The illqnufocturer's obligotion to The Wholesoler

Hardware distribution methods that have proved successful for generations should not be sabotaged merely because a manufacturer fails in his obligation to set up a sound wholesale system.

This sounds like a pretty final statement. And I mean it to be.

Recently, some of the press carried articles to the effect thdt direct-to-dealer distribution via manufacturers' own warehouses offers savings in time and money.

Please forgive my direct contradlction, but I challenge the loglc of this contentlon.

We at Kwikset have proved to ourselves and our dealers that an alert manufacturer can provide product on his dealers' shelves faster and at greater savings via our network of loyal and progressive wholesalers, than were we to disband this fine group and set up our own wholesale warehouses in principal areas.

First, as to cost. It is quite apparent that for a manufaeturer to establish warehouses in the principal areas of the nation, there is certain to be customary costs of buildings, manpower, record-keeping, and distribution.

This cost, quite obvlously, has to be made up ono way 61 snef,hsl-a,1d it's inovitable that the cost must be add.ed to the prlce of the product.

As to so-called savings in time, by dislodging the hardware distributor, I'd like to call attention to the records we have established at Kwikset. Our warehouse ships orders for stock items within 24 hours of receiving: them. Utilizing today's modern transportation methods, from overnight long-haul trucks to air-freight, we put the product down on the dealers' shelves, via our efficient system of distributors, with equal or better speed than if we maintained

By Roy G. Bolt Vice President.

The American lfa,rdware Corporation and General Dianager, I(w{kset Division costly warehousing facilities in the Northeast, Southeast, North Central, South Central, and Northwest areas of the nation.

This efficiency results from a streamlined method of handling orders. Good, conscientious employes have long ago been taught to treat every order with care and swiftness. And it works.

Further, in relation to speeding orders to dealers, the well-stocked inventory of our distributors results in dealers' orders being filled just as immediately as we fill the distributors' orders. This, quite apparently, is a real plus to dealers. The distributor carries a complete inventory-so his money, and not the dealer's, is tied up in stock.

Wtth the thousands of hardwa,re items a dealer must necessarlly stock, we think it's a big help to hirn when our nearby distributor saves him the money that would otherwise be tted up ln shelf-stock.

With speed of delivery assured, and savings in capital made possible by the dealer's letting the wholesaler carry the inventory, the dealer is in a healthier economic position. He is left time to aggressively sell his products, and thus make himself more money.

If there's any one word in our language that is overworked and underestimated, it's "service." Thus, I deplore using a term that may be so casually regarded by many-but I cannot help but insist that for efficient service, our tried-and-true system of hardware distributors cannot be excelled. Distribution of goods is one of the continuing problems besetting all manufacturers, but eliminating the well-established distributor is not the answer.

If I were to be asked what I do feel to be the answer, I would say that all of us are not living up to our fullest capacity as real salesmen.

By multiplying our business by progresslve selllng methods, rather than upsettlng efficient means of dlstributlng products, we would all profit.

Let us not be enticed by direct-to-dealer philosophies that more nearly resemble the tactics of sharp operators than those of sound businessmen.