National Accounts

Mike Kunin, long-time employee of Komatsu America, joined Kirby-Smith in October 2021, just in time to be part of the company as it powered through the pandemic.

Did the impact of COVID-19 make him think twice about having jumped to the dealership?

“Not at all,” said the company’s vice president of national accounts. “Coming to Kirby-Smith was the best move I ever made. I knew it was going to be a good move and it’s even better than I thought it was going to be.”

Kunin’s 22 years of experience with the dealer’s flagship manufacturer was capped as central region business director of Komatsu’s construction and forestry products. At Kirby-Smith, he still is surrounded by such products — including Komatsu dozers, excavators, graders, dump trucks and loaders of many sizes.

It is Kunin’s job to sustain partnerships with the dealer’s major manufacturers — Komatsu, Wirtgen Group, Manitowoc, Takeuchi and so on — and help build/support agreements with national accounts. “Relationships management” is what he referred to it as.

“The manufacturers generally establish the pricing and it is up to us to support the customers to the point that we continue to expand our relationships,” he said. “It’s a competitive environment, and the best thing we do is provide solutions to problems that our customers are faced with.”

With so much competition from established heavy-duty manufacturers in the region, Kunin was asked if much attention is paid to the second-tier manufacturers in the marketplace.

“The supply disruptions that impacted some of the big producers opened the door to smaller manufacturers,” he said.

What gives Kirby-Smith an edge among those manufacturers is the dealership’s customer support.

It is Kunin’s job to sustain partnerships with the dealer’s major manufacturers — Komatsu, Wirtgen Group, Manitowoc, Takeuchi and so on — and help build/support agreements

with national accounts. “Relationships management” what he referred to it as.

“Contractors really are dependent upon the proximity of locations and upon product support,” Kunin said. “The second-tier manufacturers don’t have the locations, the parts warehouse and so on that we bring to our customers.”

Kunin agrees with the description of the company as “resilient” and being well-positioned for the next economic storm.

“With our geographic footprint, management structure and all the money coming into Texas for new infrastructure, I think we’ll be able to withstand the next challenge,” he said. “I think we’ll experience less of a downturn than some parts of the country.”

Some of that infrastructure in the region is for oil and pipeline industries, which Kirby-Smith equipment heavily supports.

“We’re involved in solar and wind energy industries, too — building pads and infrastructure and clearing areas for construction — but not as much as pipeline work,” he said So, will Kirby-Smith Equipment see another 40 years in business?

“I won’t see [another] 40, of course,” he said, “but Kirby-Smith has a strong foundation built on supporting our customers. There is no doubt in my mind the same will be true 40 years from now.”

(All photos courtesy of KSM.)

Kunin’s 22 years of experience with the dealer’s flagship manufacturer was capped as central region business director of Komatsu’s construction and forestry products. At Kirby-Smith, he still is surrounded by such products — including Komatsu dozers, excavators, graders, dump trucks and loaders of many sizes.

The list of brands offered by Kirby-Smith is extensive. In addition to the other lines mentioned, the heavy equipment distributor includes Takeuchi, LeeBoy/Rosco, Gradall, Vacall, SkyTrak/JLG, Terramac, Fecon, Sullair, Falcon, Trail King, Atlas, NPK and many more.

And sitting among them all is Komatsu construction machinery, which accounts for a majority of the business revenue at Kirby-Smith,

CEO. Arapidis came to Kirby-Smith six years ago from Komatsu, where he worked for 30 years in a variety of roles.

“I had the opportunity to travel to all the North American dealers, to get to know them, and I created a lot of friends along the way,” he said. “When I moved from the wholesale to the retail side, I couldn’t have made a better choice than to come to KirbySmith. It was an honor.”

He takes pride in the Komatsu lineup of equipment that he helped steward for three decades but declines to offer an opinion about which of the machines is the premier product.

“I’ve seen the products evolve,” he said. “It might have been excavators years ago. Today, Komatsu wheel loaders are second to none, dozers second to none, the haul trucks, whether articulated or rigid frame, are the same. We’ve had a lot of success with the motor grader line as well.

Cook agreed that the market has evolved and cited excavators as an example of how Komatsu has well-positioned itself.

“Thirty years ago, Komatsu was known mostly for its excavators,” he said. “Today, there is more competition. Where there used to be two or three manufacturers of really good excavators, now there are seven or eight. The neat thing about the Komatsu excava- tors is that they are produced in Tennessee. The motors come out of North Carolina. We pay attention to the North American market.”

Besides overall quality of design and machining, Cook said Komatsu’s Intelligent Machine Controls are the difference between good machines and great ones. Komatsu’s D155AXI-8 dozer, for example, is a 45-ton, 354-hp brute of a machine with Intelligent Machine features that fully integrate 3D design data and let the machine adapt to the skills of an individual operator. In short, it’s heavy, powerful and sweet to operate.

While Komatsu is the company’s largest brand, all of the manufacturers represented by the company are fully supported in their space, Cook said.

“We sit down with each manufacturer and put together a marketing plan and support plans,” he said. “We right-size our inventory and evaluate changes in the marketplace with OEM help. Each OEM has been good to work with. We have wonderful relationships.”

The construction group general manager said an indicator of those relationships is that KirbySmith has been approached about helping to develop new machines.

“We have tested prototype machines for manufacturers, something that only three or four dealers in the U.S. get to do,” he

What does growth look like? For Kirby-Smith Machinery Inc., it is a map of the five states in which the company meets the needs of customers — Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. It is the listing of seven cities in North, Central and West Texas where Kirby-Smith dealerships operate today. From A to W, they are Abilene,

Amarillo, Dallas, Ft. Worth,

The headquarters city where it all began, Oklahoma City, has been joined by two other Oklahoma cities with Kirby-Smith outlets, McAlester and Tulsa. A Kansas City office serves customers in Kansas and western Missouri and a St. Louis location serves eastern Missouri and

Is the company eyeing other states and markets?

“We always are looking for opportunities,” said Arapidis. “Today, either a company grows or it dies. If opportunities to grow come, you have to look at them. When that happens, if growth is an

“Ed continues to reinvest profitability back into the company for the benefit of our customers,” added JD Young, vice president and chief financial officer of Kirby-Smith, who has been with the company since 2015 and earlier in his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“This allows us to maintain a very strong balance sheet, providing the ability to have significant inventory and rental fleet levels that help us better meet the needs of our customers, along with creating a competitive advantage. Additionally, this solid foundation gives us the ability to better serve our customers’ needs through investments in real estate, facilities, technicians, service trucks and so many other ways. In fact, since 2016, we have more than doubled our field service capabilities. We also continue to invest in technology to enhance our own efficiency, but also to create an ever-improving experience for our customers.” boundaries, but at the same time we are growing our boundaries geographically.”

Managing today so that a company has a tomorrow always is job one. Dreams of future marketplace triumphs evaporate if fundamentals and best practices are not utilized in real time — the nitty-gritty of moving equipment off the rentals and sales lots, hiring talented team members and satisfying customers.

Cook, for instance, talked about the importance to Kirby-Smith of renting equipment.

“The driving force behind selling construction equipment is our rental offices,” he said. “Kirby-Smith has always been known as a rental operation, but in the last few years with shortages of equipment, supporting customers with rentals is just as important as that first sale.”

He cited the national housing market crash in 2008-09, when equipment dealers were severely crimped by the falloff of construction activity.

“That pushed a lot of people into the rental business,” he said. “Those dealers that embraced rentals have grown.” **

Industries served by the company constitute another growing list. It is lead, of course, by heavy construction and the whole highway-andbridge industry. Others include the quarry, aggregate and mining industry, utilities, agribusiness, oil and gas pipeline work, wind and solar energy industries, power line construction and maintenance, demolition, material handling, waste, landscaping and governmental equipment.

Growth also can be tracked in the addition of new brands year after year. Some additions after 2021 include but are not limited to:

• 2021 Became authorized dealer for Atlas Material Handlers in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Southern Illinois;

• 2022 Became authorized dealer for Thompson Pump in Oklahoma, West Texas, and North Texas;

• 2023 Became authorized dealer for Magni rotary and telescopic telehandlers in Oklahoma and West Texas;

• 2023 Became authorized dealer for Vacall products in Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, and Southern Illinois;

• 2023 Became authorized dealer for Spaleck products in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and southern Illinois.

Still, another indicator of growth is a drumbeat of new showrooms and locations. Recent examples include major renovations of facilities in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Amarillo (2018), new facilities in McAlester and Lubbock (2019) and a new location in Waco (2020).

The aggressive growth is both expansive and infilling, as Arapidis noted.

“We have the opportunity to expand within our current footprint but also outside the footprint and are doing so,” he said. “We have a strategic plan for the future. We have our ear to the ground and are looking forward to new opportunities.”

Added Kirby, “We are doing everything right now to grow within our

While a strong rental fleet is certainly a competitive advantage, the organization’s most important advantage remains having a strong team of employees that are all in on stated initiatives to support both customers and each other. Kirby-Smith has worked hard to foster an environment where its employees can grow and develop their own careers within the company. That type of culture has made it a place people in the industry want to work for, leading some of the best minds in the industry to come on board. The distributor’s management structure reflects these changes, and the chairman of the board likes what he sees.

“I’m extremely proud of the team that we have put together,” Kirby said.

“My former team was mostly my age and many have retired. The new leadership team is tremendously talented. They are young, knowledgeable and very hard-working.”

David Kellerstrass, vice president of product support, is one of the new team members, coming to Kirby-Smith four years ago. He credits the quality of people in the organization for its winning culture.

“It’s why I came here,” he said. “We have a fantastic group of leaders that I trust. We also have some incredibly hard-working people on the front line. They make things happen every day — opening the branches, making sure the shelves are stocked and customers are taken care of.”

Jeff Weller, the company’s chief operating officer, also cited employees for the company’s ongoing success.

“It all comes from the culture we have tried to create,” he said. “We try to do the right thing for our people regardless of what that might be and they, in turn, do the right thing for our customers. In the end, it always is about taking care of our people and our customers.”

But attracting good people to the construction and equipment industry is a struggle across the country. Weller said Kirby-Smith has a little advantage in overcoming that problem.

“We are fortunate to be in the Midwest, from Illinois to Texas,” he said. “We attract a lot of people that understand hard work. Hopefully, we can continue to attract such people to work and take care of our customers.”

The company CEO noted that it is an industry-wide problem — with companies all vying for technicians from a limited resource pool of skilled labor.

“I grew up working on cars and we still need people in the field getting their hands dirty,” he said. “We’re working with accredited schools and creating different programs to address our needs. There is a world of opportunity available for potential service technicians and we want to get the message out.”

Arapidis added that attracting good people is a challenge at all levels.

“If people at the management level are worthy of having a discussion with, I ask our team to bring them in and talk with them,” he said. “If they want to come, but we don’t have an opportunity, let’s talk to them, anyway. Maybe we will have something in 90 days or can create a new opportunity. We always need good people.”

Weller is responsible for introducing a Kirby-Smith feature that contributes to the company’s one mission-one team culture — a challenge coin. Weller’s father was a U.S. Marine who served in the Korean conflict. Weller found among his things a Marine challenge coin and brought the idea to the company. The small Kirby-Smith medallions are carried by employees who, without warning, sometimes are challenged to produce them.

“If you are called out and you don’t have it, it costs you $20 bucks, which is put in a kitty,” he said. “We have distributed 10 or 12 thousand dollars in the last six years to people who have a lost a spouse or suffered something else.”

He added the coin is another way to instill a sense of unity in the company from top to bottom.

Forty years in business is a significant achievement. Yet, a company’s longevity is no guarantee of continued success. Some iconic companies have come and gone. Kirby-Smith Machinery leaders believe the company is up to meeting challenges of the future.

“I’m an eternal optimist,” said Arapidis. “But I keep reality in play. I think the industry will change in the next

40 years and we have to adapt to those changes, so we can continue to thrive as an industry leader. It is a wonderful dream, to be at this level for 40 more years and pass on the torch for yet another 40 years. That would be an amazing thing.”

He added that continued success will only come if the company holds on to a basic understanding of its role in the industry.

“I remember long ago meeting a customer on the West Coast,” he said, “It stays in my memory. He told me that manufacturers, dealers and customers are like a three-legged stool. Every leg has to survive for the stool to stay upright. It is not about gouging anyone or making or losing money. It is about everyone being happy at the end of the day.”

Cook put it succinctly, “I think the best people will keep Kirby-Smith in business. We bring expertise to the table and expertise is what everyone is looking for.”

The company founder also alluded to people, rather than machines, as the deciding factor on the future success of the company.

“We see so many foreign entities showing up with brands that, frankly, we’ve never heard of. There will continue to be lots of sales competition. Success will be all about service.”

Weller said he and others in management are looking ahead at the same time they are remembering how the company came to be.

“I hope the company reaches 40 more years,” said the COO. “We work on that kind of succession planning. Ed Kirby is a tremendous entrepreneur, and we want to protect his legacy.” 

(All photos courtesy of xxxx.)