EXCERPT

“When I came onboard, you couldn’t find a yellow bucket in this town. Now, you fall all over them everywhere.”

Richard Sweetman, Sto Distributor
Westside Building Materials, Las Vegas, Nevada

Sto “Runs the Table” in Vegas

Product, Technology, Service and Multi-Talented Distributor Add Up to a Winning Hand

Mark Lory will never forget it. It was December 2006 and the Plastering Superintendent for Ford Contracting in Las Vegas was behind on the Palazzo project at the Venetian. He’d resisted the StoSilo pump for a long time, but finally decided to give it a shot. It went well. He recalls, “I had instant success with it, my whole crew loved it, and I increased my production ten-fold. We not only made up the three weeks we were behind, but ended up three weeks ahead of schedule. Big difference on the bottom line.”

In gambling, “running the table” means dominating a game. A pretty accurate description of the overwhelming market share Sto currently enjoys in the Las Vegas market. Regi Mendoza, Sto’s sales rep in Vegas, quantifies that market ownership: “In 2001, Sto had about a three percent market share in Vegas. We currently have 70 to 80 percent of the market. Four major contractors here are using Sto, and the fifth one is in our sights.”

 

Stacking the Deck

So, how did Sto do it? The old-fashioned way. They earned it – with a potent combination of superior products, StoMachine Technology (SMT), their state-of-the-art product delivery system, matchless service, and a talented distributor. SMT, a German import to the U.S. from Sto AG in 1998, turns 10 years old in 2008, stateside, and to say it’s stacked the deck in Sto’s favor here is putting it gently.

It all started when Dennis Curry, VP of Westside Building Materials (WBM), Sto distributor in Vegas, hit the jackpot with the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in 2001 – Sto’s first major job in Vegas. With Sto’s Howard Crofoot guiding the SMT piece, the project was a winner. The 800K square foot panel job marked the debut of the SMT StoSilo.

As Curry recalls, “I was a firm believer in the Sto products and technology. And as part of our Mandalay bid, we said, ‘We have this machine that can save you 30 to 40 percent on labor,’ and Mike Dean, the owner of the project contractor, M.J. Dean, looked at me and asked, “So, what do I have to do to get the machine?’ ‘Just buy Sto,’ I said. To which he replied, ‘That’s a no-brainer. Let’s do it.’”

A Gamble Pays Off, Big Time

Sto’s pile of chips was about to grow, and fast, thanks to a gamble by Dennis Curry of WBM, who was looking for an outside salesperson for WBM to rep the Sto line. About that time, Richard Sweetman, a long-time friend of Sto rep Regi Mendoza, rode into Vegas. Sweetman, who’d been running a crew in Boston using Sto (and had trained on SMT in Atlanta), landed a job as an applicator with local contractor, The Raymond Group, working on the Wynn hotel. During that project, using the StoSilo, Sweetman remembers, “We actually worked so fast, we caught up with the other trades.”

But an interesting thing happened during that job, recalls Sweetman: “They were having machine problems and were screaming to get someone from Sto to fix it. I said ‘I can fix this.’ Mendoza, who knew Curry was looking for a sales rep, suggested that Curry meet Sweetman. Says Curry, “It was a gamble, taking a plasterer from the field and molding him into a salesperson, but it’s paid so many dividends, and we’ve just left our competition in the dust. Not only can he fix the machines, but he can also put his overalls on, pick up a trowel and show anyone how to use the product. That’s given us a huge advantage here in the marketplace. We just took off and flew. Flew forever, it seems.”

His impact since then? “When I started, we were doing maybe two truckloads of materials a month. Now? I’ve ordered as many as eight 18-wheelers in a day.” Says Mendoza, “Except for the Mandalay, Rich has had a hand in every Sto project in this city.”

A Different Strategy

So, what did Sweetman do differently in Vegas to launch Sto into its current enviable position? In addition to having knowledge of the products, equipment, and front-line crews (something neither the Sto or WBM salespeople at the time had), he recalls, “They weren’t pursuing the right avenues. They were selling to management, when they needed to get the product and machines into the hands of the plasterers. Because once the front-line guys use it, they hate to use anything else. And once management sees the bottom-line results, they fall in love with it.”

Of course, it’s easy for a contractor to fall in love with a product that addresses their #1 hot button: reducing labor costs by executing projects faster and more efficiently. SMT, with its legendary bottom-line-slashing properties couldn’t help but get attention in Nevada, a strong union state. With plasterers commanding $30-50 an hour, any technology that can reduce labor costs by 30 to 40 percent will get a reception warmer than the desert’s summer sun.

Sweetman chuckles recalling a graphic illustration of that savings while working on the Palazzo: “One nozzle guy on a StoSilo and 16 plasterers base-coated and netted 20,000 square feet of panel in one day. At the time, that was absolutely unheard of.” Not to mention the portable Sto M-8 pump: “At the MGM Residence, I put one on a platform, and four plasters, one laborer and one nozzle guy did 37 stories of sheer wall in one day. Plus it’s a simple machine – only two parts that can wear out. Sto sends me enough spares and it only takes five minutes to swap them out.”

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P.S. The Future is Bright

Vegas hasn’t just been a great success story; it’s been a proving ground for Sto products and StoMachine Technology, and the results bode well for future expansion into similar climates. As Regi Mendoza points out, “Vegas is one of the world’s worst climates, and we’ve used the products and equipments under these extreme conditions for years and through millions of square feet, and they’ve performed incredibly well.”

So, where will Sto be in another 10 years? Anyone care to make a bet? I’m in.

END