Paul Block, president of sales for Gribetz, discusses ABM International’s acquisition of Gribetz and Porter and what it means for the bedding industry. He shares a funny story about his past connection with ABM, clarifies the details of the acquisition, and talks about the transition process. Learn about the expanded sales staff, future plans, and what buyers can expect to see at Interzum. He also shares his excitement about the future of the company and the strong partnership with Neal Schwarzberger.
Transcript
Beth
So Paul, thank you for being here.
Beth
I’m hoping you can tell me a little bit about ABM International just to begin.
Paul
Absolutely. ABM is a company located in Montgomery, Texas. It is a fourth generation sewing technology company. Their products include single needle machines that are used for aerospace, automotive, RV manufacturing as well as marine companies as well. They also make home quilting machines and home sewing machines as well.
Beth
Okay.
Paul
So what’s kind of funny about this whole circumstance, and I’ll tell you a quick story. Going back to the early 90s, 1991, I’m pretty sure is around when we did something like this. I had my own company named Galkin. And I wanted to go to Interzum. I had been doing ISPA for years, but I wanted to go to Interzum. So I decided to call ISPA and talk to Susan Perry at the time and asked her, I would like to have a partner that would do Interzum with me. So she suggested that I call Neal Schwartzberger at ABM. And I did.
And Neal and I hit it off pretty quickly. And we had good conversations. Neil came to visit me in New York and we spent some time together and we started doing some planning for working together in the future.
And then things kind of fell apart and it didn’t happen.
But here we are 23 years, 24 years later, and we’re going to do the show together next week. And that’s a kind of a funny story. So yeah.
Beth
I love that. So all those years ago, it all comes around in the bedding industry, doesn’t it?
Paul
It’s very strange.
Beth
Yes.
Paul
Very incestuous in this industry.
Beth
So ABM acquired Gribetz, Porter and Galkin, but I’ve been a little confused, you know, were there other parts of GSG that weren’t acquired?
Can you help clarify some of that?
Paul
It’s a hard thing to explain to people, but just think about it, that GSG came over and and it’s just been relabeled as Gribetz. It’s probably the simplest way to think about it. So basically, everything came over. All the partners, all the manufacturing facilities, all the products. And there’s a couple of minor things, but essentially, everything’s over.
Beth
That helps me a lot. Yeah, I was wondering about that.
Paul
That’s perfect.
Beth
So how has the transition been?
Paul
Exhausting.
Beth
I can imagine.
Paul
Yeah. I mean, just making the deal was a crazy circumstance and just, you know, a lot of work. And then we come into this and trying to make sure we have a smooth transition, make sure that we get a lot of things solved and a lot of things ironed out for the future.
And it’s still a work in progress, but we’re doing great. Things are going well. But I can use a vacation.
Beth
Absolutely. You’re not going to get one anytime soon.
Paul
Not right now.
Beth
That’s for sure. Oh, well, are there any significant differences in the way the Gribetz operates versus what you were doing before?
Paul
I think the thing that you can think about first is the sales staff. ABM had a fairly significant sales staff in the U.S., between reps and salespeople that work for them.
And then we add in the Gribetz people as well. It makes it very significant. The US presence is going to be very, very, very strong. We’re also working on beefing up some of our service and sales in other parts of the world where we have a strong presence.
And that’s something that we’re in the middle of working on. And we should have some significant progress on that over the next few months. So yeah.
Beth
All right. I know you’re tired, but what are you looking forward to at Interzum?
Paul
Well, I’m looking forward to seeing, you know, I’ve been doing this for over 40 years.
Beth
It’s really hard to believe.
Paul
And I’m looking forward to seeing my friends, you know, the, the industry is very close and our customers, our competitors are, Our fellow suppliers are all good friends and looking forward to having a Kölsch with them in Cologne.
Beth
So I’m not going to be there this year, but I’m going to miss the Kölsch.
Paul
Got to miss the Kölsch.
Beth
Absolutely.
Paul
So looking forward to that. And it’ll be a lot of fun.
Beth
That’s great. I hope it’s a great market for you. It’s a fair, I guess.
So when buyers are coming to your area, what are they going to see?
Paul
We didn’t have an awful lot of time to plan for this. We had about two weeks really after the transaction happened. But we will have a significant amount of machinery. We’ll have quilters and flangers, automatic flangers. We’ll have some flat goods cutters. We’ll have automatic tape edge machines as well.
So there’ll be a significant presence. We plan to be more exciting next time, but this is going to be pretty good. Our customers are going to get to see the high quality equipment that we sell. So we’ll also get a chance to really talk to them about our plans and find out what their plans are and work together to make further steps going forward.
Beth
That’s great. Well, is there anything else that you’d like to share that, you know, people would you like people to know about Gribetz going forward?
Paul
Yeah, there’s there’s a lot that that’s going to be helpful for our customers. We have a significantly more robust controls and programming team with this organization. So that’s going to really help drive our quality going forward. We’re working hard in regional technical service and OEM parts sales that will help our customers as well. The big difference here is having a strong organization. entrepreneurial spirit. Neal is a very exciting owner to be around and kind of reminds me of my old days at Galkin. We’re really coming up with a lot of ideas on a daily basis and dreaming a lot.
And if our dreams match our customers, I think we’re going to be an exciting company for our customers to partner with going forward.
So I think we’ll have a great time and we’re looking forward to moving things in that direction.
Beth
Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us and tell us a little bit more about what’s happening.
So I wish you all the best.
Paul
Thank you so much, Beth. I really appreciate you asking me and you have a wonderful day.
Thank you.
Beth
You too.
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