Memphis firm is go-to site for custom hoses, fittings

Two University of Memphis MBAs are helping bring a 33-year-old industrial and hydraulic supply business into the Digital Age.

They've launched an Internet site that lets farmers, mechanics and manufacturers buy fully customized hydraulic power components with a few clicks of a mouse.

The website, radago.com, makes it possible to design, configure and buy tailor-made hose assemblies without dealing with an actual person.

Its creators envision time-saving uses like a farmer using an iPhone or computer to order replacement parts for a broken-down tractor without leaving the farm.

"I'm the old guy," said David Chance, 58, owner of Applied Connectors and Controls Inc. and sister company Bluestar Industries LLC of Memphis. "I've been in it 25 years, and I've always been an outside salesman. These young guys think you can get on the Internet and do anything."

Chance sells hoses, tubes, fittings and other parts for power systems that use hydraulic fluid, water, air or other substances to power industrial equipment. He bought the Mid-South area company, which distributes Parker Hannifin products, in 2004 after working in sales for a Houston, Texas, distributor.

Applied Connectors primarily targets process-oriented industries that run equipment on hydraulics, such as the Valero Memphis oil refinery and Kellogg's cereal plant. Bluestar Industries aims at occasional customers, like repair shops, that may have a small number of hydraulic-powered machines. The website is geared toward those smaller customers.

Chance's son, Roth, 27, worked for his dad's company before going to grad school.

Several distributors have websites, but "I found out it was really, really hard and cumbersome to find out a price on a product and who had it. It was just an idea I had in the back of my head for a couple years."

He recruited classmate Grant Morrow, 30, to help develop the website when they were in U of M's masters of business administration program. Morrow graduated in December; Chance received his degree in May.

Morrow said, "You can buy this stuff online all over the Internet, but what we're trying to do is have a niche that allows us to let you configure and design your hose, then it ships out."

Website features include PDFs of hoses and fittings that customers can print to make sure they're ordering exactly the right size.

In addition to providing a user-friendly interface, radago.com has potential to cut costs.

David Chance considers it an investment in the future.

"We're in the Internet revolution and we have been for 15 years, but not all companies have gotten on board. What is unique about our website is this configurator they've developed. No one else has that."

Coupled with the Memphis advantage in transportation and logistics, it positions the company to benefit when its customer base fully embraces technology.

At least for now, David Chance said, "Our hydraulics customers are not your typical iPad-toting guys."