I remember walkin' round the court square sidewalks
Lookin' in windows at things I couldn't want
There's Johnson's Hardware and Morgan's Jewelry
And the ol' Lee King's Apothecary
They were the little man
The little man
Not a day goes by that Ken Hendricks doesn't think about the little man.
Ken Hendricks is a big man in the world of business and personal wealth, but he's deeply grounded in the scrappy lessons he learned while growing up in Janesville.
Dan Lassiter/Gazette Staff
And there's rarely a day when the Alan Jackson tune of the same name doesn't waft through the black Jeep Cherokee driven by the small-town roofer's son who now owns one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.
Make no mistake: Hendricks is a big man in the world of business and personal wealth. But he's deeply grounded in the scrappy lessons he learned while growing up in a small house on Janesville's west side.
"It's really kind of a sad song," Hendricks said. "What it does is it keeps my ego in a box and keeps me focused on who I am and what we can do."
Who he is: Chairman and chief executive officer of ABC Supply, the largest wholesale distributor of roofing and siding materials, tools and supplies in the United States.
What he's done: Nothing short of phenomenal.
I go back now and the stores are all empty
Except for an old Coke sign dated 1950
Boarded up like they never existed
Or renovated and called historic districts
There goes the little man
There goes the little man
Ken Hendricks gives a PowerPoint presentation to a marketing class at the Upper Iowa University-Blackhawk Center. Hendricks frequently gives motivational talks to business, civic and educational groups.
Dan Lassiter/Gazette Staff
Growing up, Ken Hendricks dearly loved his dad, Joe. The youngster trailed his father on all sorts of roofing jobs, eventually earning his dad's respect and trust. The son eventually started his own roofing companies.
Hendricks knows what it's like to be an underdog. His family wasn't part of the "country club set" that played just a few blocks up the hill from the Hendricks' home on Barham Avenue.
"They looked down their noses at him," Hendricks said of his father in a recent interview with Forbes magazine. "He went to work every single day of his life. That wasn't good enough? Some kid got to go to a fancy school, and that made him different from me? That just sets in your gut."
Through dogged determination, Hendricks caught a few breaks reroofing parts of Wisconsin cities ravaged by storms. His business blossomed, and he soon found himself roofing Kmarts, IHOPs and military bases around the country.
But as an 11th-grade dropout who married his pregnant girlfriend, Hendricks burned out after 17 years and literally gave his roofing companies to his employees.
With his experience installing roofing and siding, Hendricks had seen too many suppliers talk the talk without walking the walk. He'd spent too much time running from state to state. He'd spent too much time dealing with too many suppliers.
"I thought there was a better way to treat customers with the respect they deserved," he said. "After dealing with those people for 17 years, I knew there was a better way."
In 1982, Hendricks turned his vision for a dependable national distribution network into a reality: ABC Supply Co., which has grown monumentally to the point that Forbes magazine recently ranked it as the 145th largest privately held company in the United States.
ABC has 5,000 employees in 300 locations in 45 states, including 12 wholesale stores in Wisconsin. This year, the company will post sales of $2.6 billion, which will account for 20 percent of all roofing sold in the United States.
Hendricks' five-year plan is for ABC to have 10,000 employees, 500 wholesale stores and $5 billion in sales, which would represent 35 percent of the nation's roofing market.
Jim Fitzgerald
"From a business perspective, he's one of the most incredible guys I've ever met," said Jim Fitzgerald, himself an icon in the Janesville business community. "He sees things in a totally different way than most others do, and he's parlayed that into an incredible company."
Fitzgerald agrees that he and Hendricks were on parallel tracks as young aspiring Janesville businessmen. With a successful career in the oil business, Fitzgerald brought cable television to Janesville and later went on to own the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors professional basketball teams.
"I wouldn't pretend to be in his league," said Fitzgerald, a recent friend of Hendricks. "I stand in profound admiration of what he's done.
"He walks where angels fear to tread."
Now the court square's just a set of streets
That the people go around but they seldom think
'Bout the little man that built this town
Before the big money shut 'em down
And killed the little man
Oh the little man
The big money in Janesville is responsible for Hendricks' corporate move to Beloit in the 1970s.
Hendricks outbid a prominent local businessman for the old sugar beet factory on Delavan Drive in Janesville. The facility housed a variety of businesses, including Seneca, Monterey Mills, Frito-Lay, Chevron Chemical and a beer distributorship.
The owner was asking $1 million for the property, and the competing Janesville businessman was willing to pay $700,000.
Hendricks successfully offered the $1 million asking price.
"It was worth it," he said.
A Janesville bank that happened to be controlled by the outbid Janesville businessman promptly called in Hendricks' loans, he said.
"The only way I can describe it is that there was a Janesville establishment, a group up to the Country Club," Hendricks said. "That was Janesville. I didn't golf. I didn't know any of them people. I just went about my business.
"Well, when that deal came along that I bought the sugar beet factory, (he) made some calls to his banking buddies and said, 'This is a bad dude; he's going to get you one way or the other.'"
So Hendricks turned to Beloit, where bankers were eager to lend him money for the sugar beet factory that is today Monterey Mills and to pay off the notes called in by the Janesville bank.
Hendricks said he paid off the Janesville banker with more than $200,000 in one-dollar bills, although not everyone involved in the transaction remembers it the same way.
"We had to get Wells Fargo in here because the bank didn't have that many dollar bills," Hendricks said. "I didn't pay it off with a smile on my face so much as I did with a sense of disgust."
Diane Hendricks
The Beloit business community embraced Hendricks, said his second wife, Diane, whom he married in 1975.
"We'll always remember that, and our heart is here," she said of Beloit.
"I had a lot of properties in Beloit at the time, a lot of homes that I fixed up and rented," Ken Hendricks said. "I was very familiar with the banking system in Beloit. It just made sense to locate ABC corporately in Beloit."
He pumped your gas and he cleaned your glass
And one cold rainy night he fixed your flat
The new stores came where you do it yourself
You buy a lotto ticket and food off the shelf
Forget the little man
Forget about that little man
Ken Hendricks takes part in a ground-breaking ceremony for a downtown Beloit riverfront project. Hendricks and his wife, Diane, feel a special kinship with Beloit, which helped Hendricks early in his career.
Al Hoch/Gazette Staff
ABC's wild success has allowed Hendricks to return to his roots, watching out for the little man. Perhaps his largest legacy will be the development and renovation work he's done in Beloit, Janesville and throughout Rock County.
"Ken and Diane Hendricks have done a great deal for our community, this county and for the region," said Andrew Janke, Beloit's economic development director.
So much that the city recently nominated Hendricks for the 2005 Citizen Leadership Award offered annually by the International Economic Development Council, which he won. Hendricks was recognized for "exceptional efforts in fostering economic development."
"His leadership is incredible, and his diverse interests are reflected in the companies he has invested in," Janke said.
Besides leading ABC Supply, Hendricks is in the business of buying businesses.
"He loves business; it feeds his soul," Diane Hendricks said. "It's his golf game. He understands it so well and loves the next deal, but he just hates the day-to-day management of it."
Hendricks exudes a passion for business, a passion for the next deal. But that passion is always rooted in the sound business practices that sprouted back on Barham Avenue in Janesville.
"I buy businesses, and Wal-Mart goes in and puts businesses out of business," he said. "The guys that Wal-Mart puts out of business are the guys that give money to the United Way, the Rotary Club, the Lions Club.
"Wal-Mart comes in, and all that s--'s gone."
That gets to the heart of the message that Jackson's song delivers daily to Hendricks.
"When we go in and buy a business," Hendricks said, "I'd say that more than nine times out of 10, the people there are going to get an opportunity that a large company can give them, but we don't take it out of their wages. They make far more money working with us and expanding.
"We're a big box, but we're not. We're a big box with a real human aspect that we're part of the community."
When Hendricks buys a business, he's able to help the former owner stay in business and continue to play a role in the community, he said.
"It would be like Wal-Mart buying out Mr. Bostwick down on Main Street in Janesville, but Mr. Bostwick would run the store and make more money than he did when he owned his own store because we give him the things to compete against the large companies.
"That's really what that song tells me. All the old services that are gone ... hell, they're gone! Wal-Mart don't ever bring into a community."
Hendricks said he typically buys companies where an owner has died, retired or is in financial trouble.
"It would be like giving Mr. Bostwick the major purchasing power that we have, as well as access to credit," Hendricks said. "He could continue serving his customers and keep the business going in the local community."
Jim Gann is a perfect example.
As the owner of an Alabama wholesale roofing distributor with three locations, Gann saw his business grow faster than the capital needed to support it.
"I had been in business for about eight years, and for the last five or six I had a problem in that I didn't have enough capital to fuel that growth," Gann said.
Then he met Hendricks, whose company offered the purchasing power and credit supplies that Gann lacked. He sold his business and hooked up with ABC Supply in 1990.
"It's the best thing that's ever happened to me," said Gann, who now manages an ABC Supply operation in Nashville.
"I still have the flexibility to run my business and make management decisions. I just don't have to spend my time talking to the guys at the bank. This company has given us an amazing amount of latitude."
And it's all based on trust, he said.
"What's amazing about Ken and Diane Hendricks is the trust they put in people," Gann said. "Since day one, that's never changed. I'm very honored for the trust they put in me.
"In whatever he does, Ken is just a tremendous judge of character."
Far removed from the roofing business, American Purpac Technologies is an example of Hendricks' diverse business interests.
"In 2002, we were just three guys with an idea," said John Saladino, chief financial officer for the Beloit company that now employs 35 people.
"We presented a plan to Mr. Hendricks, and he felt it made sound business sense."
Hendricks invested $18 million in the company, of which he owns about 78 percent. American Purpac provides bulk-blending, ingredient processing and filling for the food and beverage industries.
"There's no question he's a jump-starter," Saladino said. "He is the reason we are here. He had the belief in us and a belief in the community.
"He has an incredible ability to make things happen."
He hung on there for a few more years
But he couldn't sell Slurpees
And he wouldn't sell beer
Now the bank rents the station
To a man down the road
And sell velvet Elvis and
Second-hand clothes
There goes little man
There goes another little man
Some people in Rock County perceive that Hendricks has a golden touch. They think his huge bankroll guarantees success.
Hendricks scoffs at the notion. He notes that his personal wealth-estimated at $1.5 billion-is only on paper until he sells his companies, which he has no plans to do.
Hendricks said his continuing investment in local businesses and communities allows him to offer more opportunities.
"It's the little man syndrome and how can I take that gas station guy and make him successful without having to sell his business," he said.
Hendricks said he does have a special force on his side.
"My magic touch is the people I surround myself with," said Hendricks, who frequently speaks to business, civic and educational groups. "When I walk into a business, I go back and talk to the fork-lift operator and find out what's going on. He knows how to run the damn business.
"And that's why I'm successful, because I understand who knows the business. It's never the owner that's failing. He's already failed. He's spent too much time on the golf course, Hawaii or wherever it is he gets his kicks spending the money. I don't enjoy doing that. I really enjoy creating jobs for people."
Now the streets are lined up in a concrete strip
You can buy the whole world with just one trip
And save a penny cause it's jumbo size
They don't even realize
They're killin' the little man
Oh the little man
While some people watch Hendricks buy up and develop Rock County's vacant parcels like properties in a Monopoly game, the 64-year-old says his mission is anything but a game.
"I dropped out of school in the 11th grade, and I look in the mirror and say, 'My god, how many people out there are like me? What a great country this would be if we could replace Wal-Mart with companies like ABC.'"
Business success and its ensuing wealth foster that thinking.
So, too, does an understandable ego built on Hendricks' life path-from a kid who was looked down upon to one of the wealthiest men in the United States.
"I don't think I have much of an ego," said Hendricks, who dresses casually and drives the cluttered Jeep Cherokee.
"All the people here are my friends. I don't feel that I'm any better than anybody who works here. And who the hell am I? I dropped out of school in 11th grade, a roofer's kid. What gives me the right? There's nothing elitist about me."
He may not be elitist, but he's in elite company. Forbes magazine recently named him the 207th richest American.
Until 2001, Hendricks and his wife lived at Stonehenge, the former home of the George Parker family on Janesville's north side.
They now live southwest of Janesville in the area known as the Afton Pits. The 300-acre, gated parcel includes a well-appointed 3,200-square-foot house that reflects Hendricks' love of Indian culture and art.
"The land is nice, but it's still a gravel pit," he said. "It's a nice house, but I've never owned a home larger than 3,200 square feet. I just don't understand these people who want to put up palatial homes that are somehow a testament to themselves. I think it's ridiculous."
The Afton grounds, about 100 acres of which are ponds, include an inviting entertainment pavilion that's often the scene of corporate, social or political gatherings hosted by Hendricks, who admits to being a staunch Republican.
"I only watch Fox News: unbiased, fair and balanced reporting," he said with a chuckle.
Family members have been living at Stonehenge, and Hendricks plans to keep it that way.
They also own a place in Chicago and a high-rise condo in Fort Lauderdale, where Hendricks and his wife spent about five weeks last year. Most of the time, his children use the Florida condo.
Those are Hendricks' only homes, although ABC Supply has two Lear jets-plus a Bombardier Challenger 300 on order-that could whisk the Hendricks family anywhere in the world.
"I have flown in those planes 14 times in the last three years," he said. "When we go to Florida, I drive to O'Hare, take a commercial flight for $199 and collect my frequent-flyer miles."
Key people in his businesses use the Rock County-based fleet frequently.
"When you've got six or eight people who need to go to Denver and they don't know how long they're going to be there to finish a deal, those planes have paid for themselves," he said.
Hendricks has used his corporate jet only once for personal reasons, and that was to rescue his daughter after hurricane-like storms hit New Orleans in 2004. Kara's husband, Aaron Stecker, is a running back with the New Orleans Saints. The team had evacuated earlier to San Antonio.
"I couldn't believe that the team left all those people behind," Hendricks said.
He's often asked why he doesn't use his jets more often.
The answer is simple, and it gets back to the little man.
"It would cost me $12,000 to go to Florida when you've got to put guys up overnight and then fly it back and forth," he said.
"I'd much rather go to the United Way and hand that money to them. I can drive to Chicago."
Ken and Diane Hendricks pooh-pooh the notion that they're jet-setters who travel the world at a moment's notice.
"We're just too busy," Diane said.
Because of their wealth, the Hendrickses know that people probably think otherwise.
"I really don't know what my image is in Rock County. But do I care? Yes, I care, because I care for my family. I've worked hard. I've tried to treat people right. I've always been fair and above the table."
As he continues to climb the ranks of business and personal wealth lists, when is enough enough?
"It will be enough when I'm up at Oakhill (Cemetery), where I've got a gravestone waiting for me," Hendricks said. "I love what I do. I love giving people opportunities. Everyone always asks if I'm thinking about retiring. Damn, how can you enjoy anything more than helping people that want to get ahead and work hard for their family?
"There's nothing more gratifying than that. There really isn't."
And that has nothing to do with his growing bankroll, he said.
"Wealth was never part of the scenario," he said. "I invest my wealth in our people and in growing so that more people can share in it and get more opportunities. It's what you do with wealth."
Too many business people, he said, make their money locally and then jet off to warmer climates where they collect regular checks but don't pay back the taxes that support the community.
"When you look at retirement, if you've got one billion dollars or 10 billion dollars, then you've got to manage the money," he said. "Wouldn't you rather manage it with friends than with some guys over on Wall Street in New York City?
"I'd much rather know the guy that's screwing me than some guy in New York."
It wasn't long ago when I was a child
An old black man came with his mule and his plow
He broke the ground where we grew our garden
Back before we'd all forgotten
about the little man
The little man
Long live the little man
God bless the little man
With no plans to retire, Hendricks still bases his decisions on lessons learned on Barham Avenue in Janesville. He also draws heavily on the family that includes Diane, who is an integral business partner, and seven children, most of whom are involved in businesses controlled by the Hendrickses.
"How many business people can say that with five daughters and two sons, that they all work within the company?" he said. "I don't know of anyone else, especially in a company that's grown like this one has. I couldn't hire people of their quality. They're absolutely tremendous."
These days, Hendricks said he eats dinner at his Afton home about two or three nights a month, including weekends.
But that doesn't mirror the family pattern that's guided him for so long.
"When the kids were growing up, I was there every single night at 6 o'clock," he said. "All the kids sat at the table. That was very, very important in bringing the kids up. We could see if there was a problem. We could tell if they were upset, tell it in their eyes, how the schoolwork was going."
Diane Hendricks agreed, saying she and her husband made it a priority to spend nights and weekends with their children.
"It's those little things that make a big difference," she said.
As for the future, Hendricks again considers his family.
"My family's got every key job here except president of the company," he said, referring to ABC President David Luck, who joined the company in 1998 after 27 years with Bridgestone/Firestone.
"My dad lived to 95, and he was very sharp, and my mom lived to 87," Hendricks said. "Maybe at (age) 80, I'll turn over the CEO and still be chairman. That will take me to 90."
And if that's the case, the little man turned big man will be an old man.
But still a man deeply committed to the growth of the communities where he does business.
Ken Hendricks' resume
Boards of directors: Rock Valley Community Programs, Beloit 2020, Independent Disability Services, Sinnissippi Council of Boy Scouts of America, Blackhawk Bank, Forward Janesville, Stateline Council 100, Glacier's Edge Council of Boy Scouts of America, Stateline Angels, Rockford Area Ventures, Southern Wisconsin Workforce Development.
Board of trustees: Beloit College.
Former president of board of directors of Greater Beloit Chamber of Commerce.
Past president of Beloit Inn Owners Association.
Active participant with United Way.
Ken Hendricks on His daily routine: "I get up about 5:30 or 6 a.m. and usually have some early community function or breakfast meeting.
I'm in the office by 8 or 8:30 a.m. when the business day starts. I'm in the office 50 percent of the time, with the rest out visiting buildings, looking at situations, visiting companies we might be interested in purchasing or expanding, meeting with employees and doing motivational talks.
I generally leave the office by 6 p.m. and often have business meetings or dinners.
Then, I'll go home and watch Fox News."
Corporate America: "You want products cheaper and you want businesses that are run efficiently, and that's how we get it cheaper. Wal-Mart and some other companies give all their money to investors, which is good for 401k plans. But what's wrong is when they pay $10 million or whatever to a guy who comes in and pumps the stock and then the company is garbage from then on. I have a longer-term strategy. I care about the business, and the eventual return is to the employees."
Business diversity: "We bought companies that were either mismanaged or they were owned by investment groups. A lot of times, a venture capital company doesn't want to spend a dime. All they want is earnings. When you buy a company, you pay a multiple of earnings. So the earnings were high, but what they forgot is that I'll double the size of the company in two years. The auditors thought that by not spending money, they were priming earnings. That's a strategy different from mine. Mine is that they could have had three times as much if they'd just operated the company."
Culture: "I'm really into Indian culture. I think we just took incredible advantage of those people. We've got an opportunity here with Mexican immigrants. We've got a real opportunity to change the ways things have been. We took advantage of the Indians, and then we imported the blacks, and we always separated everybody. We're kind of doing the same thing today . These are good people that are coming in. People who really want to work. They're families that believe in God and all the right things. And if someone's speech is a little different, we don't talk to them. … I don't know why we can't see what we're doing to these people. They're good people, and all of a sudden there's going to be a point where they resent us. How many times do we have to learn the lesson?"
Country clubs: "Our company has memberships at the Beloit and Janesville country clubs. I have never, ever gone there for lunch or anything else. It's always been some event. They're not bad places. I have a lot of friends who are members of country clubs. I just don't have the time for business lunches, and I don't play golf."
Family values: "The most important thing is to have your kids at home for dinner where everyone sits around the table. It's really true when it comes to building a family. You go into the church: Monday night's bowling night for the men, Tuesday night's knitting or something for the women, Wednesday night is something else. Think about it. How do you keep a family together when everything is separate? … You don't even have your same kids at the same time doing the same thing.
… And then with computers, they go up into their room, lock the door, sitting in there and who knows what they're getting into with that instead of sitting down at the table. That won't go on in my house, and it ain't with my kids."
