Pat Williams has been the face of Fenner Drives in the eastern U.S. for over 23 years as a salesman. His current role, as Eastern Regional Sales Manager, uses those years of experience and relationship-building to push Fenner Drives forward as we look to expand our reach. He works with our Manufacturer Rep teams and key National Distributor partners to grow market share in the eastern United States and Canada.
One of Pat’s biggest successes involved adding three new customers to the Fenner Drives portfolio. Pat established a working relationship with them and after years of denial from these companies they are now key contributors. Pat clarifies, “They collectively spent $850K last year with Fenner Drives, one being a distributor and the other two are OEM customers.” Wins like these are always on Pat’s radar. He promotes Fenner Drives every day and he the persistence to stay after it.
Pat looks for opportunities to increase market share in a variety of ways. One big accomplishment involved the developing the idea of producing Taper Edge Band after the purchase of Eagle Belting. Pat explains, “When we bought Eagle, it gave us the ability to extrude wider profiles. At the time, the current target price was less than $0.25/ foot. After discussing further, with some of the Wall board manufacturers, we discovered all the negative issues they currently experienced with the existing PVC version. Our product development team came up with a material that would address all the negative issues. After the development of the product, we could not introduce until we received an order from a customer. Once we received an order, Fenner Drives could produce the necessary tooling to needed to produce TEB. Dan Verrill was, finally, able to secure the first order, which was not an easy task, since we had no certainty our profile would be acceptable and if we would address the stretch issues as we promised. As well, we wanted more than $2.00 per foot, 10X the current TEB in the market. This initiative led to a pretty successful product line for Fenner Drives over the last 15+ years.” Pat used his dedication to move Fenner Drives forward as part of the team that developed Taper Edge Band.
Pat is a dedicated family man, as well. During the summer he spends his time off with family and friends on the water. Often, he can be found boating, fishing, participating in water sports or just relaxing with his adult children. His other group activities include golfing, cooking classes, craft beer, wine and bourbon tastings and salmon fishing. Pat is a volunteer at church and participates in a variety of charitable fundraisers. In the past, he was a volunteer baseball and basketball coach. The next time you see Pat ask him about the MLB playoffs or the latest tasting he attended. He’ll have a great take on each subject!