HUBBARD, Ohio – Jugenheimer Industrial Supplies Inc. started out of necessity and humble beginnings, but it has grown by taking care of its customers and adapting to change.
“Dad lost his job working for another supply place because they told him he could never advance because he only graduated ninth grade,” says Rick Jugenheimer, company president, referring to his late father. “But he was their No. 1 salesman and No. 1 everything, and they just said, ‘Well, you don’t have a diploma, so you can’t go any further.’”
That was in 1976, and Jugenheimer’s dad, Bill Jugenheimer, quit that job and started the business in the basement and garage of the family’s Hubbard home.
“We supply fasteners – anything with a thread on it, any type of cutting tool – mostly to industry and manufacturing,” Rick says. “We’re now in the process of going after construction, and we do sell to a lot of contractors, but it’s never been the highlight of what we do. So now we’re actually going out after the contractor business, also.”
It also sells tools and accessories.
The family-owned business is celebrating its semicentennial with a Sept. 3 open house at 6863 Commerce Drive for its customers. The event will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and include vendor exhibits and product showcases, live product demonstrations, giveaways and door prizes, food and refreshments and opportunities to meet with manufacturers and industry representatives.
Bill’s son, Larry, worked at a Youngstown manufacturing company that went out of business, so he joined the new company, becoming its first employee. Rick worked for a nail and staple company but left to join the family business, as did Glen, his brother, who had worked for the Fisher Fazio grocery stores. Their mother, Alice, worked as the company secretary.
After complaints from neighbors about semitrucks, the business moved to a former gas station building on North Main Street in Hubbard.
“We remodeled it, and then in 1983 we bought our second building, but then that’s when all the steel mills closed. So our second building sat for almost a year until we rebuilt business back up,” Rick Jugenheimer says.
Its second building was also on North Main, and the company grew to eight employees. In 1993, the business moved to Commerce Drive where it remains and employs 22.
“This is almost 40,000 square feet of building, and we just put up the big building out back for all of our trucks and things last year,” Rick says. “We continue to grow, but to expand the business, you always have to be looking at something different. By looking at construction – we have a lot of it already – we just think we could do much more for that.”
After their father’s retirement, the brothers ran the business. Their parents died last year, each at 96.
Third Generation
Rick’s children, Sara Jugenheimer-Eicher, Adam Jugenheimer and Cathy Moore, represent the third generation at the company.
Rick continues to come to work daily, but his children handle day-to-day operations.
His brothers have retired.
Eicher, vice president/treasurer, acknowledges the responsibility to continue her family’s legacy.
“Every day I’m hoping we don’t screw it up,” she says, jokingly. “I try to learn a lot from my dad. I mean, he’s seen a lot of things through the years, and when something comes up that I start worrying about, I say to him, ‘Have you been here before? Have you done this before? Should I be panicking yet?’ And he kind of walks us through it.”
Eicher tries to soak up her dad’s knowledge and to deal with issues as they arise. “But there is the pressure to live up to what they’ve built over all the years,” she says.
She recognizes the accomplishments of her grandparents, father and uncles.
“I’ve only been here for 13 years, but they’ve built a business,” Eicher says. “It takes a lot of courage, I think, to do that – and hard work over the years to come up to this point.”
Many things, including closure of the steel mills, recessions and Covid, could have derailed the business, but it kept going, she says.
Starting Young
As children, Eicher and her two siblings came to work with their father, working in the warehouse, dusting shelves and filling up bags of bolts – 100 to a bag.
But only Adam initially planned to make the family business his career. He serves as vice president.
“It was just the family business,” he says. “I just wanted to be involved in it.”
As he got older, his responsibilities increased to include shipping, receiving and filling in for the warehouse manager. He later moved into the office, working with order entry, and then to inside sales.
“Then when I got to college, we had a salesman retire who had been here for over 20 years, and that was my opportunity to take an outside sales position because they just don’t open up much for us,” Adam recalls. “And after I did that for quite a few years, my uncle retired, and then that’s when I moved into the sales manager role.”
Eicher worked as a social worker and Moore as a teacher before joining the family business full time. But all three enjoyed coming with their dad to work when they were children and helping with minor tasks – and getting paid.
Eicher had just secured an advanced social worker license when one of her uncles retired.
Family members approached her to see if she was interested in working at the company full time. She went back and forth and decided to try it. It stuck.
“The schedule with my children was a lot more steady,” Eicher says. “I wasn’t on call. There’s different kinds of pressure in each position, but I enjoy working with my family.”
She also enjoys that each day brings something different. Her son, 11, accompanies her to work when he’s not in school. He’s still undecided about his career plans and whether he wants to work at the family business.
“He’s a very smart kid, so if he wants to, then I’m sure we’ll give him the opportunity,” Eicher says.
Moore started working full time with the family business about seven years ago, when teaching became less enjoyable. She wanted to be part of the business her family had created and to be part of something bigger.
Moore, too, enjoys working with her family. Following in their mother’s footsteps, her children, ages 3 and 7, sometimes come to work with her.
“They’re young, so right now they just like running around to everybody that they can find,” she says.
Company Success
Moore attributes the company’s success to her father’s and uncles’ consistency and persistence.
“And them making sure that the three of us keep the business part of it in the forefront of our minds and staying as consistent as possible,” she says.
Rick points to the company’s employees and its customers for its longevity. He learned from his father the importance of being fair and honest with customers, and it’s a philosophy his children continue to follow. If you make a mistake, you tell the customer, he says.
And the company offers a personal touch.
“We jump on problems first,” Rick says. “If you’ve ever called, you talk to somebody, not a machine that says prove you’re a human or whatever.”
That honesty may cost a customer though if, for example, Rick explains that a delivery will take four weeks and a less honest competitor promises two weeks for the same product from the same location.
The Hubbard operation is stocked with 40,000 items to meet customer needs. The business also includes a warehouse in Medina, Ohio, that has 76,000 items in stock.
Rick also credits employees for the company’s success.
“The good employees we have look at it and say, ‘You know, we don’t want mistakes and we want this to work,’ and our employees are actually harder on each other than we are,” he says. “We’re kind of easy sometimes.”
Pictured at top: Jugenheimer Industrial Supplies Inc. officers, from left, Adam Jugenheimer, vice president; Rick Jugenheimer, president; Sara Jugenheimer-Eicher, vice president/treasurer; and Cathy Moore, who handles purchasing, in the Commerce Drive warehouse in Hubbard.
