Emco empowers their managers to act like owners, to make decisions quickly, and to offer their customers the best solutions that are specifically tailored to their local markets. At the same time, Emco can still leverage their purchasing power, ERP systems, and economies of scale to enable them to operate more efficiently than smaller regional competitors. Emco Waterworks Interior is based out of Kelowna B.C. and is a prime example of Emco’s best-of-both-worlds approach. Jeff Oakley, Manager, explains how this approach works: “Emco is unique in the distribution world, because we have the ability to be both a big company and a small company,” he says. “We’re part of a really large organization, but we have a decentralized business model. The managers in each of our locations are empowered to run their business with the spirit of an entrepreneur. We operate independently – while at the same time being able to levy large amounts of cash flow, inventory, and people investment, along with vendor and customer relationship management on a large scale.” Jeff Oakley joined Emco Corporation in 2014 in St Catharines, Ontario, as a material handler. After a year with the company, he was offered the opportunity to take on a project management role in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, and moved out to the Rock. In Newfoundland, he gained experience working on some major projects. A few years later, a leadership role became available to take over Emco Waterworks Interior (then called Emco Waterworks Kelowna). In July 2017, he SEPTEMBER 2022
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