San Antonio—The FEI Group National Conference was held here against the backdrop of the group’s 25th anniversary, which led to reflection for many in attendance.
“We don’t want to miss this one opportunity to reflect on our journey so far,” said Graham Howerton, FEI Group president. “I want to say thank you to our founding members and our founding supply partners and every other member and supply partner that has joined us for the first 25 years of our journey.”
Through exponential growth, leadership changes and a new partner company in Nationwide Marketing Group, FEI has indeed evolved greatly in 25 years but its mission has remained the same: to add value for member companies through business services, supply connections and unrivaled networking.
“I think our founder, Dave Gheesling, said it best in his casual way: ‘When you get a group of really smart people together in a room, great things will happen,’” Howerton noted. “And you know what? He was right, wasn’t he? You just look around at your table, look around at this room, and I think you’ll see what I see, that there just isn’t a room like this anywhere else in the country.”
The look back was not only a nod to the strategies that built FEI Group into the organization it is today but to prepare to move into the next 25 years and reflect on what that might meant for all involved. “We still believe that where we’re going is most important, but it’s also good to reflect on where we’ve been and where we are today,” Howerton added.
Where the group is today is 412 members strong with 1,189 locations, 200-plus supply partners and about $14 billion in annual revenue. That’s a far cry from its five-member, three-supply partner beginnings back in 1998 when founder Dave Gheesling and three others—Randy McNatt, Andy Hogan and Tim Joyce—brought FEI Group to life. “I’m really excited about what lies ahead,” Howerton noted. “And that’s the most important question for me, it’s the most important question for our group, for our leadership. It’s all about the next 25 years, so that starts today.”
What’s new
In the last handful of years, the group has undergone major transformations. That includes a flurry of leadership changes—leading to new faces at the conference this year touting excitement for the years to come. Four new members were introduced at the welcome session on day one of the event: Amy Turner, FEI Group marketing manager; John Crysup, director, Traffic Safety Solutions; Wes Weger, director, Home Solutions; and Amie Foster, VP of flooring, Home Solutions/Multifamily Solutions.
“Our FEI Group members have gone through a ton of change,” Foster told FCNews. “Over the last three years, we look completely different. It’s [almost] a whole new team of people. Jay [Smith, president,] left the organization; Dave [Gheesling] suddenly left the organization; Andy [Hogan] has now left the organization. We’ve hired a whole new team, and my hope would be that we just gain the members’ confidence.”
The group also welcomed a new division in 2023: Traffic Safety Solutions. The latest includes large-scale highway and road-striping companies—all independent contractors.
“There was no group for them,” Max Holland, COO, told FCNews. “The real difference is the barrier to entry into that industry is much higher than flooring or roofing. The equipment they have to have and the safety standards they have to have in place are a much more expensive capital investment. So, they just need an industry organization to help them be better, a little more efficient with better buying power.”
According to Holland, the growth—not just in membership but diversification—gives FEI better ways to serve its members.
Finally, the biggest change, perhaps of all, was the purchase of FEI by Nationwide Marketing Group—the independent retail channel’s largest buying, marketing and business support organization. This shift will bring a number of valuable assets to the group and its members in the coming years. First, is digital marketing. Nationwide will expand upon the group’s efforts and offer access to valuable marketing initiatives that will be easily accessible for members in any division.
Next is data. “We’re doing data as intelligence,” Holland explained. “We’ve got a ton of historical data from our members, but we’ve never rolled it up in a format that brought them value. Nationwide Marketing Group has a massive database, and we’re going to join forces with them on that platform to do just that.”
Howerton explained that Nationwide uses data and analytics for every decision they make, including with their vendor partners—how they purchase, what they purchase, when they purchase. “They can also target homeowners very specifically,” he explained. “There are so many ways that data and analytics can help our members today. A true online interactive AI-based learning management system. That’s off and running and that’s going to be a great engine that propels us through the next 25 years.”
What’s next
Every year, the conference itself draws members from across the country who partake in vast and varied educational opportunities and, most importantly, unrivaled networking events. That will continue into the future with dates and locations already settled for the next two years.
“I know you mark this [conference] on your calendars every year, and we are so thankful,” Howerton noted. “As I speak to so many of you, as we get close to this event every year, I’m always excited about your passion for the FEI Group National Conference. Also, the passion that our spouses and special guests bring to this event.”
Foster added that the “belongship” members feel at the event serves as a driver for the year to come. “We believe in the power of the feeling the members have coming from conference—that togetherness, that member-to-member, peer-to-peer ‘belongship’ that they always feel here. That’s a driver when they leave this conference, and they get excited about what to do and implement in their businesses. We feel that all the way through the conference into closing—and into what they’re going to take into their businesses for the next few months.”
Beyond that, the goal will be to continue to bring added value to its member companies. “We’ve put these great 25 years behind us,” Holland said. “The members are now looking to us and asking: ‘How are we going to maintain some of those key components from the first 25 years—that intimacy, that connection, that power that our members bring—and bring that to them for the next 25 years?’ That’s our internal discussion. We’ll keep helping them grow to achieve what they want and where they want to be in their business into the future.”
