybody was thrilled with that and had a great time there. It’s a terrific venue. Our exhibitors are very happy with the show floor and the crowds we’ve had. They’re happy with the venue and the city. Cleveland’s done a great job to support us and be here. Blanca, why don’t you tell us about some of the new things on the show floor?

Fastener Fair Attendance And Future In Nashville

I’m Blanca Delgado. I’ve just taken over for Bob halfway through the show calendar. It started in January. We did end up doing a few new things like the loyalty program lounge, which we will continue for next year. Anybody who has come to this show and then goes to the next show in Nashville, we will give them a whole new pin. There’s all these pins that you can collect every time you come to a fastener show. One of the other thing, we partnered up with a lot of different engineering companies, associations to send out information about our show. Hopefully, that brings up a little bit more value to attend to the events.

Given your vision of future shows and she’ll be running them. Bob here is retiring. How do you envision? What are you hoping for?

I’m hoping that Fastener Fair becomes an event that the full fastener supply chains comes to. This is a one-stop-shop where you can see your distributors. You can see your exhibitors. You can see how to fix a solution on a design that you have if you needed a different type of new technology or anything like that. This is the must-attend event to come to.

Bob, we were talking about the Rock Hall of Fame. Bob led a group of us into the secret theater or whatever. Tell us about that.

It’s not a secret. They have a great show there that’s a compilation of clips from all of their induction ceremonies. It’s one superstar after another, after another. It’s too short. It’s only fifteen minutes long. You don’t want it to end. You want to keep going. That was one highlight. The whole place was terrific. We like to do a good networking party at all of our events. We know that in the fastener industry, people like to get together. They like to have a good time. They want to socialize. They want to network. They want to meet with their customers, friends, even with meet with their competitors.

The people in the fastener industry are like none other. They like each other. Even direct competitors will get along and be happy to go have a drink together. That’s one of the real highlights of me working in the fastener industry. Blanca is going to be taking over the show. She’s been with us for five years. As a perfect person, I’m happy to have her take Fastener Fair into the future once I leave in July.

Happy retirement. I retired in 2023. I’m happy. You’re going to be happy. You’ll just have to come and walk the shows. You won’t have any obligations.

That sounds good to me. That’s what we’ll do. This has been a great show. We’re back in Nashville 2025. We’re excited about that. We poll people. We listen to people. We do surveys. We bring the show to where people want it. People said before, they want to go to Nashville. We were able to do that. After our show in 2023in Nashville, the demand was, “You got to go back.”

We are going back to Nashville in 2025 and looking forward to that. I can tell you that the rebookings have been tremendous already. We only started booking that show. I don’t know of one exhibitor that’s here that hasn’t said they’re definitely coming back to Nashville. That looks like it’s going to be our biggest show ever.

We love Nashville and Cleveland’s good. We’re in Cleveland all the time, but Nashville.

I want to say one last thing. I want to thank all of our associations. We have a lot of association partners in the industry. They’ve done a tremendous job for us. We appreciate them. I’m not going to name them all off, but there’s thirteen of them. They do a tremendous job. We work through the Fastener Coalition who helps us manage it all. A shout out to them for the job they did to help us with our show.

Thanks so much for everything.

It’s the second day of the show. You can tell that we’re not open yet because you don’t hear all the rumbles and everything. I stopped by one of our favorite companies. This is E-Z LOK Threaded Inserts. I’m talking to Kyle Lindsly-Roach, director of sales and marketing. Where’s Steve? It’s our big question.

Steve is he’s at home in Gardena, enjoying spending time in California. Not having to be at trade shows all the time. We’ll see him in Vegas. The show’s been good. Day 1 had good traffic. We got a lot of good potential leads and talked to lot of potential customers as well as existing customers. Overall, it was a good day of the show.

I understand that you took the training class.

I took the training class through the Fastener Training Institute. I thought it was a good overall class. They covered topics mainly on the cost drivers of manufacturing fasteners. I thought it was a great addition to my education. I took the Certified Fastener Specialist training course in 2023 and passed that. This was a good tie into that. Laurence Claus did a great job in the training. The second part of the training was on lightening up EVs and fasteners and how that all plays into each other. Overall, it was a good class to take.

There’s only one little thing you would change. There was a little time crunch?

The only thing I would change is just the scheduling of classes so that those who are working in exhibit are able to fully experience the classes. Other than that, I think it was great.

Did you go to the Rock Hall of Fame?

I went there. That was a very cool event. I’d never been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was cool to be able to walk around, see it and also interact with a lot of industry colleagues. Made some new friends and saw some familiar faces. That was a great overall show and party.

It’s the second day. I’m over here with Jason Baines of JLanFranco Fasteners. Any thoughts or impressions?

Cleveland rocks. Awesome show. Met lots of people. The high point by far was seeing Eric Dudas from FTR get up on the stage and rock out.

How about it? I always knew Eric could rock out, but I knew him in his young days.

My only comment for Eric is undo the big ponytail next time. Let that hair just just rock out with you, get that mane flowing in the air next time. It was awesome.

Eric’s going to love this. Give me a little thing what’s happening over here.

We’re doing great. We’ve continued to expand our warehousing and product offerings. We met a lot of people, so excited about that. We’re in an area with some new partners. We got WTC, SmartCert and INxSQL so we teamed up with them. They’re going to take us out for a stiff drink because we’re going to implement the new ERP and everything. I’m sure despite their best effort, we’re going to be lost and curse them.

You’ve got some good drinking buddies there with Lonnie, Lyndon and Rob in the gang. I’m here with one of our favorites.

Lonnie Kiefer from SmartCert.

How’s the show?

It’s excellent. I was excited yesterday. It was a steady flow, great questions, some new faces, some old faces. We’ve had customers, prospects, spent a lot of time with some great people.

How about entertainment?

It was a delight. I didn’t realize that Tim Vath of Solution Industries was a rock star. That was super fun to see. He and his band were a nice compliment to the venue. The music selection was great for the attendees.

Did you know Tim’s brother was also there?

Tim and Tom on the drums, correct?

The two T’s.

It was neat. I know that there are, I started asking around too. Are there other rock stars in the fastener industry? I know Craig from Nylok has a lot of experience there. It was great to see another side of someone we all know.

It’s day two. I’m at the show and it’s “Meet the Neighbors.” Who are our neighbors? Across our way is Jim Hauck from AJD Holding Company. Tell me what AJD does.

We are an umbrella company that owns five different manufacturers involved in plastic injection, molding, machining and stamping, twisted in wire brushes company. A solid rivet manufacturer for ships and rail cars. Finally, a wire company that manufactures safety wire and lock wire for aircraft, jet engines, and use in the aerospace industry.

Your table’s not that big. Tell me how business-wise, first quarter, how’s everything going?

Challenge Of Finding Workers For Manufacturing

Great. We are swamped. One of the biggest issues we have is trying to find good people to work in manufacturing. It’s very tough and still is.

One of the biggest challenges we face is finding good people to work in manufacturing. It’s still very tough. Share on X

Your five companies are throughout the US. Do you have troubles with every region?

Pretty much, but most of our companies are here based in the Cleveland area of Ohio. Our one company that we have in Deltran is in Massachusetts. The same thing out there. A lot of machines are automated, but you still have to have people to run them.

Hopefully we’ll have a great day too. Thank you, neighbor. It was a good day one. We’re going to rock and roll. I’m over here at BBI. I’m looking for George, Steve, Rosa. They’re not here. I have Dustin Henderson from the Salt Lake branch. You’re running the show. How come?

BBI Warehouse Expansion And New Product Lines

All the important people are over manning the warehouse that we’ve got. We opened up to almost 500,000 square feet. The B crew is running the show here.

How’s the show been?

It’s been good. We’ve had a lot of people in the booth. Day one was full of people coming to look and see what we have to offer. Day two has been a pretty full booth as well, considering it’s day two of the show and half the crews at the other branch. It’s been a good show.

Is this your first Fastener Fair?

This is my second Fastener Fair that I’ve attended. I came to the 2023 in Nashville and it’s a real good turnout.

What have you been doing for fun during the fair?

Day one, setting up the booth and then we went and caught a Guardians game. The next day we went and rode the boat out there across the lake. We also attended the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

How was that?

It was more interesting than I thought that it would be. There was a lot of people I haven’t heard of before that was in there. A lot of new people that I can’t believe made the Hall of Fame already. It’s pretty cool.

Everyone has that impression. “I don’t know who this is. Wow, he made it?” Very good. Let’s get to business. How’s BBI? What’s happening here?

We’re always looking to expand new product lines, getting into the hose clamps, brass, silicon, bronze, looking to expand our stainless steel line. More gloves are being developed. We’re over 200 different gloves. Just making sure that the warehouses are stocked and services are all taken care of to provide fasteners to the customers in the industry.

All you have to do, what’s left, is just finish the day and break down the booth.

We’ll be taking down the booth. We’re going to go out to dinner tonight as a group and enjoy the last day together.

Cleveland’s been good, too?

We like Cleveland. It’s a good location. This is my first time being here. I’ve had a good time.

Thank you.

No problem.

Lynn’s wandering around and in our aisle at the corner we have Patrick, Pat Mooney Saws in Austin. Tell me what this is that I’m looking at. I’m looking at this big yellow thing.

It is a horizontal bandsaw for cutting threaded rod or bar.

What’s special about it than other blade saws?

We replace a lot of people are using abrasive like chop saws, which is a more dangerous process. This is a safer way to cut it. It cuts it almost as fast and it’s cleaner.

Is it lacing?

No, it’s a blade. It’s a bandsaw blade. It’s not burning through the material so abrasive. A lot you’re burning more through the material so it gives you a more crooked cut.

Where can we find you, if anybody’s interested?

You can find us at PatMooneySaws.com.

Thanks. Everybody, I’m over here at Booth 309 with Buckeye Fasteners. I’m talking with Tony Martinez. How’s the show?

It was fantastic being in our back door. It was fantastic seeing all our industry friends and having everybody under one roof again. Love it. It’s been great.

You get more traffic here or Vegas?

With our location right at the front door, we got a lot of foot traffic on day one. It’s more foot traffic here just with location premium.

Tell me about what you’ve been doing in Cleveland.

I’ve been able to meet a lot of our friends that are from in and out of state. There was an excellent networking party at the Rock Hall of Fame. Whoever would have thought that Mr. Dudas was a prime guitar player wailing away on that stage last night.

A pit master and a guitar.

We need to have him fire that thing up a little bit more often. That’s all I’m saying. We’re going to have a little bonfire and kumbaya.

Tell me about Buckeye. Anything new?

Buckeye is doing great and very steady. Everything’s working well, all our subsidiaries under Fastener Industries. Brainard’s here with us, Plan-E-Tech, everybody’s doing well. We recently acquired Die Co. It’s part of the Fastener Industry family. We’re looking forward to just growing and keeping everything moving in the right direction.

Thank you. Someone stopped by our booth. I’m talking with. Brian Potasiewicz, Great Lakes Fasteners. You’re walking the show. How’s the show been?

It’s been great. Better this 2024 than 2023. There’s a bigger turnout of overseas suppliers. It seems like there’s more people. In 2023, we came both days. I would say it’s probably 30% more of a bust this 2024.

Why do you come to the show every year?

This 2024, for example, we try to add to our vast vendor network. We’ve got some new customer demands. We have some new acquisitions that have different product categories. Different types of customers as well as some manufacturing, not just distribution. We need to reinvent some of what it is that we’re buying based on some of the acquisitions that we do throughout the year.

That’s why the shows are great.

They should hire you in marketing. Here we go.

What was the best, funnest time that you had?

Our team went on the Goodtime III, the boat around Cleveland. They had a great time. The weather was good. Having some fun events like that is always helpful to attract people down here. We have the benefit of being twenty minutes away from downtown Cleveland. We can pop in and out as the show goes on, which is convenient for us. It’s been great.

I understand you wanted to get paid for this segment?

You’re going to need to ask me how to spell my name so you can put that on the check.

Let’s get that right. I’m worried about that.

—

I’m sure Mr. Potasiewicz will understand that the check of course is in the mail. As you heard at the top of that montage, Bob Chiricosta is retiring from the Fastener Fair. Although, he did say he’s going to be in Nashville next time. It’ll be good to see him. He’ll probably have this look of peace and calm about him that we haven’t seen before.

As the big boss over there, he’s always got something on his mind when he’s managing all that. He’s done a great job over the years, made a lot of friends. Thanks to him. It’s great that Blanca’s taken over with such a great running start. She’s a lot of fun to work with. We’ll look forward to that moving ahead. Thanks Bob. We’ll see you in Nashville.

That is the location of the next Fastener Fair. I don’t have the dates here quite yet. I know they’re selling booth spaces already. You can get out to FastenerFair.com, jump in. It’s pretty clear that the Fastener Fair has a lot of momentum. I’d like to thank Tim Vath and his band Radiate live as a couple of our interview guests mentioned.

I had the great honor of jumping on stage with those guys at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Bash. That was a blast. It’s definitely the biggest stage I’ve ever had the experience of playing music on. You got a little taste of what it’s like. It was just a ton of fun. Thanks for making that happen guys. I appreciate all the messages and back-slapping and stuff that happened afterwards.

I just can’t even explain it. Going into Wednesday night, I had a lot of energy. On Thursday, I was absolutely relieved and ready to coast into the conclusion of the Fastener Fair. To find out that the traffic was so good, I had to work the next day. I was happy about that though. Big salute to everybody who made Fastener Fair USA such a big success, the NCFA, and all the attendees.

Bob, Blanca, and the whole RX team and of course, my partners Brian Musker and the lovely and talented Lynn Dempsey. You did a great job. We got another one in the books. Spread the word about FCH Sourcing Network. A lot of you guys had the chance to meet one of our new partners, Chris Reddick, during day one of the event. I hope you’ll be reading a lot more of our work with him going forward. Keep your eyes on FCH folks. Big things are coming.

Upcoming Industry Events And Final Wrap-Up

Fastener Fair USA in Nashville is going to be a big thing too. Right around the corner, we’ve got the MWFA Fastener Week in August. That’s happening in Chicagoland. The big one, International Fastener Expo in Las Vegas. That’s in early September 2024. This roving band of threaded gypsies we call the fastener industry will be reconvening very soon. I look forward to seeing many of you out there.

That’s going to wrap up this report from the Fastener Fair USA. Thanks for reading everyone and for Brian Musker and Lynn Dempsey. Get out there and sell some screws. We’ll talk to you soon with a full episode of the podcast. We always appreciate you reading in and sharing it with your friends. Talk to you soon.