The Rathsburg Company was originally started in 1954
in the basement of the Rathsburg family home near downtown Detroit. The
company consisted of two people, John (Jack) M. Rathsburg, who was
the president and only sales person, and Anna A. Rathsburg, his bookkeeper
and wife. There was always a huge parcel of kids around who would
file papers, type quotes and “build catalogs.”
In the early ‘60s, Jack Rathsburg merged the
operation with a man named Rod Butchart, who had a similar but complimentary
sales organization. The new company was known as Butchart-Rathsburg & Associates,
Inc. The initial direction of the company was selling consumer
electronic products into the jobber market in the state of Michigan. Some
of the initial lines that the company represented were Antennae Specialists,
Cornell-Dubilier, Harman Kardon, Sonotone and Telex.
The two owners split apart in the late 60’s going
their separate ways. The Company dropped the Butchart hyphenated name
and became Rathsburg & Associates, Inc. Rod Butchart and his
nephew, Bob Cowie, ran the Butchart Company for a few years until Rod’s
retirement but finally closed down the operation. Jack Rathsburg and
his son, Bill, moved the firm towards the OEM market working with lines
like Cornell-Dubilier that had both OEM components and end user products. Cornell-Dubilier
was the core line that helped solidify the company in the mid to late
60’s. Products sold into the Appliance and Industrial customer
base in Michigan at that time were AC Oil, Mylar, MICA and Electrolytic
Capacitors, E-M relays and RFI filters.
Greg Rathsburg joined the company out of college in
1970. One year later, Cornell-Dubilier awarded its sales representation
franchise in the automotive market to the firm and they began selling
ignition condensers, E-M relays, Radio Noise Filters, and Mica Capacitors
in to the Big Three car companies. The company then started to
expand beyond their CDE-centric product portfolio with the addition
of Lines like AC-DC Electronics, Bourns, Chicago Miniature Lamp and
Monsanto LED’s.
The two sons bought out their Father’s interest
in the company in the mid ’70s and changed the name of the corporation
to Rathsburg Associates, Inc.
John M. Rathsburg was elected to a Life Time Membership
in the Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) in 1975.
At the beginning of the ‘80’s decade, the
company entered the semiconductor market with the addition of the Intersil,
Analog Devices and Fairchild lines. These suppliers brought the
Company into personal contact with distribution icons like Paul Carroll,
Tony Hamilton and Seymour Schweber.
In the mid ‘80’s, Greg Rathsburg bought
out his brother’s interest in the company and became sole owner
of the company. The company than began an aggressive plan to expand
from a Michigan-only Rep Firm to a fifteen state NorthCentral Regional
Representative. The expansion phase included six RepCo acquisitions
including the Power One Rep in Ohio, the former Analog Devices Rep
in the Heartlands and the LSI Logic Rep in Chicago. These three
acquisitions in particular helped to facilitate the transition of these
major line franchises into a territory-wide relationship that the Company
has with most of its major suppliers today.
The hallmark of the company during the spectacular
growth decade of the 90’s was conservative fiscal management. A
great deal of the revenue that was generated was reinvested back into
the business in the way of cars, computers, buildings and in-depth
employee training programs. Another major differentiator was the
strategy to hire technical BSEE Sales Engineers vs. hiring lay Salespeople
and backing them up with technical FAE’s.
In the late ‘90’s and early ‘00’s,
the company fully embraced the Industrial Distribution Channel. An
extensive Channel Partnership Program was developed which today includes
high level management relationships and nine (9) dedicated Distributor
Sales Specialists that focus entirely on growing business for our clients
through their distributor partners.
Since the early 70’s, Rathsburg has always had
a good position in the automotive market. But it has really flourished
these past few years as the automotive market has integrated more and
more leading edge electronic solutions into automobiles. In 2005,
the Company completed its sixth RepCo acquisition by buying a Rep
Firm that specializes in selling electronic components to Visteon.
In 2006, the Company created The John M. Rathsburg
Technology Center, a Silicon IP lab at its headquarters facility in
Novi, MI, to provide state of the art tech support to its customers
and suppliers in the automotive space.
Rathsburg continues to pave the way in the industry
with innovative new programs like the Technology
Center, POShare, Channel
University, and easyEquote.
The Company is now the largest and most professional
Rep Firm in the Midwest USA. It is still owned by Greg Rathsburg; he
serves as its President & Chairman. His three Children, Rachel, Amy & Bobby,
are interning in the Company during their college years and may some
day join the firm as full time employees. Scott Brodehl is VP, Chief
Operating Officer and Automotive Sales Manager.
Rathsburg Associates has been in business for over
a half century and has sold well over a billion dollars worth of electronic
components!
