KPM Blog

If you had to explain the value of two-step distribution, could you? Two-step distributors buy products from the manufacturers and then sell the product to independent dealer businesses. The dealers, in turn, sell it to the end user, thereby earning the two-step definition.

For those of us in the OPE industry, it is the way we do business so we do not think about the inherent value. It just is. Many times the simplest and easiest way to explain something is to just list some of the benefits for the dealers; explaining why they would want to use distributors, and then do the same thing for the manufacturers.

Dealers who have worked with manufacturers directly in the past may wonder how distributors fit into the equation and what value distributors can add to their retail business. When I speak with dealers who purchase and promote power equipment available through distribution, I hear a wide range of reasons why dealers get excited about working with a distributor. Here are the benefits I hear most frequently from OPE dealers.

Steve Redan founded Kenvil Power Mower in 1957 as a retailing, servicing outdoor power equipment dealership after the untimely passing of his dad.  With the need to support his mom and siblings, Steve’s mom signed him out of high school, and with a modest loan of $150 from a neighborhood friend (and Steve never forgot this gesture), Steve purchased his first three HomKo lawnmowers for resale.