K&B Duct offers different advantages to different people. Read what some of them have to say about their business, their challenges and how they now MAKE MORE MONEY using K&B.  Click to jump to:

Local Fabricator - a small shop owner with new business ideas.

Regional Installer - an installer making money while staying ahead of the competition

Large Contractor - a business man building on the past by leaving 'it' behind.

We'll call him 'Bill'.

Bill is a 'local' fabricator located near a large upper Midwest city. He has a relatively 'compact' but fairly well equipted shop. He says, "At least I can do most of what is required from my customers". He has a good lead man who has been with him for years and he will employ anywhere from 4-5 other people who he shifts from fabrication to 'installs' as needed.

Like most business, Bill has felt the sting of the economy but it really is the shift in the entire 'way things are done' that has caused him to assess his business. Being a small employer, he is more suceptible to employee issues. When one man lays out , it means that 25% of his work force is missing. Likewise, one machine going down means that most of his shop is hampered.

His challenge is:

How to make more money without growing in the conventional manner of investing in what he called- more "headaches". 

Bill says he came to the conclusion that the old way of growing, 'More employees, more equipment, more building, etc, guarantees more overhead but NOT MORE PROFIT.' 

'The guy who taught me the business was always trying to add, add, add people, machinery, building... everything. But that was when you had craftsmen who could lay  out a piece of duct or knew what a tangent was. Today.... well.... things (and people) are different. Machinery cost are horrible and real estate is too. Even if you buy used, the maintenance can bring you to tears. Less is now better. Therefore, If you can outsource to a reliable supplier, keep your quality and delivery, then you need to evaluate it. Let them carry the overhead. Let them hire the headaches. Let them buy the expensive machines. Let them pay some guy to sweep the floors when 'they' can't keep him busy. '

We'll call him Joe.

Joe is an dust collection provider/installer in a southern state focusing on one state and covering about half of the neighboring ones. Truth is that in today's economy, "I will go farther."

Joe stays on the road himself, managing and working with his crew(s) who normally consist of one lead man, one 'known' hand and whomever he can pick-up. But that is based upon the size and location of the job.

While Joe has the fabrication capabilities for making hoods and special parts, he will be quick to tell you that his people don't do it regularly enough to become totally preficient at it. "To be fast, you have to stay on it ALL the time. Jumping from elbows, to hoods, to a structure just doesn't mean that you can beat a man that makes elbows all day long. I just don't do one thing enough to give them the ability to focus on one aspect fo the business."

Joe has seen a lot of HVAC people get into the dust collection business as they look for more opportunities. "Shoot- I've thought about installing HVAC, but its not my thing."  But all of this has made it more competitive and placed more strain on the profitability of each job.

Joe's challenge is:

How to keep making money; Specifically how to hold or even increase margins while facing the impact of increase competition, demands for lower prices and fewer opportunities?

Joe can buy duct and fabrication from many sources, some who are much closer. Why then has he selected KB Duct as his primary supplier?  Why is he willing to ship it in?

"For several reasons. One, they got a quality product and deliver on time. That is critical from any supplier. But most of all, I can install their duct (KB Clamp Together Duct) in a third the time that another duct would take me. Right off the bat, I can cut my labor cost in half, use fewer people (even with little or no sheetmetal experience/skills), come in lower on the quote and MAKE MORE MONEY. I'm in and out, the customer loves it and when they need something else done- guess who they call? Not Howard's Heating and Air."

And then there is the fact that... "K&B actually supports my sales efforts. It is like having additional staff doing the take-offs, the designs and watching the product through the shop. I'd have to hire another person if I used another supplier. That is another mouth taking food out of my mouth. You can tell (looks at his stomach) that I don't need that to happen."

Frank (alias) is proud of where he has come since  taking the company over from his father some twenty odd years ago. The company was well established and Frank has build on that, opened some satelite offices and expanded the business into different areas. Frank has never been the low cost provider and has never worried about competiting with "two men and a truck" contractors. "They have their place and we have ours. We work for large companies that like to know that they are dealing with a company of reputation and one that can hang in there if something goes wrong."

Frank credits his success in the past (as well as during this economic "situation") to his company's ability to control cost, sell at good margins and look for (and correct) inefficiencies. "We are in a changing environment. The sheet metal industry MUST change," he emphasizes. "The day of the 'tin-knocker' is a dead as the typewriter. New equipment and new processes coupled with a more discriminating buyer are forcing the changes. We can't keep operating the same old way and expect to 'be there' next year. This is a business and if it doesn't make money then it doesn't deserve to be around."

Frank's challenge is:

How to keep the fundamentals of the business (customer service, good pricing, quick response) going, while changing some of the fundamental 'givens' of the past.

Frank's fundamentals look good. Nice facility- nicely equipped- steady work force- all the things that you would think should make Frank's job easy. Why then is he buying from K&B?

"We used to make everything. My dad thought it was a sin to buy something for a job. I saw him buy a $100K machine to do a $20K job. We eventually built a business around that machine but it took time and 'time' is our enemy today. Most people don't think about the fact that 'Income' (wealth) is a function of time. I can make $5K  on a job but if it takes me 3 weeks and that is all I make, it really is not much good. You have to continuously ask yourself 'how much money am I bringing in every day, every hour'. And when you develop that line of thinking, you will start to look at the different parts of your operation."

"As a businessman, it is my responsibilty to myself and the employees, to make sure that we stay healthy. I like to garden. If I have a bad limb on a tree I cut it out. That way it stays healthy. Well, we look for low margin, inefficient areas- bad limbs. If we can make them efficient- great! If however we can take that same effort, those same resources, and apply them to another area that has better return then that is what we are going to do. Why invest in a stock that gives 3% return when there are ones giving 10%. That's stupid."

"We found that duct work had become an area where we were moving people in and out. We were actually pulling them from more productive work to do that work. And we did  not have enough of that work, nor did it look like we were going to have enough, to create a steady flow of that work to ever make them fully efficient. Our quality was good but our return on my investment was not. Going to K&B was a way to outsource work that was not giving us the best return and still keep our quality and deliveries."

Frank continues. " What surprised us is the fact that they have taken it to a level that we could never have reached and we are reaping the reward of their efforts. For example, we could never make clamp together duct. Now, we use it, sell it at a premium and cut our installation times at the same time. That's a triple in my book. And because duct and fabrication is all they do, they have the quality, the deliveries, and the response down to a science. We couldn't get there in that product. But we have been able to shift those resources to other areas of our business where we now have that level of success. Working with K&B Duct has allowed us to focus. It is simply a good business decision.  I think even Dad would have agreed."