B-to-B Goes 'Plug and Play'

Selling a United Receptacle product requires a three-tiered b-to-b sales structure in which United is the manufacturer, which markets to the distributor/cataloger. Then the cataloger sells to the end-user companies, among which are major corporations, universities, hospitals and hotels. End-users may place orders worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And therein lies the bread and butter of United's business: "We have over 6,000 active distributors selling products for us," says Lesh. These distributors focus mainly on the jan/san market, because it's so broad and wide-reaching, but they also cover hospitals, hotels/hospitality, corporate, universities, you name it. The list goes on as far as the mind can imagine. "Anyplace you can think of a trash can," jokes Lesh.