DandH Distributing's New Dynamic Duo

DandH Distributing Co-Presidents and brothers Michael Schwab (left) and Dan Schwab took the helm of the longtime family-run, employee-owned company on May 1, the start of the 90-year-old distributor's new fiscal year. The two long-time vice presidents pledged to continue the hard-driving leadership of DandH President Gary Brothers, a 35-year DandH veteran who took the president's post eight years ago. The Schwabs have just completed their first 100 days in office. Here is a look at how they have put their own inimitable stamp on the highly regarded distributor known for its personal touch.

One of the first initiatives driven by the dynamic duo brother team is a no holds barred green initiative that firmly commits DandH to "the preservation of the environment through our relationships and practices." DandH has already implemented recycling icons on all of its print materials and even on its electronic newsletters.



The formal DandH Green statement reads in part: "We pursue and support partners who work to employ energy-efficient power, renewable materials or ecologically conservative operations. We are also taking steps to promote eco-friendly products to our reseller and dealer customer base, including making these items easier to identify in our web site content. As a leader in the distribution channel, we will help and inspire our manufacturer partners to develop more programs and campaigns that uphold environmentally-conscious standards."

DandH has always been committed to educating solution providers about hot new technology opportunities. The Schwab brothers, however, have brought that effort to the internet with a Web-based video training tool designed to give DandH partners a first hand look at products features and benefits, and up-sell opportunities. Co-CEO Michael Schwab (pictured here) is featured in every episode of DandH TV as The Technology Guy. Take our word for it. This beats watching Fox's The Family Guy any day of the week.

One of the hallmarks of DandH has been its long-running technology shows which feature on the spot show specials (as in big dollar savings!). The two new co-presidents have promised to maintain the technology show tradition.



On June 10, Dand H held its 10th annual Mid-Atlantic Summer Technology Show. Here a pack of the more than 1,000 resellers that attended the show get ready to start their buying engines registering for the show in anticipation of hitting the floor where more than 150 manufacturers hawked their wares.

Cisco's Network On Wheels Bus was featured at the June 10 Mid-Atlantic Summer Technology Show. The bus features the latest and greatest Cisco networking gear, giving DandH partners a chance to put the Cisco gear through the paces. This marked the first time the Magic Bus made the trip to DandH's Hershey, Pa., show.

The Cisco Bus that made the trip to DandH features a full-fledged VoIP system on board along with desktop/unified communications technologies, ASA5505 Firewalls and wireless controllers. Forget spending money on a remote office. How about setting up a bus loaded with Cisco networking gear and parking it in a shopping center parking lot?

The Mid-Atlantic show also featured a Cisco Roundtable where partners got to give their thumbs up and thumbs down on all things Cisco. DandH has been a Cisco distributor since 2005. The landmark DandH-Cisco deal vaulted DandH higher up the North American distribution food chain, making the company a viable challenger to broadline distribution giants Ingram Micro and Tech Data. Cisco is now DandH's fastest growing North American distributor.

DandH is stepping up its drive to bring more solution providers into the server market. Under the Schwab brothers, the company is making hay with Intel's modular server -- a big draw at recent DandH shows. Here solution providers get the benefit of the first ever DandH Technical Server Training. DandH has also recently created a dedicated email alias for specific server questions at [email protected]. Server Geeks Unite!

Dan and Michael Schwab are pretty nimble, but no, this is not the brothers dancing in the stars high above the ground. But they were in attendance as DandH celebrated its 90th anniversary with all of the DandH employees or co-owners since they are part of an Employee Stock Ownership plan invited for an exclusive one night DandH showing of the Shriner Circus. The next time you experience some of DandH's high-flying technology acrobatics think of these real high flying acrobats.

DandH is widely regarded as the one stop shop for all the small and medium business solution provider's needs, from Intel servers to networking gear from the likes of Cisco and Netgear, storage products, handheld devices, consumer electronics and a wide variety of software. DandH, in fact, now carries products from 450 vendors.



In the last three months, Dan and Michael have brought on a dozen new vendors including Bankers Warranty Group (BWG) which offers extended warranties for consumer and commercial electronics, Quanta Syspine, small VoIP hardware that runs Microsoft Response Point, internet radio provider Slacker and RHUB, a maker of TurboMeeting Web conferencing appliances.

DandH has always prided itself on helping resellers grappling with credit issues. With rising gas prices and the mortgage crises, the distributor has pumped an additional $10 million in credit for more than 700 of its partners. The company has also launched a Visa prepaid card as part of the DandH Incentives Reward Program that began back in 2003. Here DandH touts the rewards incentive program as a way for partners to fill up the tank and take a trip in the summer without it taking a bite out of their pocketbook.

On July 9, the Schwab brothers marked the one-year anniversary of DandH's Canada headquarters in Mississauga Ontario Canada. DandH originally expected to sign on 1,000 new partners in the first year of business. That solution provider count now stands at 1,450.

DandH considers every employee part of its extended family and literally a co-owner since it's an Employee Stock Ownership Program company. The ESOP program makes DandH part of a very small club of employee-owned companies. In fact, less than one-eighth of the companies in the US are comprised of employee-owned ESOPs.

Here Dan (left) and Michael join co-owners that have just reached the 10-year milestone, a DandH rite of passage, with a buffet lunch. DandH retains 24 percent of its co-owners over a 10-year period and 45 percent over five years.

Twice a quarter, Dan and Michael present an overview of the company to new co-owners that have passed the 90-day mark, thus making them eligible for the Employee Stock Ownership program. Here Dan gives employees a presentation on the company's history and philosophy. The unique DandH family culture wins raves from solution providers who complain about turnover at other distributors.

Part of the DandH corporate culture is a commitment to giving back to the community by encouraging employees to volunteer for worthy causes like March of Dimes, and Habitat For Humanity. Here DandH employees participate in the Harrisburg Mile walk benefitting cancer awareness.

The annual DandH summer picnic held in July is one of the company's most popular events for employees and their kids and, of course, pets. Here Co-President Dan Schwab, decked out in a DandH T-Shirt, takes time out during the picnic to pose for a picture with his Golden Retriever Peyton and one of his co-owners, DandH Education Division Sales Manager Larry Staub.

Besides the annual summer picnic, DandH also holds an annual softball game across from the company headquarters in Harrisburg. This year's game was held July 24. And just because you're co-president doesn't mean you get to sit out the game in the dugout as manager. Here co-President Dan Schwab (right) tries to make a tag on a fleet footed youngster that scored a run as catcher/DandH buyer Dave Shunk looks on. Better luck next time Dan!

No DandH summer picnic would be complete without some Funky dance music. Here a Seventies Super Hit Band gets down giving DandH an overdose of bad fashion and hairdos, but an ample supply of great dance music.

On any given day of the week, you can find any number of DandH's top executives behind closed doors conducting quarterly business reviews with vendors. Here co-president Michael (Third from the left) does a drill down on the state of the partnership: what's working, what isn't and what can be done to kick it up a notch for both the vendor and DandH solution provider partners.

DandH started 90 years ago as a tire and rubber company started by family patriarch David Schwab. Here DandH CEO Izzy Schwab (far right), the son of David who propelled the one time tire distributor into the electronics business, poses in front of a mural honoring the founding of DandH as a Tire and Rubber company with new co-Presidents Michael (left) and Dan (center).



The Schwab family has built the company into one of the top electronics distributors in the country. The challenge for Michael and Dan is to maintain the company's sales growth momentum. So far they're off to a good start. DandH experienced particularly strong growth in the first half of the fiscal year in servers, networking, mobile, digital signage and storage. In fact, projections show the company on track