A Field of Opportunities with FIELD Fastner

Pictured left to right: Michael LaViscount, Rich Rowlett, and Phillis Greene

A FIELD OF OPPORTUNITIES WITH

story by Ashley Elvington

In 1976, the company known as Field (or Field Fastener) was founded in Rockford, Illinois. It wasn't long before founder Dick Field established a reputation that set the standard for being a quality fastener partner to businesses both in and out of the Rockford area. Current owners Bill and Jim Derry purchased Field in 1990 with a common goal in mind - to provide cost savings to their customers through supply chain solutions and engineering services, while protecting and enhancing their unique culture as they grow. Bill and Jim succeeded in their goal for Field, as the company has managed to maintain an average growth rate of 18% per year since 1990. Field has now expanded its services worldwide – quite a journey to make from the early days of Rockford, Illinois. Field's mission statement is “To have everyone who interacts with us, Love us” They do this by working with their customers, suppliers, and the community to build strong relationships. To Field, community matters. Richard "Rich" Rowlett, Site Leader at Field, explains, “Culture is what we base everything off of with Field. We look for good team members that want to help enrich our culture while taking care of our customers. We work in a fast-paced environment that relies on teamwork and integrity of our work and our people, and we entrust that all of our team members will take care of the customer and will make decisions that work best for everyone involved.” Rich has been an team member of Field for eight years. He started as a VMI Representative; later, he was chosen for a two-year development program. Once he graduated, Rich set his sights on running a Center of Excellence in the not-too-distant future. He was an Operations Project Leader for a while, traveling to places in the United States and Mexico to train team members, which led to him becoming an Operations Team Leader. For the past four years, Rich has been the Site Leader of Florence Operations. In January 2019, he was able to see his dream come true as he helped open Florence's Center of Excellence. He shares, “This started in late 2018 and I was involved

since the beginning of finding a building, cleaning it up, and developing it into a working distribution center.” It was rewarding to see his hard work pay off, as Rich had moved his family from Rockford to Florence in order to oversee and manage business operations in Florence. “We started with just a few team members and now have 20 team members.” That's just the start of Florence's Center of Excellence, as there are job opportunities currently available and the center has no plans to stop growing.

You may ask – what is the purpose of Field in Florence County? The answer is simple – to help improve lives. Field plans on accomplishing this by helping folks in the Pee Dee have jobs while also dedicating time to serve its community. Some of the opportunities with Field include: warehouse work (picking and packing orders for customers throughout the East Coast), receiving products from suppliers, quality inspection of incoming and outgoing products, administrative work (account management of customers, buying and sourcing fasteners and commodities customers need, etc.), and on-site vendor managed inventory representatives who help customers manage their inventory while building and maintaining established relationships with them. Perks of working with Field include: health insurance, life insurance, supplemental life/dependent life insurance, 401k, paid maternity/paternity leave, gym reimbursement, Smart Dollar Financial Wellness, an employee assistance program, a quarterly bonus program, and paid volunteer time to a 501c3. All fulltime team members (hourly and salary) are provided with at least ten days of paid time off each year – this number increases as years of service increase. Hourly team members are given an additional two days of paid personal time annually. Rich has set a new goal he hopes to one day see fulfilled by partnering with Florence One Schools to develop a scholarship or work program to – you guessed it – help improve the lives of our youth here in Florence County. In the meantime, Rich is invested in the community through the United Way of Florence County's Board of Directors. He also participates in the Fellows of Education program and charity raffles, as well as helps sponsor community activities. It's possible to also find Rich hosting community organizations at Field for quarterly Lunch and Learns to help businesses expand. He's always looking for ways his team members can volunteer to help give back to Florence.

In 2020 when the rest of the world seemed to be falling apart, Field was focused on improving the future. They hope to accomplish this with their 10-Year Strategic Plan, which is to last from 2020 to 2030. There are five “secret ingredients” to this perfect concoction – worldclass culture, people and leadership excellence, innovation, customer cost reduction experts, and profitable growth. According to the Field website, “Field hires to culture fit first, and to job fit second.” Their plan is to hire exceptional people, provide them with high-quality training, then step back and watch them work their magic in their communities. At Field, you are encouraged to succeed and the company will do its best and go beyond to help you achieve this. When it comes to workforce, Field desires diversity and strives to have an environment where team members can be the best version of themselves. With plans to place a large emphasis on teamwork and leadership excellence, Field hopes team members, customers, and suppliers all love working with them. If you're wondering how Field has continued to grow since 1990, it's their distinctive ability to save customers money. The plan is for Field to be the best globally at implementing savings each year by removing inefficiency from the design, procurement, or installation process. They want to be THE fastener engineering department with the most technically competent team in their industry. By living their company mission, Field will be able to sustain profitable growth and will only continue to grow and expand as the years go by. In fact, it is expected for the company to exceed $300 million by 2030.

Most importantly, Field wants to build back better by building better team members who, in turn, will create a better community. The company will undoubtedly achieve this with its promise to allocate 10% of its profit to improve the lives of its team members, their families, and the communities in which Field operates. What may seem like a field of dreams is a pathway to a better tomorrow.