An unexpected twist: Felber Maasdam's children figured they would just spruce up their father's cable-pulling business before selling it off. The managers they put in place felt strongly enough to buy it.

For 30 years, Maasdam Pow'r-Pull chugged along with little fanfare, making mechanisms used in the tightening of fences and cables that Felber Maasdam and his father first concocted in a garage in Deep Creek, Colo.

Maasdam, who for 17 years served as Bob Hope's photographer on USO tours, died in 1994, and his son and daughter, who never felt the same pull to the business they inherited, decided to beef up the company's operations before selling it.

The first step was bringing on Brad Tukey in 1997 as executive vice president for sales and marketing. Under Tukey, Pow'r-Pull picked up a few major national accounts like Hope Depot and Lowe's, and sales jumped.

The Maasdam family then recruited Robert Adams to take over as president and chief executive in 2000, with an eye towards selling the company for Maasdam's children.

The plan worked, but not as expected.

"I brought them a deal they rejected, anticipating we could grow the business further," Adams said. That was in 2001, and the terrorist attacks later that year had a profound impact on their approach.

"Sept. 11 caused them to freeze in fear and discomfort of the future," said Adams. "M&A deals went south, and they were anxious to get something done."

Adams hired an investment banking firm that brought in Westcap Investments of Los Angeles to back a management buyout of the business. Adams would not say what stake he has in the business or disclose the value of the transaction, which closed in January.

Aggressive approach

Under Adams and Tukey, the renamed Pull'R Holdings LLC has acquired two new businesses, tripling the size of its product line, and moved into new facilities in Sun Valley.

Pull'R, which had stuck to making cable pullers used to stretch chain link fencing and move anything from tree limbs to automobiles, in December acquired the assets of a Canadian jack company and in April purchased Dead On Tools, a maker of framing hammers.

Along with changes on the production line instituted over the past several years, Pull'R this year will see revenues rise 69 percent over last year, to $13 million, without any significant increase in its employee head count. Next year, when the acquisitions should be fully realized, revenues are projected to double.

Pull'R has been able to distinguish itself by taking approaches usually found at larger companies, such as focus groups and employee bonuses.

"It's kind of like an old school company that really cares about what they make and who they make it for," said Don Fogg, who handles purchasing and quality control for Builder's Fence Co. in Sun Valley and a longtime customer. "That in itself makes them unique, nowadays anyway."

While Pull'R's management and product line changed almost overnight, the company's retooling has taken much longer.

Tukey, whose background includes sales management and retail buying, immediately set about redesigning the packaging and overhauling the sales force to improve distribution. He fired most of the independent sales reps the company had used and replaced them with an aggressive in-house staff.

"I focused on reps I believed had not only the ambition, but the contacts to get an audience," said Tukey. "Initially the challenge was to get a buyer's attention with a limited number of products."

The efforts yielded sales increases of 20 percent a year, but Pull'R still needed more products if it was to grow further.

Adams, who came on board after orchestrating the sale of Commerce-based McGuire-Nicholas Co., where he had been chief executive and chief financial officer for five years, turned his attention to product development.

The company focused on brands with good name recognition in the do-it-yourself and contractor markets with an eye toward product categories bought by the same buyers Pull'R already did business with.

"They came to me to really cater to the needs of the end user, and I think a lot about somebody that would do that and develop a tool that would be usable and affordable," said Fogg. "Not everyone does it."

The company is working on a third acquisition that would add yet another product category, tool organization. When it's completed, officials expect to package the kits with hammers, and offer special promotions they say are not currently available.

It's all part of the company's underlying philosophy.

"A company is either growing or it's dying," said Tukey. "There's no such thing as holding your place in line."

PROFILE

Pull'R Holdings LLC

Year Founded: 1946

Employees in 2000: 36

Employees in 2003: 39

Revenues in 2000: $7 million

Revenues in 2003 (projected): $13 million

Goal: To be a larger version of what it is today

Driving Force: Steady growth in the do-it-yourself market along with a trend away from the disposable culture of recent years to better quality products