Huttig Building Products has proudly served the LBM industry for over 135 years, built upon a national distribution network and time-honored relationships with customers diverse in both scale and specialty.
Huttig leveraged this industry acumen and, in late 2016, launched Huttig-Grip Fasteners, a comprehensive fastener line designed for lumberyards, prodealers, and specialty distributors. A team of industry veterans with 250-plus years of fastener and distribution experience pooled their expertise to solve the gaps and pain-points with existing competitive offerings. Huttig-Grip immediately received a welcome reception from existing and potential Huttig customers.
“When I think back to 2017, we had just dabbled in fasteners on the West Coast, but really, nowhere else,” said Brad Strosahl, vice president of national accounts. “In just five years we’ve grown to one of the top fastener distributors in the market. It has been a ton of work from the entire team to get us to where we are today, and we are still focused on growth. Our goal is to become the #1 fastener distributor in the country.”
Linda Graziano, senior director of marketing and part of the Huttig-Grip development team, recalls the launch; “Our first message out the door was: ‘You deserve a choice and we’re the right choice for you,’” she said. “Our customers responded very positively — they knew right away that this program was developed for them.”
The Huttig-Grip line encompasses all types and all phases of construction:
- Huttig-Grip construction fasteners
- Huttig-Guard exterior screws & stainless-steel fasteners
- Huttig-Spin professional drywall & steel framing screws
- Huttig-Grip & Huttig-Guard collated fasteners
This breadth and depth of product makes Huttig-Grip an attractive choice. From deck screws to collated framing nails to stainless steel, a complete mix of fasteners is available from one supplier, simplifying purchasing and creating a cohesive point of sale presence.
And when it comes to packaging, Huttig-Grip is all-in; as no detail is spared with creating the most attractive, functional, hard-working system on the market. Packaging is thoughtful and consistent across all hand drive products, including packaged, buckets, and bulk boxes.
- Same height and width 1 lb. and 5 lb. master cartons
- Actual-size fastener photo and bold, descriptive text
- Largest and strongest window for high product visibility
- Color-coding with icons system for fast and easy product identification
- Easy-to-carry handles on bulk boxes
“Huttig-Grip collated fasteners are another game-changer for our customers,” Graziano said. “From framing nails, to construction staples, to finish and trim, we have fasteners to fit practically every tool on the market today,” she said. “Our 1,000-count collated tubs and the finish and trim clamshells have been very well received by dealers looking for smaller, convenience-sized packaging.”
Stocking Huttig-Grip collated fasteners provides the optimal mix for each market, reduces the number of vendors, and simplifies and standardizes the assortment. Stainless steel collated fasteners are also available in many styles and sizes.
At the store level, retail is detail. “Each of our dealers has a unique fasteners set, created for their store, tailored to their customer-base,” Graziano said. “This includes signage and other merchandising guides for a more engaging display, improved turns, and overall category sales growth. We are very involved at the ground level with each of our dealers.”
This first-hand engagement also inspires product line extensions and new product development. “We had an exciting new product launch in the works, and then 2020 happened, and we pushed pause,” Graziano said. “We are now deeply involved in evaluating and testing new products to stay ahead of evolving market needs.”
“The growth in the market is coming from collated fasteners, including collated screws, and exterior fasteners” Vice President Strosahl said, “and we are spending a lot of time and energy in developing new products in these categories. Our in-house quality management and engineering team have done extensive testing on competitive products to benchmark current state; and our goal is to look to improve offerings to the market.”
Supply chains have become more challenging and unpredictable, both domestic and overseas. To mitigate these hazards, Huttig has developed a robust, reliable global sourcing network to maintain consistently high fill-rates across all fastener categories, even during unprecedented times.
Huttig’s national network of building product distribution creates Huttig-Grip Fasteners program opportunities with customers already buying other LBM products from Huttig. Looking forward, the home center and the hardware store markets are areas of potential growth.
In May of 2022, Huttig Building Products was acquired by Woodgrain, a diverse, privately held LBM company best known as a manufacturer of mouldings, doors and windows. Woodgrain has strong, existing relationships with dealers both within and outside of Huttig’s traditional channels.
“Huttig-Grip Fasteners is a core product category for Woodgrain/Huttig, and will benefit from the additional resources and LBM industry knowledge that Woodgrain brings to the team,” Graziano said. “This is a really exciting time for Huttig-Grip Fasteners — we are just getting started!”