CES Greenwood, SC: Small Town, Big Opportunities

[Greenwood, SC] — If you’ve never been, CES Greenwood Branch Manager Brad McCall has a pretty spot-on summary of Greenwood’s friendly community in the Lower Piedmont region.

“It’s a small town with small towns surrounding it,” he said. “Customers really appreciate personal service around here, which makes City Electric Supply a perfect fit for this community. For me and my team, building that personal relationship is going to be big.”

The team at CES Greenwood certainly has their work cut out for them. Greenwood is growing pretty fast, as well as the surrounding counties. With just a few competitors nearby, that leaves a lot of opportunity for McCall and his branch.

“There is a lot of building going on — lots of industrial, lots of residential,” McCall said. “We just opened October 12, but we’re already seeing a good mixture of business here. We’ve got school districts buying from us, and we’ve even opened up quite a few accounts already.”

For McCall, he’s ready to handle just about anything Greenwood might throw at him, especially with his background on both sides of the counter. 

“After about 16 years in the field, I know the products,” he said. “Now I don’t know everything, but getting to work with these products and then doing outside sales really helped me learn how it all comes together.”

Working Both Sides of the Counter

He is certainly no stranger to the area or the industry, having started out as an electrician in 1995. By 2005, McCall worked for nearby Anderson University, and then in 2011 he made the switch from the field to the distributor side with City Electric Supply, starting out in counter sales for CES Anderson.

“After I worked in counter sales for a few years, I worked my way up to a sales rep position,” he said. “After that, I became Branch Manager for CES Toccoa in Georgia for just over three years. I really enjoy working on the distributor side because you get to meet new people every day. You work with purchasing managers, contractors… you never know the type of adventure you’re going to have.”

Once District Manager Don Corbett saw the success (and adventures) McCall was having at CES Toccoa, he thought it was the perfect time to expand in South Carolina. And he had the perfect Branch Manager in mind to take over. 

“District Manager Don Corbett helped tremendously,” McCall said. “I’ve known him a long time, and we’ve helped each other and work well together. When he was looking for this Greenwood location, he did all the footwork to find the building. Even as we renovated the branch, he was always asking what we needed help with. He has a lot of responsibility in other locations, so having him so available is great for us!”

For McCall, opening CES Greenwood was a huge blessing. With a wife of 17 years and three children, this new branch is much closer to his home in Anderson, South Carolina. Now, he gets to see more of his family, and he gets to grow his very own branch from day one.

“I’m a family man, so it’s nice to have more time with my family, but opening a branch is a new challenge,” he admitted. “When you open a new branch, you have to bring in customers, staff, and inventory. You’re basically building everything from the ground up. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s very exciting.”

A New Way of Doing Things

McCall is already doing things differently at CES Greenwood. As they renovated the location, he wanted to take advantage of the wide-open layout. So far, customers have loved it. Most nearby competitors store most of their product in warehouses, but not CES Greenwood.

“It was a flooring showroom before, so I wanted to keep that huge floor open and put product up front,” he explained. “About 90% of what we carry is out in the open. Customers can touch, feel, and see the product with their own eyes.”

That’s not the only new idea that CES Greenwood is bringing to the table. They created custom-made pallet racking to display heavier products in the showroom. There’s a Tool Cave that is loaded with premier tool brands: Milwaukee, Wiha, Klein Tools, and Fluke. The huge showroom counter has a granite top with a massive radius to help service more customers. Even the in-store lighting was all upgraded to Lithonia LED flat panels.

Everything at CES Greenwood was completed by local contractors, and the branch team received plenty of support from their trading partners. Milwaukee Tool’s Jeremy Gutridge and Caitlyn Cormier spent days at the branch setting up the Tool Cave. Klein Tools’ David Inman helped set up probably the biggest Klein Tool display selection in all of Lower Piedmont.

Customers love the showroom, and it’s even getting CES Greenwood some much-earned buzz around town.

Welcome to the Neighborhood

“People are excited to have us here,” he said. “They are ready and have been ready for something different. With our team, that will be our customer service. Hands down, we will make sure our guys get what they want when they need it. Other competitors seem to just run a delivery service and drop product once or twice a week. We will run multiple deliveries to a customer in the same day if they need it. That’s just what we do.”

With about three competitors nearby, that hands-on service is going to give this small town a nice change of pace. One distributor has been open for 45 years, but with the growth CES Greenwood has already seen in just a few weeks, they might be able to give them a run for their money.

“Customers are welcoming the competition,” McCall explained. “They want more options and more suppliers to work with. We’re giving them that chance, and we’re also going to help keep our competitors on their toes.”

As McCall looks ahead to what he wants to accomplish in the next few months, he just wants to keep building on his branch’s reputation in the area.

“Over these next few months, I’m most excited to watch this branch grow and for all of our customers to leave happy. We’re really looking forward to building relationships with people and customers in the surrounding area, and just becoming a familiar face in Greenwood.”

Although Greenwood might be a small town, there’s nothing small about what City Electric Supply can do in this new market with the help of McCall and his new team.