The Downside of Being a “One-Stop Shop”

Before Jeff Bezos & Co. blew up traditional distribution channels, there was some value in being  the local guy or gal. Being the local product retailer was a good business and being a regional  distributor of a popular line could make you a mint. 

Those days are almost over. 

In a world where anything is available at the click of a mouse, the fact that you’re local means  very little. To build a valuable company, you need to go beyond your physical location as a point  of differentiation and cultivate a new value proposition. We refer to this process as improving  your “Monopoly Control.” The name is inspired by Warren Buffett, who likes to invest in  companies with a wide “competitive moat” — essentially a defendable point of differentiation. 

While being a local provider may have gotten you into business, it’s not going to be enough to  get you out for a decent multiple. To build a valuable company someone may want to buy one  day, you need a fresh sales angle. 

Take a look at the journey of Mehul Sheth, who went from a middleman to the owner of an  eight-figure business. Sheth started VMS Aircraft in 1995 as a distributor of airline parts. He  offered a “one-stop shop” for airlines and their maintenance crews to find parts and accessories. 

VMS was the local distributor and survived on gross margins of 22–23%. It was a subsistence  living, and Sheth was determined to build a more valuable company. He decided to evolve his  value proposition from just being the local warehouse for distributing other people’s stuff to a  sophisticated provider of advanced materials. Sheth chose to focus on the materials that airlines  

need to be stored and handled meticulously. If the safety of your metal tube flying 300 people  40,000 feet in the air is determined by the quality of a seam of metal, you want that steel to be  handled carefully. You also want the sealant that joins the sheet of metal kept at a temperature  that maximizes its adhesiveness. You may also want your rivets stored with the same care a  

surgeon uses to put away her scalpel after performing life-saving surgery. 

Sheth invested in a clean room that minimized dust at his facility. He bought dry ice containers  so certain materials could be stored in a cold environment, maximizing their effectiveness. He  also repackaged materials into smaller containers so that an airline that only needed a small  amount of a particular material didn’t need to buy an entire tub. 

Sheth’s evolution from simple reseller to value-added provider fueled his gross margins to 60– 70%. Along the way, Sheth attracted a French company that wanted to enter the U.S. market.  Rather than set up shop to compete with Sheth, they realized VMS had created a unique offering  with a layer of value-added services that would be difficult to imitate. They decided to acquire  VMS for 7.4 times EBITDA. 

If you find yourself clinging to the “one-stop shop” sales message, consider evolving to  something that truly differentiates you in a world where Amazon (and its various e-tailing competitors) will ship you just about anything, anywhere, overnight.

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