NEWBURYPORT — Personal attention, along with a firm belief that people make a difference, has proven to be a successful recipe for John P. Sawyer’s family company, Abel Distributors, Inc.
For almost 40 years, the local lifting equipment business has been providing hoists, trolleys and replacement parts to hundreds of companies that need a lift. Just this month alone, the Parker Street firm helped outfit the city’s fish pier with a new crane and electric hoist.
“We work with just about everybody who uses a hoist or a crane,” Sawyer said. “They have to lift something and move it from one place to another. We figure out the best way to do that.”
In 1985, Sawyer started Abel Distributors, along with his late father John M. Sawyer, in North Andover. For the last two decades the younger Sawyer has served as company president.
“This was a father/son company,” Sawyer said. “We worked together for a very long time and it was a unique relationship.”
The company eventually moved to Newburyport by the late 1990s. Sawyer currently employs five people in his Parker Street office, including his wife, Raelene.
“We’re a small company,” Sawyer said. “We may have two more people at times. It varies.”
Working with numerous manufacturers like CW Hoists and LodeRail, Abel Distributors also offers equipment servicing and inspections.
“We’re a distributor and equipment dealer. That’s basically what we are,” Sawyer said. “We do sell a lot of replacement parts, as well as new equipment.”
Earlier this month, Abel Distributors provided the new crane and electric fish hoist that Boston-based BTT Marine Construction installed at the city’s fish pier.
Newburyport Harbormaster Paul Hogg said the new equipment can lift about a ton of material and has an updated electrical system.
Sawyer said the cost of the two parts was under $20,000. That was rolled into the recently completed and mostly federally-funded $5.3 million second phase of the waterfront bulkhead repair project.
Newburyport Senior Project Manager Geordie Vining said it was a bonus working with a local company.
“Abel Distributors has been the primary expert in guiding the city design what it needed and worked with the crane manufacturer to get it done,” he said.
Now that the crane and hoist have been installed, Abel Distributors will make itself available for consultations, service, inspections and support.
“The sale was a good experience and I think it worked out well,” Sawyer said.
Manchester-By-The-Sea Harbormaster Bion Pike said he bought a fish hoist (but not the crane) from Abel Distributors in 2012 and the company has stood by the product ever since.
“They come out and inspect the hoist and the crane to meet OSHA requirements for the town,” he said, referring to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “When it’s time to take them down and service them, their service person is great. We’ve never had anything but good luck with them and they’ve been a great vendor for the town.”
Helping people figure out their lifting solution, Sawyer said, is the best part of his job.
“It does require some design work, some thinking and calculations,” he said. “But I think the fun part is going into a company and trying to figure out what would best meet the customer’s needs.”
Abel Distributors, Sawyer added, does most of its business with industrial customers. But he said he’ll work with just about anyone.
“Obviously, we’ve done a lot of business with the marine and fishing industries. Inspections are required every year, so that’s a big part of the business as well,” he said. “We don’t really venture beyond that, as some other companies in this line of work probably do. We don’t get into (lift) trucks, rack systems and material handling. It’s hoists and cranes that we sell.”
Knowing his market and how to best serve customers, Sawyer said has been the secret to his company’s success for almost 40 years.
“We have a personal touch,” he said. “A lot of people want to do things online all of the time and they’re not really giving it their personal attention. There’s a lot of self help going on on the internet and it’s nice to have a person who can talk to you and work things out with you. Things usually turn out better that way.”
Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Newburyport for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.