Company Name

TS Distributors

Search Job Title

Director, Inventory & Procurement

Client Profile

TS Distributors is a privately held wholesale distributor serving the fencing, access control, gate hardware, perimeter security, structural steel, and metal fabrication markets. Founded in 2007 as a spin-off from Triple S Steel, the company has grown from 17 employees and a single location to approximately 130 employees across seven distribution centers.

Headquartered in Houston, TS Distributors operates more than 300,000 square feet of warehouse space and sources products both domestically and internationally. The family-owned company has built its reputation around product availability, technical expertise, customer service, and long-term relationships while maintaining an entrepreneurial, employee-focused culture.

Role Objectives & Challenges

TS Distributors' rapid growth had begun to outpace the supply chain structure that supported it. As the company expanded through both organic growth and acquisitions, purchasing, inventory management, and branch fulfillment responsibilities had become distributed across multiple people and locations. The company had never had a single leader responsible for bringing those functions together.

The newly created Director of Inventory & Procurement position would effectively become TS Distributors' first end-to-end supply chain leader, centralizing procurement, inventory planning, and fulfillment under a more structured operating model. The role would oversee approximately high volume in direct product spend and a team of product and fulfillment managers supporting the company's distribution network.

Inventory represented the most immediate opportunity. TS Distributors was carrying approximately large amounts of inventory, including obsolete stock, while its planning and S&OP processes remained relatively informal. The challenge was not simply ensuring product availability. The company already excelled at customer service and generally had products where customers needed them. The opportunity was to accomplish that with healthier inventory levels, stronger purchasing practices, improved inventory turns, and greater profitability.

TS Distributors needed a leader who could introduce greater sophistication without bringing the bureaucracy of a much larger organization. The ideal candidate required a combination of procurement, inventory planning, supplier management, analytical capability, and communication skills, along with the ability to work in an entrepreneurial environment where improvements could have an immediate impact.

Our Approach to Solve the Search

SCM Talent Group launched a Houston-focused search targeting procurement and inventory leaders with experience in wholesale, industrial, and building materials distribution. The initial search included candidates from larger organizations with sophisticated supply chain operations, but early conversations revealed an important disconnect between the level of those candidates and the leadership profile TS Distributors actually needed.

While recalibrating the search for the client, it quickly became clear that this approach would likely yield results closer to the desired outcome. The focus shifted toward finding a mid-career leader with the right combination of experience and hands-on capability, someone who had enough supply chain expertise to centralize and mature the function but would also thrive in TS Distributors' smaller, entrepreneurial environment.

That consultative adjustment ultimately proved critical. The search was not about finding the biggest-name procurement executive available. It was about identifying the appropriate level of leader for TS Distributors' current stage of growth and giving that person room to build.

The Hire & Results

SCM Talent Group found a local candidate whose background and leadership style lined up with the company's needs. Once introduced to TS Distributors, the candidate moved rapidly through the interview process, progressing from initial consideration to hire in approximately three weeks.

The search took less than 60 days, giving TS Distributors its first dedicated leader responsible for bringing procurement, inventory management, planning, and fulfillment together under a more centralized supply chain organization.

The placement provides TS Distributors with the leadership infrastructure needed to improve inventory turns, strengthen purchasing practices, reduce excess and obsolete inventory, and build more scalable supply chain processes as the company continues to grow through both organic expansion and acquisitions.

I think the search recalibration belongs prominently in this one. It shows actual recruiting expertise: SCMTG initially went after the caliber of director you'd expect for a $70M spend, then recognized that the market/title/company-stage equation wasn't right and adjusted the profile instead of just throwing more candidates at the client. That's a nice proof point for the consultative side of the business.