Würth Canada celebrates 50 years

In 2014 the company moved into a state-of-the-art building in Guelph – a building designed in part by Reinhold Würth.

In 2021 Würth Canada is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The company is best known for supplying fasteners and other consumables to the automotive aftermarket, but its expansion into the metalworking and construction industries and the development of its logistics and supply chain efforts for customers have helped strengthen and grow its market presence. New CEO Ali Moghaddam is leading a drive to double the company’s business in the next five years through these channels.

Solid History

Würth’s German parent company was founded 76 years ago by Adolf Würth. It was his son, Reinhold, however, who turned the father’s practice of fabricating and selling fasteners to local farms in Kunzelsau into a multinational business.

Würth Canada opened its doors in Montreal in 1971 and maintained its headquarters there until 1986, when it moved to Mississauga. In 2014 the company moved into a state-of-the-art building in Guelph – a building designed in part by Reinhold Würth, who staff affectionately call Professor Würth.

Moghaddam speaks of this family connection at the company as one of the aspects of the business that attracted him when he took on his role in October 2020.

“I’ve been involved in the industrial distribution industry since 2003,” he said. “One thing I was attracted by was Würth’s strong foundation as a family business and its people – people who are dedicated to the business, the company, and its customers. It’s a company with a nice balance between a corporate institution and a family business.”

Having its own building has allowed the company to develop its logistics processes to speed order fulfillment.

“We have an automated part picking system in our warehouse that speeds up order packing by our team,” said Amanda Doerrie, marketing manager. “We have more than 39,000 active customers in Canada, so it’s important that shipping can be managed without a hitch. And we are efficient. If a customer places an order by 2 p.m. EST, it will ship that same day. We are that reliable for our customers.”

A second facility in Acheson, Alta., ensures that customers in the west get the same level of prompt service. That facility currently stocks about 8,000 products but, through expansion of the facility later this year, should be able to stock close to the 14,000 products that are at the Guelph facility.

Expanding Customer Connections

New CEO Ali Moghaddam is leading a drive to double Würth’s business in the next five years.

In the age of Amazon.com, ensuring prompt delivery and relatively simple order placement is essential. Like so many other companies, Würth has had to adapt. In answer to demands for around-the-clock business needs, it launched its own eShop in 2017, making it easier for customers to complete orders without the need to talk to a sales representative.

“We always want to increase our touch points with customers to ensure we can help them keep their businesses running smoothly,” said Doerrie. “The eShop last year allowed for thousands of extra transactions by customers, speeding delivery of key products to our customers.”

As Moghaddam noted, the past year has pushed a lot of companies to innovate and adapt by creating new ways to reach customers.

“Organizations have had to adapt quickly and venture into areas they avoided in the past, such as e-commerce, even doing business over the phone,” he said. “Our organization, for instance, has been very much a feet-on-the-street kind of company, so building those other channels to customers has been important, and will continue to be, to help us grow. The good thing for us is that there is so much innovation done by our headquarters in Germany that, in many cases, it’s just a matter of leveraging those here in Canada for us to further grow. I think the opportunities are limitless.”

But there are always new ways – and old ways – to reach customers. Würth’s newest move, in this sense, may be seen by some as old-fashioned; it is opening up three bricks-and-mortar customer stores. The stores are based on a model that Würth has had in Europe throughout its history, establishing pickup locations where customers can come in to get materials they need rather than wait for a delivery.

“Many of our competitors are closing stores -- the industrial distribution market looks as if it’s moving away from that model -- but we don’t see it that way,” said Moghaddam. “Our digital sales are becoming much stronger, but the way we see the pick-up shop is that it’s a totally different concept to our competitors; this is the store of the future, including touchless, automated, state-of-the-art tech that creates convenience for our customers.” The first shops will be in Vaughan and Mississauga, Ont., and in the Montreal area. The company’s five-year plan is to open 40 stores across Canada within that time."

Becoming Partners

With the expansion of its presence online and in person, Würth is also expanding its market reach, gradually growing in the metalworking and construction industries.

“The MRO, manufacturing, and construction markets have remained relatively untapped by the company, and we see those segments growing quickly,” said Moghaddam. “It is absolutely possible for us to reach our goals in those areas; we just have to create that focus. We want to become a truly national industrial distributor instead of just an automotive industry distributor. It will take a cultural shift to make that transformative change, but I’m confident we can make that happen.”

This past year Würth was able to supply masks and nitrile gloves that were difficult to source in the marketplace for customers who suddenly had to consider their use in their operations. At the same time, the company has introduced a number of customers to its lines of welding supplies, drilling and cutting tools, and, of course, its full line of fasteners.

The company has an automated part picking system in its warehouse that speeds up order packing.

But as Doerrie explained, individual products don’t make a company successful.

“What we hope to bring to our clients now are deeper analytics on their purchasing to make sure they maintain smoothly running operations,” she explained. “Inventory management systems and analytics can help customers with cost savings, and any way we can help them on that kind of partnership level can only strengthen that relationship and our own operations.”

Editor Robert Colman can be reached at rcolman@canadianfabweld.com.

Würth Canada, www.wurth.ca

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