78. The Key to Distributing Over a MILLION Products Daily (with Scott Attman, VP of Acme Paper and Supply)

Karthik Chidambaram: Hello everyone. Welcome to a brand new episode of the
Driven by DCKAP podcast. Today we are here in Savage, Maryland, which is
north of DC at the corporate headquarters of Acme Paper and Supply. We are
joined by Scott Atman, the Vice President of Acme Paper and Supply.

Scott, first off, thank you so much for having me here.

Scott Attman: Happy to have you here.

Karthik Chidambaram: Great to see you here. And also I just wanna say thank
you, before we begin this conversation. Thank you for being a DCKAP
customer. Also, thank you for the tour.

I really enjoyed visiting Acme Paper, you know, getting into the warehouse,
meeting some of your team and the different stuff you do. It's definitely a
lot.

Scott Attman: Yeah. I'm glad we were able to help you get your steps in for
the day and, I think that's something that's common for us to hear, which is
I had no idea you did all of those things. We consider our business- it has
five verticals. As I mentioned to you on the tour, while we keep 15,000
items in stock here in our corporate headquarters location. We represent
well over a million items that we distribute to our clients, primarily in
the Mid-Atlantic region, but throughout the country.

Karthik Chidambaram: So there are two strategies in business, right? So, one
is to be rich and get rich. So, and the other is, you know, I think maybe it
applies more to distribution, right? So you do more than one thing, and I
think you guys do the latter.

Scott Attman: Yeah.

Karthik Chidambaram: So what's the thought process behind that?

Scott Attman: I think when my grandfather started the business, there
weren't many options actually for products. I mean, paper was all that
existed. That's why the name Acme Paper, paper’s in the name.

As years went on and new products weren't introduced to the marketplace, I
think ultimately for us it was just about being the best resource to our
clients as possible. So doing as much as we can for them. Never going
outside of our core competencies. My grandfather would always say, focus on
what we do best.

Now with the five divisions I gave you, we do a lot of things best. I have,
you know, people ask me all the time, tell me about your business. And I try
and wrap it up nicely in a bow. Oftentimes I'll say, we help clients create
unique solutions to help their business operate. We do that through five
different divisions delivering five days over 50 trucks direct to their
businesses.

But I think that's really what we are. We are an ideas organization. We are
a solutions organization, and we just do that by delivering to the
facilities world, the healthcare world, and the restaurant and hospitality
world.

Karthik Chidambaram: So the company started in 1946 by your grandfather, but
then your grandmother also played a role in the name, Acme.

Scott Attman: Yeah, my great-grandmother,

Karthik Chidambaram: Oh, great-grandmother.

Scott Attman: Great grandmother, played a name in the role Acme. She wanted,
she thought it was integral for us to be first in the phone book. Google
wasn't even a, you know, wasn't a thing. So there was another company that
would've been alphabetically first in the phone book.

So Acme was a name that was very popular for that time. I think for any of
your listeners, no matter where they are, they probably know of an Acme
oriented business. Just about most states and towns around the country. So
that was primarily in play to be first in the phone book.

Karthik Chidambaram: And you learned business not just from your father, but
also from your grandfather. So you worked very closely with him.

Scott Attman: Yeah. I was fortunate he passed away at the age of 96, nearly
nine years ago. So I worked with him till I was just about 40 years old. So
for nearly 20 years of my adult life I was able to extrapolate, you know,
his mindset, his vision, and what his initial hopes were for the business
and even future hopes were for the business.

I asked him a question once. I said, you saw so much innovation for your
life, right? This was probably around the time of his 95th birthday, said,
you've seen so much. We had just gone to his house and hung a plasma TV on
his wall. I said, look at that. I said, you've got a TV, this thing, it is
hanging on your wall like art.

Can you believe it? Right. And he tells me stories about the first time that
you got a TV and listening to the boxing matches in the 1940s, and finally
being able to watch 'em. And I said, is this not the most incredible thing?
And he said, the most incredible piece of innovation. I saw the thing that
changed.

Our life the most was the microwave. And I always found that fascinating. He
said the ability to reheat food and, and be able to maneuver, feed a family
and, and just change your lifestyle. He said that was the thing that blew my
mind more than anything else that I've ever seen. I always thought that was
interesting.

Karthik Chidambaram: No, it was very interesting, right? So let's say if
somebody's born in the 19 hundreds, so let's say 1890s, and they lived until
1980, right? So when they were born, transportation was not a thing, you
know? So it was very, very hard to go from one place to another. And then,
you know, cars came in, you know, cars were in Germany, and then Ford made
it affordable for everybody.

You start going in cars and then you start going in planes. You know, that's
like a big thing happening, you know, in a lifetime.

Scott Attman: That's why, I mean, with everything that we're doing here in
technology, in our business, I think we're so excited about the improvements
that we've made, the investments that we made, and we know that whatever
we're doing today is just, just barely scratching the surface of what we can
do, , in the future.

Karthik Chidambaram: So talking about technology, right? So how are you
leveraging technology in this business? Let's say if somebody is on the
outside and they sometimes, you think, you know, it's a laid back thing,
companies like JanSan distributors or Acme Paper Supply, they don't really
invest too much in technology, but you do.

So how are you leveraging technology, and what are some of the things you're
doing there?

Scott Attman: Yeah, I had a client call me last year. And say, Hey Scott, I
would love it if we could get some information. And he gave me a series of
requirements and data points that he was trying to collect. And he is like,
and I totally get it, if that's not something you're capable of doing.
Because I get it, you're not like an IT based firm. And I said, we just
completed a seven figure implementation of a new ERP system.

I said, I'll crunch numbers for you anyway you want. And he's like, really?
And I said, yeah. I said, that's where the puck is going. The products, we
find a lot of value in the products. We believe in the products that we
distribute, but not all of them are necessarily unique to us. So I don't
like to call anything necessarily a commodity, but I mean, there's some
reality there.

There's some level of commodity that the products that we have, at the end
of the day, I believe, and for the investments that we've made, most
recently, I believe that technology is the differentiator, our ability to
leverage technology will be a differentiator in our client's experience. We
want to be doing business with Acme as our VP of Sales, Dale Frankie says,
often we want it just to be easy. Doing business with ACME should be easy,
it should be sticky. And we want- we believe that technology is that piece.

So where we are today, we're 10 months into a complete, you know, reboot of
our complete ERP implementation process, which, as I was saying, WMS or you
know, order management platforms, a software called Blue Ridge that my
brother and the supply chain team leverages, and a host of other softwares
that go along with it. And obviously the online ordering platform that you
participate in supporting.

Where we are today is, I mean, we are a 1-year-old, and hopefully have a
long lifespan. So, you know, we're excited about it. We're still learning.
You know, I've had this conversation today, I feel like three times I've
used this analogy.

It's a new year, so you start to write down all the things you wanna
accomplish. And I was meeting with someone the other day. They said, Scott,
those are all great things, but those are all boulders and it's hard to
accomplish all of your boulders in one year. And I said, I recognize that,
right? It's how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

So he said, I always like to make my list of boulders and pebbles, and for
the last couple weeks I've been trying to digest all of that and create my
list of boulders. Create my list of pebbles, and a lot of that is technology
based. What are the things that we can do now for customers just to continue
to see that we're even making improvements on top of what they're already
thrilled to be experiencing?

Karthik Chidambaram: Yeah, I think it's great to have a 1-year-old mindset,
so you're always trying to learn something new. I love that strategy.

So what are the different products you distribute today?

Scott Attman: So the easiest way to do it is five divisions. So our five
verticals are restaurant equipment and design. So part of that is service
and, and you saw some of that, the service of doing the design work, but the
primary focus there is the equipment.

So. Think of the back of a kitchen hood systems, refrigerators, ovens, but
down to toasters, microwaves, and the small things as well. Then we have
what we call tabletop and smallwares. What that means to the general public
is all of the supplies that you need to operate inside of a restaurant or
bar. So that can be your cutting boards and knives.

It can be your cocktail shakers to all of the salt and pepper shakers, China
flatware your forks, knives and spoons, and all the different types of
glassware. In the restaurant. From there we go to disposable packaging is a
separate vertical and that is all of the things that you need to operate in
a kitchen that are disposable.

So it goes from film and foil and gloves in the back of the house to front
of the house items, your to-go containers, your cups, forks, knife spoons
and napkins. And obviously the bags in there is one sort of asterisk, which
is sustainable. Packaging back in 2006, we created the first food, a hundred
percent compostable food service operation at the House of Representatives,
along with their team.

And that was, at that time, way ahead of its time, for sustainability and
compostability. and even there, we had requirements for products made in the
USA. For those items. So we got educated fast and early on sustainability,
and that's a major focus for us and something that a lot of our clients come
to us for our expertise on outside of the food service side of the business.
Then we have a facility side of the business.

So it began with all restaurants needed to be clean, so we started to expand
our offering into general cleaning supplies. But once we did that, then we
also have our, our facilities, what we call hygiene and facilities solution.

So it's janitorial and cleaning supplies, which includes equipment, towel,
tissue, hands. We go to the hygiene and facility solution. Hygiene and
facility solutions is a fancy name for janitorial cleaning supplies. So
that is PPE items. As I mentioned, we have gloves, but hair nets , aprons,
things like that.

But more widely seen as restroom supplies. So toilet paper, paper towels,
hand soap every time you walk past a Purell dispenser and get your hand
sanitizer. We work super close, Purell's a big partner for us. Even the
walk-off matting, when you come in and out of a building to the large, you
know, whether it's a vacuum cleaner or just large ride-on units that you see
cleaning carpets, that you see cleaning floors.

Not only do we sell those items, we also repair all of those items. We have
a service program here as well, so we can work on those items, whether it's
preventative maintenance programs where we go in based on the use of the
equipment, not necessarily the calendar. We don't just say it needs to be
every quarter.

We like to understand how it's used. That gets used a lot. It should be
every month. This gets used very little. It should just be twice a year. ,
so we always like to have good, clear conversations with our clients, learn
about their business, and help them with the right solutions, as I showed
you on the tour.

We also have the capability of leveraging technology and robotics in that
area. Even in the paper towel dispensers and hand soap dispensers, there's
technology in there that allows them to, that allows an operator to know
when one goes empty. So instead of having a, , a porter just at two o'clock
every afternoon, go to the restroom to check.

Now they can track it on their phone. Oh, the restroom on the third floor.
Just alerted me that it's gonna go empty. , so they can go up there and just
change when it needs to be done again, so people can be working more
efficiently during the day and doing tests that actually need to be done. ,
because as we discussed earlier, labor is so critical to everyone's
business.

And then we have our last division, which is custom branded products, which
is really just the platform that we really use to differentiate our
business. Historically it really started in retail. , we were working with
customers like Joseph Banks with Ritz Camera, circuit City. Some of those
large retail names don't exist anymore 'cause retail's changed so much.

But the expertise and the capabilities of branding and helping retail
quickly moved into food, really is Food Network exploded and food became
celebrity. Now you see the sort of intense branding that's behind all of
these food service operations. So we had a full team already in place and it
led right into that space there.

And again, it's good conversations with clients, learning about their
business, trying to understand what makes them unique and different so we
can help differentiate them, , through some of the different products.

I love the way you guys expanded, right? So, your grandfather started in his
car trunk, but then you slowly expanded into other verticals and now you do
a lot of things right? From even designing a restaurant to robotics or
cleaning hotels, you know, providing equipment to cleaning robots.

How did that come about in terms of, hey, you started one thing, but then
you have the customer base and you wanna expand. I thought the way your
grandfather, you know, as you described it, was very, very creative. Or I
would say it was very practical. Not treating competition as competition,
but trying to work together. Can you tell us the thought process there?

Scott Attman: Yeah. You know, I think good luck, good fortune, integrity,
respect, and I mean, great vision. All played a role in that process, right
place, right time. So, you know, I think he, my grandfather, always
understood his father had a market in a deli, so he understood the idea of a
basket of products and making that basket bigger.

So, you know, he saw we were serving. An industry and that industry could
serve, be served more with greater products and those products that actually
take us into these other industries. Then with that, you know, as my uncle
Steven will say all the time, talk about having the right talent on the bus.

Just going out and finding the right people that can leverage your vision
and leverage the products that you've now brought into your building. And
we've been fortunate to have some people take us to places that we didn't
even think we could go.And I think we all learn from each other. I think
there's a lot of collaboration in the building.

And people's success is something that people want to be part of. So, when
they’re a success in the building, other people want to go learn from them.
And see what they did so they can go take it, into their own experiences as
well. And it's worked out for us.

Karthik Chidambaram: And you were telling me, right, a lot of people in the
company have been there for a long time and that's a very, very big thing
and it's an asset for you guys, right?

So how do you invest in culture?

Scott Attman: How do we invest in culture? I think we do some of the, what I
consider standard things, right? So we just had our holiday party where we
bring everybody together. And I think that's something that's really
important to us because not everybody's in the building at the same time.

And it's not just because of hybrid work environments. There's salespeople
on the road, there's people that work at nights, there's people that work in
the mornings. There's people that work in different offices and
geographically. So to have an opportunity to get everybody in the building
together, and sometimes for people to see someone that they don't see, but
once a year or maybe they've never even met in person.

You know, that's a magical experience. So just doing little things like
that. But throughout the course of the year, you know, we celebrate our
anniversaries. We celebrate the holidays around here. We celebrate football
games and baseball teams and different things. We find opportunities at
every corner to get people together, to celebrate and to have some, some
level of fun together in the business.

But at the same time, we'll do internal training sessions. So whether it's
just with the sales team, whether it's with our customer service team or or
accounting teams, we try to bring people together in environments that not
only do we just celebrate together, but we learn together as well.

Karthik Chidambaram: The theme of this podcast is Driven, and how are you
driven?

Scott Attman: Oh man. You know, as I mentioned, I'm one of four children, an
older sister, and then two brothers, and my brothers are in the business. ,
and I, I think I was listening to another podcast of yours once and, one of
the CEOs, he was one of four also.

And I think when you grow up in that environment, you're naturally gonna be
competitive and driven. But I think growing up in the business, fortunately,
the business was always succeeding and business was always being discussed
around the dinner table, the lunch table, whatever it was, and you just
wanted to be part of the discussion.

Even as a little kid, you'd sit there and just through osmosis, absorb all
of these discussions. You'd hear the customer's names, you'd hear the
manufacturer's names, you hear the challenges, you hear the wins, and you're
absorbing all of it. As a kid, if you wanted to be in the business, you're
like, I, I wanna be, have a seat at the table.

I wanna be part of that discussion. So I think from an early age, I was
driven just to try and sort of live up to what my father, my uncles and
grandfathers, let alone, you know, some of the other 250 employees were
doing just so I could prove my value. You know, I guess as a third
generation, there's a little weight on the shoulders, but my brothers and I,
my cousin, we all take that and we relish it.

Karthik Chidambaram: So your dad should be very proud of you.

Scott Attman: I think so.

Karthik Chidambaram: Yeah. I met him. That was awesome. It was also great to
see your son as well, right? So, help out the business. You told me that,
you know, you started, you were here first when you were like eight years
old or something. And I also wanna thank your son because he helped with the
recording of the tour. So you brought him into the business and, you know,
so he's also kind of being groomed for the next generation.

Scott Attman: It's, that's really interesting, and that's something that I'm
trying to learn more about and understand, you know, when my father was
young, even when I was young, there were more opportunities to be involved
in the business at an early age.

Computers weren't doing all of the things that they are now. So, as I
mentioned to you, I was alphabetizing files, right? I was just stamping
envelopes. I was grabbing samples from the warehouse for salespeople and
just being in the building again, you just capture some of the words and,
and some of the moments that helped people succeed along the way.

I think my going to college was great and growing up in school was great,
but maybe my best education was in the summer breaks and winter breaks,
being around and just capturing and being part of those discussions and just
being a fly on the wall for the next generation. It's a little more
challenging because those simple jobs, the ones that just bring you here,
they're all automated.

So it's tougher to bring an 8-year-old into the building. And say, Hey. Can
you get this done and do this for me? There's some technical skills that
need to be involved as well. So, you know, we're trying to understand what
that is for the business, no one in our family was ever required to go in
it. The door was open.

If it was something that you were passionate about, you thought you could
provide value to, the door was here for us. And that's true for the, , the
potential fourth generation. And you remember my say, it's wild that, you
know, it's not that far. It's around the corner.

Karthik Chidambaram: I would like to end with this question.

What is something you are reading or something you're watching or learning,
right? So how do you keep yourself updated and , how do you do that?

Scott Attman: I am a podcast junkie. So, I'm in the car a lot. I spend- I
worked with an executive performance coach. His name is Brian Levinson. He
has a great podcast, I think it's called Strong Skills, so I listen a lot to
that. He turned me on to Michael Vet, who has an incredible podcast on
mastery, and I listen a lot to that. That challenges me to think a lot as
well. Going back to a sales training that I had probably around 2010, who
introduced me to the Simon Sinek video, right? Golden Circle. I think the
moment I heard that, that opened up the world for me and challenged me to
think a little bit differently.

So even in a recent video from Simon Sinek where they talk about there's no
winning in business and businesses, an infinite game. There's no set of
rules. There's no win because win would constitute an end, so every day is a
new opportunity to perform, to compete. Just to be given the opportunity to
do it again the next day.

But I really find podcasts. I'm behind the wheel a lot. So I really leverage
those podcasts to sort of open my mind and challenge me to think
differently.

Karthik Chidambaram: Scott, thanks for these great learnings and thanks for
these recommendations as well. Great chatting with you for the Driven
Podcast. Thank you for being here.

Scott Attman: Thank you so much.