Corning Inc. awards fastener contract to Bruce Watkins Supply

A large Wilmington company depends on a local business for their supplies and services.

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A Wilmington company with locations around the world is “shopping local” for some supplies and services.

On Wednesday the owner of the local company shared a few details about the new partnership.

Bruce Watkins is a Wilmington company that sells fasteners. It has recently been awarded a contract with Corning’s Wilmington location.

According to Scott Harry, the owner of Bruce Watkins, Corning selected his company because he can provide something you can’t get from some of the major global survivors.

Harry said, “The trend has been for the bigger corporations to use national vendors so that they can take care of every location for that company. But in an area like Wilmington, or in every area, there are a lot of small business vendors that can do a lot better job, are a lot more responsive, more service oriented and even better on price.”

Bruce Watkins Supply has been in business for 42-years. The owner went on to say he feels this well-established business has an advantage, being that he can be at Corning’s service anytime of day, any day of the week, and the inventory is all in Wilmington.

Harry said, “We are a high service company, and we’re gonna provide that. We’re– I’m gonna get up in the middle of the night, they’re gonna have my phone number and I’m gonna answer the phone at 3 A.M and I’m gonna take the bolt to their plant and their gonna keep running. That’s the savings. That’s the benefit to these big companies.”

The local distributor said he hopes other large companies will follow Corning’s example. He said that by considering partnerships with local businesses — both companies are able to maintain their high level of service to customers.