Richard Reese will be forever grateful for the lessons Standard Plumbing Sandy his father taught him — and for the many ways that he has used them.
Standard Plumbing Sandy Supply
Standard Plumbing Sandy Supply was founded by Dale Reese in 1952 to provide services for local contractors. Standard’s self service model won those customers over quickly.
Dale Reese built seven stores, a trucking business and two plumbing-supply plant. Richard Reese inherited the stores after his father split Standard into three sections, and gave one to each of his sons.
Standard grew rapidly from 13 stores in one state to 70 by Richard Reese. Richard Reese, his father’s son, was able to expand Standard vertically by following his example and expanding the private company into support fields such as real estate (to manage the company’s properties), Internet retailing and financing (to support Standard’s core business).
As his brothers left those industries, Reese was eventually able to create divisions for trucking as well as Standard’s supply lines.
He has done it in two ways. First, he did it frugally. A piecemeal sorter that he purchased in parts from classified ads is now part of the control company distribution core.
The WIT buying group hosted its fall owners meeting in Salt Lake City (Utah) a few years back. This is if you have not visited this area of the country. The event included a visit to Standard Plumbing Supply’s headquarters in Sandy, which was part of the event. To say what Standard has going on at its corporate compound is innovative/progressive/anything but standard, would be an understatement, and I’d run out of room here trying to describe it all (converting its sprinkler stores into Christmas light stores during the holidays, the Standard hardware store concept and its phone app parts ordering system would be a few quick examples).
Anything but standard This is close to the original “Nothing Standard about Standard Plumbing Supply” phrase Standard founder Dale Reese used in order to keep his 1952 company culture, Standard Plumbing Supply, in his customers’ and potential customers’ minds. Jacob Reese is third-generation family leader and works in operations and sales at Standard. He says that “from the beginning he was thinking of unique ways to advertise and do business.” He would give out bumper stickers to plumbers that stated, “Don’t sleep with your drip.” “Calm a licensed plumber.
President
Jacob Reese’s father Richard, Standard Plumbing Sandy president and owner, has maintained the innovative tradition. This is evident by the WIT field trip. “Dad made shirts for plumbers that said “Plumbers Are Hot” and shows a plumber holding a water heater. Jacob Reese has joined the Standard Plumbing Sandy unique ideas competition. Reese posted recently on LinkedIn a note about Standard Thunder Bucket, which is available for sale at nearly 100 locations across nine western states.
He asks, “How many buckets do your garage have and how long have they been there?” “I have kept a 5-gallon bucket in my garage all my life. The name of the bucket is important. For a complete definition and a great laugh, visit the Urban Dictionary online.
Reese found that Home Depot sells over 20 million of these buckets each year. He says that the bucket is affordable, and customers will spend more to fill it than buying a product from a box and then taking it home. The bucket is marked Standard with that little play of words. It’s an affordable concept. We have just ordered a truckload more and will soon launch a new design.
