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Do IT this week: Layering
Current owner narrows focus to one industry
By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Monday, Nov 16, 2009
Botzum Brothers Hardware LLC. sells commercial doors and hardware.
It evolved from a company that sold construction supplies.
Which grew out of an operation that mixed concrete.
Which has its roots in a business that sold feed and grain.
The entrepreneurial flexibility that helped the company survive 117 years has also managed to keep it in the hands of a fourth-generation family member.
Al Hilkert, great-grandson of a founding owner, said he has no idea whether his own children (ages 14, 10 and 8) will take an interest in the family business, and he wouldn't pressure them to do so.
But he and his father, William Hilkert, clearly take pride in a colorful and evolving business legacy that reaches to the 19th century.
History
In 1892, Conrad Botzum's five sons — Charles, Harry, Albert, Joseph and Lewis Botzum — were selling feed and grain from the family farm, land that is still preserved by the Cuyahoga Valley National Park as the Conrad Botzum Farmstead.
But after the turn of the 20th century, Akron had a different sort of hunger. The city needed more building supplies. The population was exploding as droves of workers came to town to fill the expanding rubber factories, so the brothers started dabbling in clay tile and mortar, mostly for residential basements.
After Lewis Botzum saw a concrete mixing truck at work during a trip to California in the 1920s, he talked his brothers into purchasing two of the newfangled vehicles, and the Botzum Brothers became one of the first ready-mix concrete companies in the Midwest, William Hilkert said.
They couldn't keep up with the demand.
''We manufactured concrete blocks by the millions,'' he said.
The company eventually added bricks and other construction material as contractors
made their needs known. By the 1930s, doors and window frames were added to the inventory.
The brothers' sister, Jeanette Botzum, married Albert Hilkert of Canton (the current owner's grandfather and namesake), and he joined the company. While the Botzum name was secure on the building, the surname on the letterhead was destined to change.
A few years after Albert Hilkert's death in 1969, his son, William, bought his siblings' share of the company and took sole ownership.
The area's boom years were behind them, and in the late 1990s, William divested himself of the concrete and building supply operations.
What remained were doors and hardware, but they were squeezed into the North Arlington Street's concrete office and begging for some attention.
That necessitated a decision: Grow the hardware business, or let it go.
William Hilkert had always been hopeful that one of his 10 children would assume leadership of the company, ''but I wasn't the type to try and force it or anything,'' he said.
One by one, his children pursued other careers until only one possibility remained.
The youngest child, Al, had started working at the company as a 15-year-old in 1978 — ''I learned how to drive a forklift before a car,'' he said — and kept the job to pay for college.
He collected an accounting degree from the Ohio State University before heading to Houston for a job at an accounting firm.
''My parents encouraged me to be in business . . . and I thought about the [family] business, but it wasn't something that was preordained,'' he said.
But by 2000, he had to make a choice. His father, now 88, was overdue for retirement and not interested in investing in the company's growth.
''That was the point where I thought it made sense for me to buy it,'' Al Hilkert said.
Since then, the payroll roster has grown from three to 10. A new building addition allowed Hilkert to bring on more project managers and tackle bigger and more complicated jobs.
And focusing on one industry has enabled the company to become experts at what they do, he said.
Contractors are demanding supplies faster, modern hardware often features electronic components, and because builders are subcontracting their carpentry work more often, they expect their suppliers to be troubleshooters.
Green certification
Most recently, Botzum Bros. Hardware worked to gain a ''Chain of Custody Certificate by Scientific Certification Systems,'' meaning it can sell doors certified for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) credit, because they adhere to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards.
Even among companies not seeking to meet those strict federal standards, the green trend is obvious. Hilkert estimates half of his customers express at least some interest in where his materials come from.
The economy adds to the challenges.
''Certainly there's a lot of competition for the jobs that are out there,'' he said.
But focusing on commercial doors and the electronic gadgets and security systems that come with them means he doesn't have to battle typical hardware chains and home improvement stores.
''Their people wouldn't know the difference between a panic device and a fire exit device,'' he said.
As for the future of the company, only time will tell if the reins will be passed on to a fifth generation. Al Hilkert said he's 47 and expects to be around for a long time.
Meanwhile, ''my plan is as they get older [the children] will have the opportunity to work for a summer, and we'll see what interest they show,'' he said.
''But I think it's also good to work someplace else. If you work for someone else, you get independent feedback,'' he said, recalling his own experience working for accounting firms.
''And if their careers take them somewhere else,'' he said, ''well, that's great.''
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
ABOUT BOTZUM BROTHERS HARDWARE LLC.
• Founded: 1892.
• Location: 520 N. Arlington St., Akron.
• Phone: 330-535-5122.
• Web site: http://botzum-bros.com.
• Product: Specializing in commercial hollow metal doors and frames, architectural wood doors and hardware.
Botzum Brothers Hardware LLC. sells commercial doors and hardware.
Get the full article here.
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