Product Knowledge, Relationships, ‘Family Feel’ Set Third-Generation Company Apart

When Mike Rutherford joined his family’s business, the first thing he did was go out and meet the customers. Tasked with promoting a new sector of the business — gas grills — he took along a display trailer and performed hundreds of demonstrations.

Twenty years later, he is president of the family-owned company, Covington, Ga.-based Rutherford Equipment. The kind of product knowledge and relationship-building he demonstrated early in his career remain important to the way the company does business today.

“When I joined the company out of college in 1998, my dad, Randy, saw we needed to diversify and branch out into other, related products,” Rutherford says. “I was tasked to help grow the consumer products side of the business — grills and other gas appliances. Before that, we were a distributor of propane equipment only; now we have appliances, too. It’s been a good move for us. That portion of the business has grown substantially.

“I traveled the southeastern United States with a trailer full of grills,” he adds. “I was calling on people who knew our company and were buying our equipment, so this was a chance for me to meet the customers we were currently servicing. Twenty years later, they still say, ‘I remember you coming here and cooking for us.’

“We have expanded on that. We now have an entire sales force that focuses on those consumer product lines, and they go around with trailers attending customer events, giving demonstrations, and showing customers how to sell the products.”

Today, Rutherford Equipment is a wholesale distributor of propane equipment and consumer products offering next-day delivery to most retailers in the southeastern U.S. The company stocks a full line of propane parts and equipment. Consumer products include gas appliances like grills, hearth products, heaters, tankless water heaters, and fire pits. The company is also available to conduct training on any of the products it distributes.

Rutherford Equipment has three full-service warehouses, including its main location in Covington and branch locations in Apopka, Fla. and Goldsboro, N.C.

The company has been family owned since it was founded in 1960. Currently, two family members—Mike and Randy Rutherford—are active in the business. A third, Mike’s mother, Cindy, was active, but recently retired. Rutherford Equipment has 34 employees.

“The business was started in 1960 by my grandfather, Bill, in Atlanta,” Mike Rutherford says. “When he passed away in 1978, my dad, Randy, who was a hospital administrator in the Air Force at the time, made the decision to leave the Air Force and came to the family business.

“With his military background, my dad brought to the company an emphasis on improving efficiencies and procedures,” he adds. “He took the business to the next level by adding additional product lines and emphasizing great customer service.”

When Mike Rutherford joined the company in 1998, after performing those cooking demonstrations and growing the then-new consumer products side of the business, he served as president of the Georgia Propane Gas Association and then was promoted to vice president of sales and marketing, responsible for the sales growth of all products.

Then, on May 1, 2017, Mike succeeded his father and became the third-generation Rutherford to serve as president of Rutherford Equipment. Randy Rutherford continues to serve as the company’s chairman.

“What sets our business apart is product knowledge and relationships,” Mike says. “Our competitors sell similar products or the same products, so we rely on our product knowledge and relationships. Service is what sets us apart.

“We offer a family feel when customers do business with us,” he adds. “I think customers feel that if they have a problem, they know us and know we will take care of them. Customers have a comfort level when they know the owners. If there is a problem, as there inevitably will be sometimes, they can call us personally and we will work to resolve the issue.”

Asked about challenges he has seen propane companies face during his 20 years in the industry, he mentioned managing growth, handling succession, and keeping up with technology.

“With any business, you run into challenges,” he says. “One of our challenges has been managing the growth of the business. At what stage do you add more warehouse space? At what stage do you add more employees? That’s one of the challenges I have faced. We moved our office to Covington because we had grown to the point where we needed more space for better organization and improved efficiencies.

“Something I’ve seen in other family-owned businesses,” he adds, “is, what happens when the owner retires or passes away? Planning is key, and communication is key, especially when that transition is taking place. Those are the keys to that inevitable transition. A lot of people don’t want to talk about those things: ‘What happens to the business when I’m no longer here?’ but I am fortunate that my dad has planned ahead.

“In the time I have been here, technology has changed all businesses,” Rutherford adds. “We have improved our website to include online ordering. Technicians are busy during the day, so if they need products, they keep a list of what they need. Online ordering enables them to order those products from us in the evening when we are closed.

“Like a lot of companies, we have had to adapt to the new technology in today’s world,” he adds. “There is a lot of application knowledge required to buy and sell propane equipment. The older generation was worried that if the ordering went online, we would lose that chance to service the customers and meet that need for important information. However, as part of a younger generation, I know that the way of the world now is going more online. So, it works well for us.” —Steve Relyea