Herb Haggard, my father, as the founder of Haggard & Stocking has taken the company from very humble beginnings to an internationally known company. At its start, Haggard & Stocking was part rep agency and small time-limited stocking distributor with a customer base solely in central Indiana. I can tell you he often spent hours working through the day and then spending several hours working in his home office in his basement during nights and weekends. Haggard & Stocking has long been like another child to my father as he has watched it take shape to what it is today. His passion is contagious, and I have been very honored to follow in his footsteps into the world of Industrial Distribution. I remember being proud to come into the office as a young child and help where he “needed me.” I spent several weekend days putting stickers on catalogs and believing that was going to make a huge difference in my father’s sales efforts.
When I came into my father’s world as an adult, I was excited to share his passion for his company, his customers, and more importantly his employees. He has always strived, and I have tried to follow that path, to treat our employees like family. I truly enjoy coming to work amongst what I believe to be one of the best staff in the market. It is this passion for his company, customers and employees that has made his decision to pass along the reins very difficult for him. He has seen, with my involvement in National Councils and committees, that Haggard & Stocking has become a larger force in our market and industry. He wants to make sure that we are moving in the direction we need with enthusiasm and passion that mirrors his for our company. I am honored that he has confidence in me to carry on this tradition.
On October 1, he officially moved to CEO of the company as I moved into the position of President. We have been working toward this direction for a while, putting a few pieces of the puzzle in place. I had to give up some of my responsibility to free some time for new duties. For this reason Brooks Bemis was promoted to Divisions Manager. Brooks has taken over my role of having a direct responsibility for the success of the Fastener, Safety, and Material Handling areas, as well as working with Imperial Fasteners. We also moved Matt Haggard to the role of the Indianapolis Industrial Sales Manager. Matt will have the responsibility of managing the Indianapolis Industrial Sales team along with working with our vendors and coordinating efforts with our other locations in regards to Industrial Tooling. I am excited that Matt has chosen to follow not only in my path, but the path of my father in the world of Industrial Distribution. He will soon be completing his MBA while managing a full territory. In Matt, I see the same passion that I see in my father. I have received a lot of positive feedback from vendors that they are excited to work with the next generation of the Haggard & Stocking. I trust that Matt will help lead our sales team to new heights and successes, even more than I can imagine.
