A summer family vacation to see a Braves vs. Reds game routed me through Mason, Ohio, home of Harris Products Group, a Lincoln Electric Company. I called Rob Tefft, Director of Field Sales and Distribution, and a familiar GAWDA event attendee to see if I could stop in for a tour.
As expected, Harris has a huge operation at this Ohio facility with over 200 employees, which Lincoln Electric acquired when they purchased the J.W. Harris Company in 2005. This location primarily manufactures Brazing Alloys using copper, phosphorus, silver, and zinc materials as well as fabricated parts commonly used in the HVAC industry. These brazing alloys, and a complete line of Industrial and Specialty Gas Equipment, are the core products that Harris offers to GAWDA distributors.
MANUFACTURING FACILITY
Harris manufactures Brazing Alloys from raw materials which are cast into the specific alloy, extruded into wire, drawn down to the desired size, and then cut or spooled here in Mason, Ohio, using very specialized equipment. Focused on sustainability, the process creates little to no scrap because materials can be remelted, minimizing waste.
Mason not only operates as a large manufacturing facility, but it’s also Harris’ North American distribution hub. This facility stocks Industrial and Specialty Gas Equipment products made at their highly automated plant in Gainesville, GA; Cutting torches and outfits made at their state-of-the-art facility in Poland; Soldering alloys made in Winston Salem, NC; and a variety of Welding consumables from all over the world, making it convenient for customers to combine orders for all of these products under one PO that will ship complete from Mason.
SALES APPROACH
From a customer support perspective, Harris has a team of Industrial Account managers and Specialty Gas Equipment Specialist spread across the country. The Industrial team breaks out into an East Region, led by Ryan Perry, and a West Region, led by Neal Lembke. The Specialty Gas team has an Inside tech support team led by Joe Sullivan and an Outside technical team led by Matt Paradiso. The Industrial and Specialty Gas teams report to Rob Tefft and were structured this way to provide excellent support to GAWDA distributors on their full range of Equipment or Consumable products.
Harris Products has aligned themselves closer to their parent company, Lincoln Electric by participating in Lincoln’s RedZone program. Distributors who participate in Harris’ Gas Equipment RedZone Partner Program will receive discounts on Harris Products, and additional rebates from Lincoln. Harris also launched a new distributor program called Harris+. As Rob said, “We wanted to create a program that was easy to understand, available to all, and that gives significant benefits to distributor partners who choose Harris” The Harris+ program has three distributor levels, Preferred, Premier, and Elite, and includes 10 core product categories. The more core product categories you participate in, the greater the benefits.
Thank you to Rob Tefft for his hospitality and for sharing his knowledge with me on my visit.
