HISTORY
The company began on Stoneway Avenue North in Ballard,
Washington. Hence the name Stoneway. The contractors in Ballard liked our
service and we have been growing ever since.
Stoneway is an employee-owned, full line, stocking electrical wholesale distributor located in the Pacific Northwest, serving customers through out Washington, North Idaho, Northeastern Oregon and the salt-water villages of Alaska from fifteen conveniently located office/warehouses.
Early in its history, Stoneway recognized the importance of investing in state-of-the-art hardware and software. We have realized excellent returns on this investment in terms of customer benefits and in managing the inventory and operations of a multi-branch organization. Our Inventory and Purchasing driven system is constantly updated to ensure peak performance and continuous service to our customers.
The cornerstone of every Stoneway Service Center is our counter
and display area. The purpose of the display area is to highlight our suppliers'
products and ensure maximum exposure. Stoneway makes regular investments in new
display equipment, and is always receptive to vendor support and suggestions on
how to best use our showrooms and counters.
The transition to an employee-owned company was initiated by Ed Ralph, Stoneway's co-founder, in 1994. Today, Stoneway Electric has over 200 employee-owners. Some of the benefits of employee ownership include improved employee commitment to customers, a greater sense of job ownership and accountability, increased quality of job performance, and greater incentive for improvement.
Stoneway regularly makes use of
tools, programs, and opportunities provided by IMARK, a international marketing organization, to promote the products of participating vendors.
Stoneway
Electric is a long time member of the National Association of Electrical
Distributors. A large consortium of independent distributors that
gives us
powerful capabilities for 'one-source' supply contracts and locating scarce
inventory items.
We have long had a completely computerized business information and internal communication system that tracks every aspect of our operations and makes this information immediately available to all personnel with access to a terminal. The system is constantly being upgraded and work is underway to provide instant telecom and internet communication with all our suppliers, our customers and industry data bases within a year. We have telecom connections with a number of suppliers and a few customers now, and more will be added as time goes on.
Our Industrial Sales group consists of highly trained, experienced sales persons knowledgeable in automation systems and components, motor control, variable speed drives and operator interface stations. For customer convenience, they work out of our S. Seattle, Richland and Spokane branch offices.
We maintain project sales groups in Seattle and in Spokane who are skilled in both bid preparation and design and build situations. They have the tools and knowledge to prepare bids, set up, maintain and make changes to your ordered material schedules so that on-time delivery of scheduled material is assured.
In short, the employee-owners of Stoneway Electric Supply are eager to follow three maxims:
"MAKE IT EASY TO DO BUSINESS"
"LISTEN TO THE CUSTOMER"
"MAKE COMMITMENTS THAT CAN BE KEPT"
