Tribute Customer of the Quarter: Jerry Brothers Industries, Inc.

by Mike Barker, VP
Jerry Brothers Industries

Jerry Brothers Industries (JBI) was founded by the Jerry family in the early 1900s in Richmond, VA. Originally JBI sold leather drive belting to a wide variety of manufacturing plants. The Jerry family maintained ownership of the company until the late 1970s. By that time JBI had started to diversify into the tobacco industry. Ted Lushch purchased the small tobacco-oriented company in the 1980s and started to transform it into a full-service conveyor belting company. As the company grew into the 1990s, he formed a partnership with Mike Barker and opened a second manufacturing facility in Charlotte, NC.

JBI now distributes conveyor and power transmission belting for all of the top belting manufacturers, including Habasit and Ameraal, representing them in many different industries. We have a large presence in the following industries: bakeries, cookie and cracker, meat and poultry, printing, paper and box manufacturing. If a belt is moving a product, forming a product, or driving a machine, then JBI sells it. Our belting products range from thermoplastic and nylon core products, to metal and plastic modular belting, all to meet the ever-changing environment. It is our ability to sell solutions and to service those solutions that sets us apart from our competition. JBI is a member of NIBA (The Belting Association) and Ted Lushch served as president of the organization in 2005.

Over the years the lightweight conveyor belting industry has become highly competitive. In order to meet the challenges of this competitive market, JBI continues to invest in new equipment which allows us to respond quickly to our customer’s needs. This investment is not only in belt manufacturing equipment, but includes the Tribute Software System which we installed in 2009. Tribute has been a huge upgrade over our last system. The flexibility of Tribute has made the jobs of our CSR’s (customer service reps) easier by having information at their fingertips. This allows them to respond to our customer’s needs quickly. The ability to drill down in several different areas makes finding information easy, thus the accounting types are happy. I have found Tribute’s customer service to be excellent and they have been very easy to work with. With their help we are finding new applications and reports that help us manage our business better than ever.

Jerry Brothers Industries
Richmond, VA and Charlotte, NC
www.jerrybrothers.com