has revolutionized the roofing material distribution business. In the process, the company has grown to be a nearly $6 billion enterprise serving the needs of the professional contractor with exterior building material stores across the United States. Pro Sales Magazine 100 Top Players
The success that is chronicled in the history of ABC Supply is the result of an unwavering focus on a single, simple guiding principle – treat contractors with respect and give them the products and services they need to build their businesses. Founder Ken Hendricks spent many of his formative years working with his father, who was a contractor. While learning firsthand the “ins and outs” of the roofing and siding businesses, Ken also witnessed the lack of respect that his father and his colleagues often received from their suppliers. That experience – and the lessons his father taught him about the importance of hard work, never giving up, and treating people with honesty and respect – formed the basis of the dream that would become ABC Supply. By 1982, Ken was already a successful entrepreneur and the owner of two well-established companies – International Roofing and Hendricks Real Estate Properties. During the economic slowdown of 1982, Ken and his wife, Diane Hendricks, decided not to sit back and wait for better times to come. Instead, they chose to take a risk and acquire three supply centers from Bird & Sons Inc. These centers were the first locations of the new American Builders and Contractors Supply. Ken and Diane’s dream was to put their contractor customers’ needs before everything else, treating them like the professionals they are, giving them the tools they deserve, and upgrading their image along the way. They believed there was a better approach to meeting contractors’ needs, and that philosophy is the cornerstone of the dream that became today’s ABC Supply. Over the next 30 years, ABC Supply would grow rapidly by acquiring struggling distributors and opening new facilities. Ken also established or acquired affiliate companies that support the roofing, siding, windows and other products that ABC Supply sells. Today, the company has more than 600 branches in 49 states and is the largest wholesale distributor of roofing in the United States and one of the nation’s largest distributors of siding, windows and other select exterior building products. It remains an “employee-first” company that treats its associates with respect and gives them the tools they need to succeed. It is a nine-time winner of the Gallup Great Workplace Award, which recognizes the best-performing workforces in the world, and is one of only a handful of companies in the world to have earned the honor every year since its inception in 2007.
