When it started, back when their dad’s untimely death left them with a family business to run, Rob and John Kalb had something to prove.
“At the time, we were both in our twenties and The Establishment was saying, ‘Oh, those boys will never do it,’ so we took pride in doing it,” John Kalb remembers.
It was 1992 when Bob Kalb died. He’d been the founder of Kalb Equipment in Memphis, Tennessee, since 1974. His plan all along had been to at least have one of his sons take over the independent dealership. Both sons did.
“The number one thing our dad said was take care of your mother because he was only 62 when he died,” Rob Kalb recalls. “I think it was just pride that we wanted to grow the business. He instilled a real work ethic in us.”
“We fought our way through it, to prove everyone in town wrong,” John said.
And boy, did they.
Brothers in business
Looking back, it seems natural that the Kalb brothers would run the business together. Both grew up in their father’s store, had jobs there throughout high school. Back then, it was a Kubota dealership that sold mainly tractors and farm equipment. The Kalbs evolved and expanded it and now sell and service the top brand lawnmowers and equipment to commercial grass customers: from big landscapers with hundreds of employees and 20 crews to the guy with a side job and one truck who goes out and cuts a dozen yards a week, if they’re making money cutting grass, the Kalb brothers are there to help them.
The brothers have quadrupled the business and have since added a second store when they bought Mid-South Small Engines across town. That’s where you’ll find Rob. John runs Kalb Equipment.
“Our dad taught us how to run the business,” John said, “and we were driven to make it work.”
“We had an excellent start to be able to grow,” Rob said. “We were in good financial shape because of my dad. From 1974 to ’92, he never lost money in any year.”
2nd generation customers
“There are people who come in all the time who knew our dad or dealt with him,” Rob said. And now it’s their children who are Kalb customers.
The key to their success, the brothers say, is that they only service what they sell and they focus on the relationships they have with each customer and pride themselves on helping them. That means supporting them with knowledge and expertise to offering new equipment or having parts at the ready to fix existing equipment the moment they need it.
Rob: “Our priority is every customer who walks through the door.”
John: “They know we are there to guide them if they need it. They know they can trust us that we know what we’re doing and we’re going to be there for them. We have a knowledgeable staff that has been here for years.”
Rob: “Our experience is not only on sales, but we operate a lot of the equipment that we sell and that is knowledge that you can never teach.”
The brothers want their customers to be their friends; they even consider them as partners.
“I enjoy the relationships with the customers, selling them what they need,” John said.
“We want all of them to make money, just like we want to make money,” Rob said.
Carrying on a legacy
“There are customers who come back — the older people that knew Dad very well and had been in business with him before — they will come back and say, ‘Your dad would be very proud of y’all,’” John said. “That makes you feel very good every time someone says it. And we hear it quite a bit.”
“People are just proud to see us running with our father’s spirit,” Rob said. “I think about him every day. I hope he looks down and he’s proud of us. That’s the most important thing.”
“I walk up to Kalb Equipment every day — that’s our dad’s name. I think about him all the time,” John said. “My office is his old office. I sit at the same desk he sat at…”
“…and it’s probably the exact same desk!” Rob interjects with a laugh.
“It is! It’s been here since he bought the company.”
More on Kalb Equipment here.
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