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Meet Joey Shurtz of Sonoran Plumbing Supply in Central Phoenix

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Joey Shurtz.

They are a family business that opened February 2016. The vision began with Jon Perkins and his son Jonathan Perkins II who dreamed about starting a wholesale plumbing supply company. Jon soon reach out to Joey, his nephew and his youngest son, Christopher Perkins, to complete the team. This was not an industry that three of the four were unfamiliar with. Jon Perkins had over 30 years’ experience as General Manager at Hajoca Corporation leading many turnaround situations including Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and here in Phoenix, Arizona which he has been for the last 20 years. He led one of the most successful locations in this market during his tenure and developed strong relationships with the many business owners here in the Phoenix area which has been paramount with the early success of their business. His positive spirit and belief in their company’s vision has been a conduit to their current and future growth. During Jon’s tenure as General Manager at Hajoca, his son Jonathan worked for his father, starting at the bottom level, putting away material, to becoming a manager trainee at Hajoca. In his 12 years at Hajoca, he was challenged to help many troubled locations, assisting in helping restore profitability and rekindle customer relationships. During his time, Jonathan worked at numerous locations, giving him a wealth of knowledge in different segments of the plumbing industry. Today, he brings that experience to help guide the business and ensure they have the material needed to best support their customers. He also brings a vision of creating a culture that is new and fresh to this industry. Jonathan believes in making an environment that is fun, encouraging and most importantly, empowering. His focus is on building up each of their employees to help them achieve goals that they may have never thought were possible. He believes that their business is here to impact the community and to help change the lives of both their employees and their customers. Joey came from a life in the cable business working for Cox Communications for 12 years as a sales leader. With the encouragement of Jon, he joined the Hajoca team and became a turnaround manager for 3 locations. He began learning the business just like Jon and Jonathan, starting from the ground level stacking pallets, putting away material, to writing up orders at the counter and being trained by other successful managers on how to manage a business. In his 4 years, he was trained in an accelerated learning program that gave him the skills he uses today to help the business. His focus is on the purchasing and financials which has helped Jon and Jonathan to focus on sales and strategic thinking, which has been critical in their young business’ development. Joey moved here from Waterloo, IA in April 2016 with his family of four and has been blessed to be a part of the team. Christopher Perkins is the son of Jon Perkins and moved from Chicago, IL with a life of managing restaurants. He moved to Chicago at the age of 18 and moved his way to management, leading a successful and profitable business. Christopher during his time in Chicago, became highly skilled in his ability to speak Spanish as well. Many of his cooks and co-workers were bi-lingual and he always had an interest learning the language. When Christopher was asked to move back to Phoenix and be a part of the team, it was tough for him to leave Chicago, but he made the choice and has been a critical piece of the success this business has experienced. In their business, over 80% of their clients speak Spanish and over the last 2 years, Christopher has helped make their business the go to place for the Spanish speaking community. Due to his ability to communicate in Spanish, they have been able to better serve their customers and open new doors that wouldn’t otherwise have been possible. Christopher’s spirit and kind heart has created new relationships and a following that is unmatched at the store and continues to help in the vision and goals for their business.

As a business, they are blessed with the success they have seen due to a great team and loyal customers. They want to continue their focus on family first and impacting the communities they serve. They continue to dream big and look forward to what the future will bring in the coming years.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
When starting a business, there are always challenges and learnings along the way. Many of the learning curves were around learning how to use a new point of sales system to managing the financials and everything that is required to be a legitimate, tax paying business. You don’t realize all the details that are involved in running a business until you take the leap of faith. Overall, it has been a great experience and there is very little today that we don’t feel we could figure out and manage with our business.

Sonoran Plumbing Supply – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Our business is focused on a variety of plumbing sectors from service plumbers, pool installers, commercial, schools, MDU’s, hotels, new residential constructions, to anything and everything plumbing. Our company is specialized on product knowledge and great customer service. This is what sets us apart from the competition. Everything we sell is available at numerous different competitors, but what we provide is a relationship, consultation approach that focuses on how we can help our customers grow their business. When our customers are successful, we are.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success for each individual is different the goal at Sonoran Plumbing Supply is to hire the right people in each role and help each person find his/her sweet spot. If we do this, then the future for Sonoran Plumbing Supply will be tremendous. The future success of our business will be on the shoulders of a great team that trusts each other in everything they do. We believe empowerment will breed a strong trust within our organization which will lead to a long and bright future of success for our business.

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Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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