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Enpro Distributing, Inc. Featured in the Houston Business Journal
Pitching Tint. By Greg Barr.
For 20 years, David Dickey and Kent LeMonte thought they understood success. But after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when sales at Enpro Distributing Inc. took a hit, the company co-founders knew they would have to redefine the word.
"In some ways, we had become complacent," says LeMonte, Enpro's executive vice-president. "After 9/11, which affected our business almost immediately, David and I came to the conclusion that the way we were structured as a pure distribution company meant we were never going to grow exponentially. We would grow when the economy grew and suffer when the economy suffered."
After being startled by the 9/11 revelation, Dickey and LeMonte formulated a plan for the company, which distributes window film products for automotive and commercial/residential applications. A staff meeting was convened a year later at a nearby Holiday Inn, during which the retooled Enpro was unveiled.
Accountability was the watchword of the day. Collectively, the employees wrote "core purpose" and "core values" statements to live by. Those who did not pull their weight were warned they would be out of a job.
"We thought maybe we had become fat and happy and were throwing away some opportunities," says LeMonte. "So (after the meeting) it was not an easy time for us, and we had to let a lot of people go. Some of them had just been waiting around for retirement or their next paycheck. We had to determine our strengths and weaknesses and find the people to march us in to that opportunity."
Three years later, Enpro is quickening its pace. While expanding into national markets, offering a wider range of products in new applications and establishing more supportive relationships with customers, the company is seeing clearly in the automotive and commercial window film industry.
As a result, 2005 revenue is expected to jump 33 percent to $12 million, compared to $9 million in 2004. The payroll, now at 25, continues to expand. And Enpro is preparing to build a 4,000-square-foot office/warehouse space adjacent to its existing 6,000-square-foot building. The company also owns a 7,500-square-foot sales/warehouse facility in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
"We really need some breathing room," Dickey says during an interview in a small company meeting room which includes an employee's desk crammed into a corner. Dickey and LeMonte are working from home until the new facility opens by the end of December.
An open window The Enpro co-founders joined forces in the fledgling window film industry in Houston in the late 1970s, and started Enpro in 1981 with $500 in a checking account, no office equipment and no customers.
That quickly changed.
The automotive side of the tinting industry, which had been thriving in Florida, didn't get established in Texas until the mid-1980s after legislation allowing some tinting was introduced. Enpro moved quickly to serve that fast-growing market.
Today, about 60 percent of Enpro's revenue comes from automotive products, fueled by a plan to diversify after-market product offerings to auto dealer customers. Besides glass tinting made by its chief supplier, Madico Inc., Enpro offers auto security systems, audio/video components, paint protection, ground effects and other add-ons, with the intent of maximizing profits on each auto sold. The company has 25 car dealer customers in the Houston area and 75 nationwide.
In 2003, Enpro developed its own software system, FirstCut, which increases efficiency for dealers by precisely pre-cutting window patterns or bumper paint protection films for exact makes and models of vehicles. Dealers can buy the technology from Enpro or order pre-cut kits.
Enpro's prices vary, but, for example, a FirstCut paint protection kit for a 2002 PT Cruiser costs $139 uninstalled, and $264 including installation. Meanwhile, retail customers would pay about $75 to purchase the window film kit, and another $75 to have it installed.
Nick Routh, a Florida-based former Enpro competitor, used to bump heads with Dickey and LeMonte as his business expanded farther west, and Enpro began moving east. He says Enpro has always been a step ahead.
"They did the right things early on and could see that just being a distributor of window film had limitations, so they were savvy enough to realize that selling security systems and other products to (auto) dealers was a way of having extra arrows in the quiver," says Routh, now a government sales consultant for window film manufacturer Bekaert Specialty Films.
Routh points out that many of Enpro's customers are smaller mom-and-pop businesses, which typically require more attention and hand-holding. He says that has not proved to be an obstacle for Enpro.
"I can't think of better guys to compete with -- they never downgraded the competition and just sold their service based on its merits, and I can appreciate that in any industry," Routh says.
Enpro also went further than some to help customers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina by giving thousands of dollars to auto dealers and employees in Mississippi and Louisiana who saw their homes and businesses destroyed.
The company was specifically touched by the hurricane in that Enpro's fastest-growing niche market is security films and systems for commercial buildings that can hold windows in place even if broken in hurricane-force winds or can withstand the impact of a bomb blast. The systems were recently installed at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
National accounts in the window film side of the business include Old Navy and a four-year contract completed this year to install safety film glass at 1,200 KinderCare Learning Centers around the country.
Even before the 2002 corporate makeover, Dickey says, the company knew it had to be more than just a "toll-booth" distributor that merely sold products to dealers.
"We are a little more expensive than most, but we're devoting a lot of time to training (auto) dealers," he says. "We're teaching them how to run their business better, training their salespeople and technicians. Our salespeople in the field aren't just shaking hands and taking people out to lunch."
Dickey points out that following that September 2002 revamping, some employees changed jobs within the organization to find their right niche.
"Our greatest investment is in our people, but sometimes you have to realize that it's not just having the right people aboard the bus -- you have to have them in the right seat on the bus," he says.
Others employees have returned to school in an effort to help themselves move up within the ranks, resulting in many staff members with more than 10 years of service.
In hindsight, LeMonte says, the company's best move after the difficult task of cutting staff was hiring Chris Weinhardt as director of marketing in October 2002. After being given the job of creating a distinct brand to position Enpro as more than just a distribution company, Weinhardt focused immediately on Web site content. He converted all of the company's marketing collateral into electronic documents, and created multiple Web pages for specialty purposes aimed directly at dealer customers.
According to Dickey, Weinhardt's contributions mirror the entire notion of how Enpro was able to reinvent itself.
"We were in our 50s and making pretty good money, but (Kent and I) asked ourselves is that really all we want to do? Or do we want to have a fun, vibrant company that is achieving things and helps our team members grow personally and professionally?," he says. "We asked ourselves if we wanted to be mediocre or be great. We wanted to be great."
Greg Barr is a Houston-area freelance writer.
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