Despite Challenges, Continued Growth, Confidence at The Macomb Group

Company Achieves Top 10, Top 50 Rankings in National Survey

Economic pressures and supply chain issues brought about by COVID-19 did not stand in the way of continued growth at The Macomb Group, as evidenced by a recent industrywide survey.

The 2022 Premier 150 Distributor Ratings survey, conducted by industry publication Supply House Times and BNP Media Market Research, ranked The Macomb Group at number seven nationally among pipe, valve and fittings (PVF) distributors, and in the top 50 nationally among combined PVF and plumbing, heating, cooling and piping (PHCP) distributors.

In a recent interview, Scott Henegar and Mark Calzolano, co-chief operating officers at The Macomb Group, reflected on the survey results and the company’s state of the business.

Q. How would you describe the year 2021 at The Macomb Group? Was there growth? What were the challenges?

Henegar: “Overall, 2021 was a cautious year with mixed signals coming from both the market and the government. Pent up demand was in place, and we were poised to meet it, but we were also getting our first look at what damage had been done to the supply chain. We realized too that COVID policies that were hurting the industry were lingering.” 

Q. How has price fluctuation affected growth?

Calzolano: “Last year, our unit volume growth and the resulting increase to sales and profits was far outpaced by growth due to commodity price inflation. After a record year, we’ve got a high bar to surpass, but our purchasing, sales, and warehousing teams continue to deliver – buying right, knowing where current prices are as we sell through inventory, and getting much needed material to our customers – and all of this in an extremely tight labor market.”

Q. How are you navigating keeping up with growing demand while managing supply chain challenges?

Henegar: “It’s a climate like we are in now that tests how well we have tended to our fundamentals: hiring and developing talented employees, the strength of relationships built with vendor partners, sensible inventory management, and the confidence and rapport built with our customers. Focusing on all of these factors has allowed us to work constructively with our customer base in the last year to maintain a reasonable material flow and mitigate the effects of a supply chain that is damaged on several fronts.”

Q. Did you benefit in 2021 from delayed 2020 projects?

Henegar: “We did. There were a lot of pent-up capital projects that were not discretionary for many reasons and needed to go. Others in less-critical business segments opened more cautiously but it was a welcome rebound from 2020.”

Q. What are you seeing so far in 2022 in terms of growth?

Calzolano: “We’re poised to have a record quarter as we enter June and we continue to see our backlog increase, despite growing challenges facing the economy. We anticipate a couple of strong quarters ahead and we’re busy in the planning stages to add several new branch locations by the year’s end.”

The 2022 Supply House Times Premier 150 rankings are based on prior year’s sales figures, either provided by survey participants or based on estimated sales totals from other industry sources. All survey participants remain optimistic their business will continue to increase in the months ahead.