et’s go take a look at it,” says Sean Dexter, OrePac Building Products territory sales representative for Alaska.
While many building product distributors lack a presence in Alaska, Dexter’s day is starting with a visit to a customer’s home. He received a call from a sales representative explaining that a customer needed help with some decking material, so he’s heading over to the customer’s house to take a look and help resolve the issue.
“We make complicated simple,” he says, echoing OrePac’s mission statement.
OrePac is a wholesale supplier of interior and exterior building products for residential applications, serving Alaska retailers like Spenard Builders Supply (SBS), Home Depot, and other building material dealers.
Randy Johnson, market manager for SBS in Anchorage, said OrePac is a valuable partner.
“They provide great products and information about the products,” he says.
The boots-on-the-ground component OrePac provides is a selling point for retailers like SBS, Johnson says. “It’s unique for a distributor to have a representative in the market.”
In addition to meeting with market managers like Johnson to introduce new products for consideration, Dexter also participates in ten to fifteen trade shows a year—like the annual SBS Contractor Show, held in Fairbanks, Wasilla, Anchorage and Soldotna each year—to provide support for the company’s wholesale products. Dexter also teaches accredited Continuing Education Unit, or CEU, and American Institute of Architects, or AIA, courses.
Daren Williams, SBS
Kenny Gillett, vice president of marketing at OrePac, is one of several employees who tally their service by the decade. He’s been with the company for twenty-five years, and like the family leadership running the company today, he is a second-generation OrePac employee.
The Harts started the company with one location in Oregon forty-six years ago and they now operate ten locations serving more than 2,500 retail customers in thirteen Western states.
“OrePac has maintained its commitment to its employees and the communities it serves over the years,” Gillett says. “The Harts continue to know their employees and care about their well-being the same as when there was just one location and a handful of employees.”
Dexter shares that view.
“OrePac is a phenomenal company. It is family-owned and has always been family-owned,” he says. “It’s a company where you matter.”
When Dexter interacts with market managers like Johnson, he brings to the table nearly a decade of experience working in the industry, first learning millwork and then in sales. He was hired right out of high school into the same industry his father worked in for 33 years.
Dexter says joining Associated General Contractors, or AGC, of Alaska in July 2016 was one of the first things he did when he became the OrePac territory manager for Alaska. AGC of Alaska is a great tool to maintain and develop face to face relationships with customers, he says.
“For me it is a way to better connect with our customers, industry professionals, and the brands we support,” Dexter says. “It helps us better understand the unique needs of Alaskans.”
One of his goals for 2023 is to work with AGC of Alaska to extend the reach of OrePac’s free accredited CEU and AIA courses by offering them to AGC’s members.
Johnson says in his experience in the construction industry, OrePac is unique among wholesalers for the support that comes with the products they sell, whether it’s resolving customer concerns, product demonstrations at tradeshows, or providing free accredited CEU and AIA courses.
“There’s a lot behind the curtain that goes on to get something to remote areas of Alaska,” Dexter says. “It’s unbelievable what they do to get material sometimes, but it’s all worth it in the end.”
SBS Area Sales Manager Daren Williams says working in the 49th State poses specific challenges for businesses.
“Alaska is a unique place to do business because of our logistics and shortened building season. SBS, over many years of doing business here, has developed key relationships with vendors, so that we can consistently bring the right materials in a timely manner to this market,” he says. “We have partnered with OrePac as one of our top-tier vendors because of the customer service level and commitment to help us serve the communities here in Alaska.”
Williams continues, “Orepac has people that live here in Alaska to support our sales team with education and training for the products they provide and have always stood behind their products.”