When Brent Anderson looks at the company from which he will retire this year—Mountainland Supply Co.—he sees a company operated by enthusiastic and innovative visionaries.
“They love the company as much as I do,” Anderson said. “I’m really excited for the men and women coming up behind me who have the same enthusiasm, drive and progressive attitude that I’ve enjoyed in my career.”
Anderson joined Mountainland Supply Co. as a residential-based salesperson in central Utah in 1982. Working from home, he developed a customer list of plumbers, city utilities and mining operations and served them until 1986 when he became the assistant company manager for Mountainland Supply. “My responsibilities then included managing operations and acting as corporate secretary,” he said.
He was appointed company president in 2006 and CEO in 2013. As CEO, he oversaw the merger of four individual companies into a single holding company with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). “During my career, we’ve grown from four stores to 24 stores,” Anderson said. “We went from generating about $6-$7 million in annual revenue in 1986 to now having annual revenues of about $260 million with our added locations, sales and marketing initiatives and added business verticals.”
Initially a plumbing, waterworks and HVAC distributor, Mountainland’s verticals now include supply distribution for hydronics, agriculture and turf irrigation, geo grid and textile, pump fabrication, and PVF. The company also serves customers with six plumbing luxury fi xture showrooms.
An essential ingredient in Mountainland’s success—membership in the IMARK buying group. “I don’t know how any independent wholesaler can survive without being a part of a buying group,” Anderson said.
An active member of the Omni Group for more than 20 years, Mountainland is now an active member of IMARK Plumbing. Anderson served on the Omni Board of Directors for seven years and in the chairman’s role in 2016 and 2017. He is pleased that Omni chose to merge with IMARK Plumbing. “IMARK is the most progressive buying group out of any that are available to join and it’s no surprise that members of other groups are looking to be a part of the progressive changes at IMARK,” Anderson said. “I couldn’t be happier to be a part of this group and its international influences. Smaller group members may not fully yet appreciate how important their membership has become. IMARK will continue to have significant market infl uence and historical influence.”
While Mike Plasier, CEO of Plumbing & Heating Wholesale Inc., is excited for Anderson in his retirement, he will miss Anderson’s direct involvement with IMARK Plumbing. “The vison for Omni, now IMARK, he had considerable influence in crafting is taking shape. I have been honored to work alongside of him and all of the IMARK members who have served on the board of directors. Brent Anderson is and always will be a valuable professional and personal relationship for me. I consider Brent to be a mentor, colleague and friend. Brent has a couple of great leadership qualities, that ever since I was introduced to him, I have been trying to improve on in my own life. He is truly one of the best leaders I have had opportunity to work with and observe.”
Anderson has a unique ability to offer people an opportunity to present their opinion while he listens intently and patiently. “I value this quality,” Plasier said. “As we all know, it is important that we let people be heard. Brent not only allows for this, he genuinely takes it in and considers it before he responds.”
Anderson also has a gift for delegating responsibility, setting direction and then getting out of the way. “Brent has taught me that trusting those you have put into positions and given responsibility to is paramount to their and ultimately an organization’s success,” Plasier said.
Anderson has a very welcoming personality both personally and professionally. “Because of the qualities listed above and many others, I have always felt that contributing to discussion on a topic was welcome if not expected by him.”
Anderson’s career trajectory in the plumbing industry had humble beginnings. He started out in 1974 as a delivery driver for Crane Supply Co., a manufacturing company that also had distribution branches. He went to work in their distribution branches until 1977 when he then started a job as a manufacturer’s representative with Maple’s Sales. He worked for that Denver, Colorado company until joining Mountainland Supply Co. in 1982. “It’s so fun to look back,” he said. “Mountainland Supply was one of the very first companies courageous enough to put computer terminals on the will-call counter.”
In those days, Mountainland relied on big boxy computers. “We had to change out the backup tapes as we closed out each month’s sales. Today, it takes 10 minutes but back then I would actually sleep by the computer overnight to change out the backup tapes so they didn’t get jammed up. I had an army cot and a sleeping bag and an alarm that would wake me up to change out those tapes.”
After noting how much distribution has advanced since the early days of inventory flip cards, customer stamping plates (with coded tags), handprinted carbon copied orders, two-way truck radios, and the first “brick” cell phones, he recounted arguing for weeks over purchasing a fax machine and later about investing in a marketing team. “It took a couple of years to fully understand the advantages of developing a marketing department,” Anderson said. “Now we can’t imagine living without it. The sales and marketing department we’ve developed is one of our greatest successes for vendor and customer involvement. Vendors and customers get excited about the social interactions and rewards offered through our rewards programs.”
Anderson credits interactive marketing campaigns with keeping customers engaged. “Our marketing campaigns reward customers who do business with us with family trips and tickets to sports games,” he said. “Our rewards programs have helped us build customer and vendor relationships. For the past six years, these campaigns have had the most resounding impact for our company’s growth.”
He also credits having strong employee culture to the focused efforts of the company’s employee engagement director.
While leaps of faith into new technology and marketing tactics helped spur business over the years, Anderson attributes Mountainland’s success to its greatest asset—its people. His greatest accomplishment over the course of his career, he said, was never being afraid to surround himself with great people, people who are smarter and more creative than him. “Find people who are really, really good,” he said. “Pick the right CFO, HR director, sales director, IT manager, operations manager, employee engagement director, marketing director—people who will have significant influence on your business.”
He is also proud to have played a major role in the company’s transition into an ESOP prior to his retirement. “I wanted to fi nd a succession plan for the stock-holders that would allow us to continue to grow the company,” Anderson said. “Our people are excited about ownership and the opportunities with the ESOP. It’s made a huge difference for company’s culture and trust.”
Anderson, who has been married for 43 years and has three children and nine grandchildren, looks forward to spending more time with his family after retirement. His interests include distance running, scuba diver, bee-keeping and volunteering at church. He will remain on Mountainland’s Board of Directors to help direct the great energy, aptitude and vision he sees within the company.
“I’m looking forward to watching the next 20 years of opportunities for Mountainland,” Anderson said.
For more information, visit mountainlandsupply.com.