Special Report: Pac-West Spring Conference ’25

 

Pac-West Fastener Association spring conference floor interviews and coverage, including Paul Vittori, George Martinez, Darlene Collis, Carl Spackman, Michael Chen, Jake “Valdez” Davis, Christian Reich and Steve “The Sasco Man” Dunham. PLUS: Golf tourney winners. Run time: 27:42

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Special Report: Pac-West Spring Conference ’25

Inside The Pac-West Fastener Association Spring Conference

Special report this time. I recently returned from the Pacific-West Fastener Association Spring Conference that happened in Anaheim, California. If you heard episode 210 of the podcast, you might remember that Steve and Cheryl Dunham sold their fastener business of many years up there in Medford, Oregon, at SASCO Fasteners. We all promised to meet up at the Pac-West, and that’s what we did.

Wonderful to see them. Several old-time Pac-West folks showed up. Jim Law, with Ababa, who also recently retired, sold his business, and several old friends walked by during the tabletop. If you hit these things, you know full well how that feels. It’s always a great thing. I’ve got two packages of sound this time. These are interviews taken during the various events and during the tabletop. I give you a taste of what it was like, and I’ll play this first one now, then take a short break.

I’ve got some totals for you and, of course, the results of the golf outing, which I don’t know how competitive it was, but I think you’ll get a kick out of who took it this time. The title sponsors a fully threaded radio, Star Stainless, Goble Fasteners, and Brighton Best International. Fully threaded radios are also sponsored by Buckeye Fasteners and the Ohio Nut and Bolt Company, BTM Manufacturing, Eurolink Fastener Supply Service, INxSQL Software, FastenerFair USA, J.Lanfranco, Solution Industries, Volt Industrial Plastics, and Würth Industry USA. Let’s jump into this first package of interviews. Thanks for listening, everyone.

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Cocktail Party Buzz: Tariffs And Beyond

Dave Kujanek, we’re setting up for the tabletop. What’s your reaction to the session so far? Anything actually having to do with the conference?

The session has been great. A lot of interesting things. The speakers are fantastic. I highly recommend it. I was not planning on coming down, but I took the surf liner down from my house. Great ride. Again, what’s really nice about these is to be able to see people you’ve known for 20, 30, 40 years in the business and talk about old times and new times. It’s truly a lot of fun.

A hundred percent. That’s what these things are all about, and we’ll see a lot more of them this afternoon, won’t we?

Yeah. This afternoon and this evening.

You were at the cocktail party reception last night. What are everybody talking about?

Everybody’s talking about tariffs. Everybody’s talking about what’s going to happen. Of course, it’s a fluid situation that changes every day and every other day. Most of the people that I talked to overseas that I’ve known for many years, they’re not panicking, and they’re telling me that they really think in 3 to 4 months this whole situation is going to go more so to reciprocal tariffs as opposed to a flat country-by-country tariff. We’ll see. That’s how they feel overseas.

What are you personally focusing on these days?

Just trying to get things quoted overseas, get the salespeople to place some orders, and just continuing to have a really fun time in this business. Love it.

George Martinez: The Nuts and Bolts of Success

George Martinez, you’re selling some gloves or what?

Yeah. Bringing all the nitrogloves and neck gloves to try and get everything going.

What’s the reaction so far to everything? What’s the standout in the conference so far for you?

It was informative. Obviously, I think getting everybody, seeing everybody, seeing what the talk is about.

In the last session, he was talking about personal performance and upping your whole game. You could take anything away from that one. You’re going to drink less coffee.

It’s funny he was talking about that, but for the most part, actually, I started drinking tea instead of coffee.

No way. When did that start?

I did that already six months ago.

Have you ever drunk any horchata?

Yeah.

It’s full of sugar.

It’s just mainly the tea. I think coffee it’s been overrated. It’s almost like a drug, almost like you just want to drink it every single day.

Have you ever heard that you had both blends? What’s your favorite part about the fastener industry all these years?

All these years, the best part is that you don’t realize how many nuts and bolts you can sell. I think when I first started, you look at it and it’s like, “How much can you sell nuts and bolts?

The best part, all these years, is not realizing how many nuts and bolts you can sell. Share on X

A lot.

You realize like, “Wow.” You start looking at everything. Everything has nuts and bolts. Everything’s put together with nuts and bolts.

George Martinez, BBI. Good to see you, brother.

You too.

Tanner Chaffin: Attracting Young Talent to the Fastener Industry

Here with Tanner Chaffin, Action Fasteners. We just got done with this session here at the Pac-West. You’ve been in a bunch of these sessions, though. What’d you take away so far?

The biggest takeaway I think from the morning session with the young professionals on how to attract people to this industry is how we communicate the opportunities this industry has. I was listening to another podcast with the Distribution Talk, and they talk about how there are a lot of opportunities in this industry, specifically for young people to make an impact at an early stage in their career, young branch managers or operations managers that are maybe 30, 35, 40, not putting in their time.

There are a lot of opportunities in this industry, specifically for young people to make an impact early in their careers. Share on X

How do we communicate the opportunities that we have in this industry to attract young people? They talked about culture and communicating those core values and culture on the front end, and bringing excitement. It’s not just putting in your time. This is the way we’ve done it for so long. Being open to new ideas and allowing young people to make an impact. What we’re seeing when we’re attracting young talent to our companies is just giving them freedom and some opportunities to try to make an impact, so it’s beyond just the paycheck.

Why weren’t you on the panel?

That was one of the questions I asked. Somebody said, “There are a lot of people up there that were 50, 60 years old, which is great.” I know the leaders, but we also have a lot of really young, talented people from. My wife is like, I would love to hear what they’re seeing, and are they in a recruiting role? What are some ways that they’re reaching out to people who are their own age and bringing them industry?

Are you personally involved with that YFP?

I did the mentor-mentee deal last year. I really enjoyed it. I had a great conversation with my mentor over the year and learned a lot. I think he joked that he got as much out of it as I did. Just a good conversation about developing.

I’m sure. You want to hat tip your mentor?

Wes from Acumen and the Fontana Group. Wes was my mentor. I very much enjoyed talking with him, and just a great conversation. Again, just generating what’s the next group of people coming through? How do we get people involved and excited about Fasteners or in the distribution world? Again, it’s just communicating the opportunities they have.

Last night at the cocktail party, what was everybody talking about?

Of course, everybody’s talking about tariffs. Just impacting what’s going to happen with the industry.

How’s this hitting action fasteners?

We haven’t seen it yet on the domestic side. Certainly, domestic suppliers have taken price increases because they can, which has certainly been interesting. I don’t think we’re going to start seeing that in the next month or two, with the prices of the land of product is going to now start going up on the import side. We haven’t seen it quite yet, but it’s coming down the line. It’s coming.

Darlene Collis: Navigating Compliance and Collaboration

Darlene Collis, you’re about to go on with Carmen. You’re going to be talking about what it is, hydrogen embrittlement or compliance, one or the other, right?

Compliance this time. We’re talking about PFAS, which is a huge hot topic right now. We’re talking about CBAM, which is another one that’s the elephant in the room that we all have to figure out how to comply with. A lot of good topics. We’ve got Prop 65 and some other things in there if we get to it.

I want to talk to you at great length down the road about the CBAM stuff. You know that. We’ll get to it. Let’s change the subject. What do you love the most about the fastener industry? You cannot talk about Matt Delawder’s wardrobe.

Actually, the collaboration side of this industry is fantastic. Just the fact that I get to sit on the same stage as Carmen Vertullo, Soaring Eagle award-winning Carmen Vertullo, it’s just that there are a lot of industry experts. There’s a lot to learn. It’s an exciting industry, which is odd. Not everybody would maybe think that, but it challenges me every day. That’s what I love.

 

You rolled into Lindfast Group through, of course, Solutions. What’s the latest? What should everyone know about what’s happening over there?

We are doing a lot of things with the collaboration of our different teams within the organization. What we’re doing is purchasing and quality are working together towards supply chain verifications. We have a company-wide approved vendor list. We’re actually going out and doing audits on-site. We’re doing a lot of coordination towards that. Verification of products was expanding metal urgently, so that’s exciting news. We’ve got our ISO 1725 accredited lab in strong, so we have a mechanical, dimensional, and chemical scope ready, adding a satellite location into our Elgin, Illinois facility, and we’re also adding an ISO 1725 accredited lab in China.

You’re heading over to Asia pretty soon, are you?

Yes. In April, I’ll be going over there. We’ll be going over for a couple of weeks to do all the audits. We’ve got, I want to say it’s about 40 meetings with vendors. That’d be really exciting to get on site with them and develop those relationships, talk about compliance, talk about quality, just make sure process control all the things that we need because we’re only as good as they are.

You’ve heard a couple of episodes of Fully Threaded, I know, because you’ve commented on it. Does one stand out to you?

There are so many on there. I always enjoy Carmen’s talks on there because I participate in his fastener experts group. Anything that he has to say, I always gravitate to, because as an industry expert, I feel so fortunate to have that friendship.

What do you do outside the fastener world?

Say so many different things. I love to play golf. I’m into bungee fitness. I’m into jump boot fitness. I do pretty aggressive workouts. I love my grandkids. I love to travel. All kinds of fun things.

That explains all your energy.

Yes, hopefully. I try to maintain that as much as I can. That’s what the big aggressive workouts do for me is they just amp up my energy.

Paul Bonini: A Legacy In Fasteners

Thanks, Darlene. Talking about fasteners with Paul Bonini. How are you doing?

I’m doing great. Thank you.

I never see you at Pacific-West Tabletops or pretty much anywhere else, but we’re finally meeting face to face.

That’s right. I hide well.

You’ve been on FCH for many years.

Yes. I don’t remember when we started, but it’s been many years.

Thank you for being out there.

You’re very welcome.

How’d you get into fasteners?

My father got me into this many years ago. I started sweeping the floors, packing nuts and bolts, changing like bulbs, young age of 13 or 14 years old. When he passed away in ‘86, it took over the company. I’ve been there ever since.

What’s Harrison & Bonini focused on these days?

Screws, nuts, bolts, cutting tools. That’s our primary in the brick and mortar. We also do a lot of other items outside of that for what we call a local business enterprise. We sell a lot of things to large contractors that are working on large buildings, large construction projects. We’re able to participate as a local business enterprise. It’s a nice piece of the business, a nice add-on.

At one point was Harrison & Bonini were also focused on aerospace or military? Just from your logos in that.

Yes, I did a lot of business with Aerojet General, a lot of business with the US Navy, Navy Ship Supply, and Alameda Naval Air Station. Those were all prime customers way back in the day. Moving forward, as the decommissioning happened in 1845, that all dried up, but our commercial business started picking up. Elevator trade, sheet metal, iron workers, and curtain wall, which started picking up. One dropped off, another picked up, and we survived that transition, thank God.

That’s a classic fastener industry story, isn’t it?

Right. Out of the hot and into the fire, yes, type of thing.

You’re long-time INxSQL, guys, too, aren’t you?

Yes. We’re pushing 13, 14 years, something like that.

Did you see Bob Reynolds make it to the event here?

I’m going to go talk to Bob.

Thanks for stopping.

Thank you very much.

Rick Simpson: Parker Fasteners And The Tariff Challenge

Just hanging out in the booth, Rick Simpson, Parker Fasteners, how are you doing?

I’m having a great day, thank you.

We’re just talking about, although you’re more on the aerospace side, you’re backed up here to Brighton, I noticed, and obviously that thing’s running for you guys.

It’s running. From what I understand is they’ve been a great partner. We’re happy to be partnered with them, and now I’m going to be a Major League Baseball player and say I’m just happy to be part of the team.

You’ve got to get those things. What do you like most about being on the Parker team? What side of it are you on, and what do you like about it?

I’m a regional sales rep, and what I like the most about it is that the organization is just so people-friendly and tight, and everybody’s got the same goal, and we all know what we’re going after, and we have the support. As a salesperson, I always have the support I need, and I couldn’t be in a better spot.

 

What do you think is the next big thing for the fastener industry?

Trying to figure out the tariff challenge. After that, it’s just being able to manage the businesses coming in. There’s been an incredible influx of business in the last three years. We’re riding the wave, and we need to figure out a way to keep riding it.

Bingo. Let’s do it. Absolutely. Thanks, Rick.

You’re welcome. Thank you.

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Listening to these again, it’s hard to believe it was only a few days ago. I’m reminded how many conversations you actually do jam in during one of these conferences. It really is a high-bandwidth opportunity that they bring. Thanks to the Pac-West board, Carl, and your group, everybody did a wonderful job. Of course, Jamie and Amy kept everything rolling along.

I should also mention that Vickie Lester, longtime executive director of the Pac-West, is also the NFDA. She made an appearance. Of course, she’s in semi-retirement now with Amy and Jamie driving things along, but it was great to see her. She’s like a celebrity, there hard to walk down the aisle without stopping at every table. That’s great to see. I also had a conversation with another person that I haven’t talked to in quite a while.

I couldn’t get him to record this time, but I got his promise that he’ll be back all the way back from episode one of the fully threaded radio podcast, Andy Pels. He’s a West Coast guy. Man, did he turn me onto some really big ideas over the years. This time, we were zeroing in on some AI concepts, and yeah, he’s still on top of things. Really great guy. Quite a few others as well. I promised you some numbers. Jamie sent me this quick summary in case you were wondering. The tabletop this time included 57 exhibitors, and there were 242 attendees at that show.

Really strong numbers, great energy in the room, and I don’t think there was a time when I wasn’t yapping with somebody, so mission accomplished on that front. Now golf, and I should mention that I tried again to score a 30 pack of Bush Light. I don’t know if that segment has already played. Actually, I think it’s coming up in this next package, but they don’t sell it down in Southern California.

Although I did walk to the corner liquor store down the street from the Westin just to make sure, no dice. Anyway, the golf event went on, and I’m very glad to say that the winning team was led by Rob “Big Country” Reynolds of INxSQL software, and his dad, Bob Reynolds, a longtime Pac-West guy, made a triumphant return. They teamed up with Joe and Bob Truckey with Cal Fasteners.

That is old-timey Pac-West if ever there was a team. The only thing better would have the Porteous Brothers came in and took it, but that was just great. Talked to Bob afterwards in the hotel lobby. He was just glowing. He showed up to see Steve and Cheryl, of course, and he brought his wife, Kim. It was a wonderful reunion and really set the tone for the conference for me. This next package is a little bit shorter, but I think it rounds it out.

The last one in this sequence has got to be one of my favorites because I think it speaks for itself. It’s Mike Chen with Swaco. He told me something that I never knew before, something that we did about ten years back, paid off dividends, and you’ll hear. Thanks for listening to this special report, and thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hi at the FCH table this time.

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Paul Vittori: The Ultra Trail Run Challenge

Paul Vittori, Socket Source. You’ve been with FCH forever. How are you doing?

I’m doing good. How are you?

I’m excellent. We were talking about racing and training and all that stuff. I was telling you about our mud race, and you’re training for something a lot bigger, man.

I’ve been at my age, is survival of the fittest. I’ve just had this whole thing about whether you can keep yourself fit, you can live a longer, healthier life. Part of the way I do it is I put something on the calendar that’s a challenge, and I start training for a 30-mile ultra trail run, and I’m still working on it.

You’re going to run like 7 or 8 miles up a mountain?

Yeah. It’s the current race that I’m registered for, 16 miles. It’s a loop. It’s 7 miles uphill, 9 miles downhill.

That’s hardcore. You would be a perfect candidate for our mud race, but wish you well on your training for this thing.

We’re training, and he told me about your mud run, and I’d like to be a contestant in that. September could be, or your mud runs in August, right? That could be a warm-up to my September race.

There you go. Talking Socket Source is growing. We’ll talk about that down the road, but good to see you, Paul.

Good to see you too, Eric.

Christian Goebel: Executive Peak Performance and Mindset Shift

Christian Goble. How are you doing, brother?

Good. How are you doing?

So far, so good. It looks like we’re closing down the tabletop, and for us, it was a success. What was your experience here at Pac-West?

It was a great show. Steady traffic, good visitors, good conversations.

I saw you at one of the sessions this morning, this one with Jeff, whose name was, and he was talking about different ways to optimize your energy and focus yourself and get yourself prepped up and things. I know you’re a Tough Mudder and you’re the CEO of a growing enterprise. What was your main takeaway from that session this morning?

Sustainability in the end. He outlined a good roadmap on how executives can balance the stress and the workload and how to make sure that they’re in peak performance, positive mindset. Just instead of why is this happening to me, this is happening to me because it allows me to do X. It was really a good mindset shift. It was a great presentation. I enjoyed it a lot.

How are you going to carry that over to Goble?

Better preparation and just tackle each day with a positive and optimistic mindset.

Do better preparation, tackling each day with a positive and optimistic mindset. Share on X

Right on as usual, though you were doing that for a while.

That is true.

Good to see a brother.

You too.

Carl Spackman: Pac-West President’s Reflections

Carl, you’re the president of the Pac-West. Congratulations on another wonderful event.

Thank you very much, happy to be here, great turnout. Everyone’s enjoyed the sessions, and everyone’s friendly like usual.

What’s your biggest surprise on this one?

Not the golf. The golf was not the biggest surprise.

How about the rain?

The rain was the biggest surprise. There you go.

I wasn’t surprised. I knew they didn’t sell 30 packs of Bush Light here, but I tried anyway.

Really?

Hans Fuller, previous president, I probably shouldn’t say this, but Hans Fuller, previous president, comes up to me and he goes, “Carl, why do I do this to myself? Every single Pac-West Conference.” We know one thing for sure, and he did not drink warm Bush Light last night, but people were having a good time, and this has been another great event. I came out to the West Coast for it, and so I just wanted to say congratulations.

Thank you very much. Look forward to a great one next year.

Mike Lentini: Bulletproofing Your Workforce

Mike Lentini, Spirol, you were on fire.

Thanks, Eric.

How do you keep getting invited to these panels?

I have no idea. I got them all fooled, I guess.

First of all, what was your topic?

Our topic we talked about bulletproofing your workforce for young, faster professionals and attracting and retaining talent.

We’ve been talking about that in the industry for a while, especially since the employment crunch has really become apparent, and what new wrinkles did you guys put on it?

We’re really ironing out some wrinkles, and a lot of those are really just creating a brand for your organization, really as a destination workplace. A lot of it is making sure you’re active in your community so that you’re creating a brand for your organization to attract people, whether it’s at the high school level, college level, or graduate level, so you can retain and bring new people into the organization.

Be active in your community to create a brand that attracts people to your organization. Share on X

You’ve got to get them there in the first place to be able to retain them, right?

Absolutely, and that’s the big thing that you get them in, and then it’s the retaining part that takes the organization and the right culture. Put that all together and you’ve got a pretty good mix there.

You keep showing up at these things, you said how much you enjoy the fastener industry when you were talking, which we know, that’s obvious, you love it, but what do you really hate about the fastener industry, Mike?

What do I hate about it? There’s too much to do every day. Maybe that’s it. There’s so much activity going on.

We’ll take that. Mike Lentini, Spirol.

Thanks, everybody.

Craig Beaty: Compulsory YFP and Industry Growth

Craig Beaty, we’re still here at the Pac-West. It’s the last morning. These things always seem to thin out at the end, though, you notice?

I do notice, yes.

We need more YFPs.

Yes, we do. Hopefully, we’ll be present at Fastener Fair USA. At the NFDA conference, we’ll be having our book club in person instead of virtually, and after that, I believe we’ll be at IFE in Las Vegas.

You guys are everywhere. You’re now hooked up with the NFDA. They’re giving you some support, and you had your board meeting here, and you have some big plans for promoting YFP and really getting wider participation, isn’t that it?

Yes, it is. As we talked about yesterday during the panel discussion, our plan is to create a program that makes us prevalent enough that when employers they’re hiring, part of their onboarding process would be compulsory just to sign their new employees up for YFP, which would help us and help them. When you sign up for YFP, you usually get an FTI training course of your choosing. It gets you aligned with the mentorship program that we offer. It should be just a really good onboarding process for them and for the new members of the fastener industry.

Jake Davis: BTM Manufacturing In Choppy Economic Waters

You guys have ambitious plans. I wish you well. I’ll help you along however I can. You hear that, folks? Compulsory YFP coming soon. Jake Davis in the aftermath of the Pac-West Economic Comedy Hour.

Quick take. Don’t ask me about the economy.

In the wake of what was just presented to us here, how will BTM manufacturing be proceeding through these choppy economic waters, Jake Davis?

Same as we were before this presentation.

Outstanding. We’ll see you next year.

Yes.

Mike Chen: From Accounting To Fastener Industry Leader

Mike Chen, Swaco. I see all over LinkedIn. Good to finally meet you in person.

You too, Eric. It’s awesome to put a face to a name. I see you all over the place, too, so it’s a great opportunity. We’re winding down Pac-West. You’re going to be a moderator at the round tables. You told me a story last night, and I was completely unaware of how you got to this position. Tell me about it again if you could.

Of course. I was studying accounting in college, and it’s something that when you’re eighteen, graduating high school, they make you pick something. What I think is my parents are happy with it, but I started over there, and then one day Peggy’s walking by and she said, “You’ve got a great place for radio or a great voice for sales.”

 

You’re with Brighton Best at the time. My first job out of college was in the accounting department. About a year in, it’s when she kinda said, “You should come and check out this opportunity we have in Santa Fe Springs as an inside salesperson.” I did that, and that’s all she wrote, so I moved over to inside sales for Brighton for a couple of years, and I got a lot of experience from the team that they have.

Since the beginning, I’ve always wanted to come to these Pac-West things. I didn’t really know why back then, but I felt it was something important that I needed to do. Now ten years later, I’ve never stopped. I did three years at Brighton, and then I did two years at Aerospace Southwest Bossard, and now I’ve been six years with Swaco. It’s been great.

It’s a great opportunity to come and talk to your industry peers, and you get a good opportunity to share what’s going on all around, and you get some good market info. Some people think, “It’s just our competitors there and this and that,” but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. We’re here to build relationships. I think that’s what it’s been great. Being on the board of Pac-West now, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to contribute to these defenses and how they run, and I’ve met even more people.

Along the way, you picked up your CFS?

Yeah. Back in the Brighton days, I entered the Fully Threaded Radio, the scholarship contest, and I won that back then. That was really early in my career. It wasn’t until later on that I started seeing a lot of people. It’s a very prestigious thing. I was very appreciative of that opportunity.

I saw you talking with Joe Morris and Peggy earlier, and just brought that to my mind. Good to meet you again, Mike. Have a great roundtable.

Thanks. Great to meet you, too, man.

 

Important Links

• Pac-West
• George Martinez on LinkedIn
• Tanner Chaffin on LinkedIn
• Darlene Collis on LinkedIn
• Carmen Vertullo on LinkedIn
• Paul Bonini on LinkedIn
• Harrison & Bonini
• Rick Simpson on LinkedIn
• Vickie Lester on LinkedIn
• Andy Pels on LinkedIn
• Rob “Big Country” Reynolds on LinkedIn
• Cal Fasteners
• Mike Chen on LinkedIn
• Socket Source
• Tough Mudder
• Carl Spackman on LinkedIn
• Mike Lentini on LinkedIn