PLYMOUTH Nine months after unveiling its grand new Conshohocken Road facility with ribbon-cutting fanfare, the family of owners and operators at Norris Sales Co. threw a bona fide bash for the everyday folks who helped make the company a 60-year success story selling and renting “anything a contractor needs.”
In the front lot, beneath the company’s jackhammer logo that has witnessed many changes over the years, customers and vendors mingled and got to know one another while enjoying a lavish lunch buffet provided by T’Dori of Conshohocken.
“We really wanted all of our customers to come out today and thank them for all their business and show them what we can do for them,” noted president Karen Zajick. “Most of our customers have never come to visit us to see what we’re all about, because the majority of our business is delivery only.”
Last summer, about a mile down the road from its former facility at the intersection of Conshohocken Road and Ridge Pike, Karen, dad Don Zajick (CFO) and mom Rachel Zajick (secretary) officially unveiled the company’s new 1010 Conshohocken Road digs to a crowd that included township, county and state officials.
“That was a super busy time for us, and we decided we would have everybody come out in the spring,” Karen said. “We hoped for a day like today and we got it. So today is really for our customers. We’re showcasing our facility, we have food, a lot of great giveaways, and everyone can talk to our vendors.”
With the front lot parked full with some of Norris Sales Co.’s most in-demand equipment, including a nearly 40,000 pound excavator in the newest Link-Belt line, trench rollers, wheel loaders and dumpers — “Everything you see out here we rent and sell, and we’re a full line distributor with factory-authorized and trained technicians,” Karen explained — customers and vendors were given guided tours through each department in the massive building that houses more than 100,000 machine parts.
“They can see our two-ton jib crane and our everyday operation, with our warehouse stocked fully with everything we rent and sell,” she added.
The fact that the day was also a 60th anniversary party for Norris Sales Co. simply provided frosting on the celebration cake, Karen allowed.
“When we were planning this, we weren’t even thinking that it was going to be our 60th anniversary, but this turned out to be an anniversary celebration too,” she said.
As a business that touts major ownership by women, the company has become certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise Council (WBEC), a purchasing council for nationally certified women’s business enterprises, with nearly 100 employees between Conshohocken and a smaller branch in Sicklerville, N.J.
“We’re able to supply the diversity because most of our customers today understand and are implementing a supply chain diversity, and this will help our customers achieve that. We’re really proud of it,” said Karen, whose dad took ownership in 1999 of a business started by his wife’s uncle, Tony Cianciulli, in a garage on East Main Street in 1956.
“Tony didn’t have anyone who wanted to take over the business, so it was a natural transition for me to buy it in 1999,” said Don, who joined his uncle in the business in 1970.
“We now have a state-of-the-art building, and we have great, dedicated hard-working people here that are like family to us. Some of them have been with us a long time,” said Don, who had come up with the aforementioned jackhammer logo many years ago, with the expertise of an artist.
“We were known as an air-compressor house at one time, and our main products were air compressors and jackhammers,” he explained.
Don noted that it took a few months to settle in and get used to the spiffy new quarters that was years in development, but he knew for sure it felt like home at one point.
“It was when we started hanging pictures in the upstairs offices,” he said, smiling.
