Lion Plumbing Supply, a one-location Miami wholesaler, marked its 70th year with its first trade show for the South Florida market: 54 vendors and more than 150 contractors, customers and guests.
What the article says
The Wholesaler’s Ruth Mitchell profiles Lion Plumbing Supply, incorporated on Aug. 21, 1956. On Aug. 21, 2026, it held its anniversary show in Fort Lauderdale with 54 vendors, most of them IMARK Plumbing partners, and more than 150 contractors, customers and guests. For about a decade Lion has held a Florida Keys show every other year, and in 2023 it worked with American Standard and Miami artist Diana Contreras on a 31-by-23-foot mural of its mascot on its building. Its motto is “Built on Service.” Lion is about 70% commercial and 30% residential and operates from one Miami location. It became an ESOP company in 2020 and now has 39 employee-owners.
Why it matters at the top of the house
An independent wholesaler with one location did not wait for a buying group’s show. It ran its own, on its own anniversary, and put its vendors in front of its customers in one room for a day. The marketing is the event, the motto and a mural, and each one says the same thing about who the company is.
One move to copy
Lion Plumbing Supply built a customer show around its own founding date and filled the floor with the vendors it already works with through its buying group. A distributor of any size has a date of its own and a vendor list to start from.
Source: The Wholesaler, “Built on Service,” by Ruth Mitchell, October 1, 2026. The Marketing Table shares the link and a note on why it matters; the article and its copyright belong to the publisher.
Follow The Marketing Table on LinkedIn for one article a day on why marketing matters in industrial companies.
Leave a Reply