In the ever-changing landscape of wholesale distribution in the PHCP industry, balancing innovation with a respect for legacy is no small task. How does one embrace the future while honoring the past?

Marcone is a leading distributor of original equipment manufacturer repair parts and supplies for residential and commercial appliances, as well as a distributor of HVAC, plumbing, commercial kitchen, and pool and spa parts and supplies. The company boasts a comprehensive distribution network, including 15 regional distribution centers, 143 branches across North America and more than 2.8 million square feet of warehouse space, enabling efficient same-day shipping and next-day ground delivery to more than 90% of the United States.

As it looks to continue its path of growth and expansion, Marcone recently brought on board Asterios Satrazemis as its new president and CEO. With a career shaped by guiding global companies and markets into their next chapter of success, Satrazemis steps into the role of the company’s growth at a pivotal moment. His vision is clear: unify a legacy-rich organization under a bold, customer-focused identity while celebrating its storied history to propel future success. Also, launching the company into its next era with a name change — as of March 1, the parent company will be known as mSupply™. 

Satrazemis is known as an approachable, transformational leader, guiding organizations and individuals into the best versions of themselves. We wanted to learn more about his strategies for the road ahead, and we do so by shining a light on how he makes his impact. 

A career forged in transformation

As a first-generation son of Greek immigrants, Satrazemis was raised in a working-class family in the Northeast. His parents worked in factories, and he would watch as they rolled up their sleeves to make a living and raise himself and his two siblings. “I learned English watching ‘Sesame Street,’” he shares with a smile and laugh, reflecting on the humble beginnings that showcase his “finding-a-way” attitude, which would, in the future, shape his leadership style. 

Satrazemis started on his career path at Deloitte and Touche. His career trajectory shifted dramatically when he joined United Rentals, less than a year into its founding, where he honed his skills in mergers and acquisitions. Over the course of a decade, he helped grow the company to over to $3 billion in revenue through more than 250 acquisitions.

This penchant for transformation followed him with other career opportunities, leading teams around the globe. He would manage operations in Australia, New Zealand, North America, Europe and Latin America. His leadership as President of Aggreko, CEO of BlueLine and then United Site Services would lead to the transformation of regional operations into cohesive business units, driving unprecedented growth. His expertise in revitalizing organizations through integration, best-practice implementation and frontline empowerment became his hallmark. 

After 25 years of leading businesses, he would try something new and venture into private equity as an operating partner in a firm. “I quickly realized that wasn’t the right spot for me,” he says. “I enjoy working directly in a business, fixing what needs some fixing, putting all these pieces together to come up with something that we can all be proud of. When I got away from it for about a year, I really missed it.” As they say, timing is everything: Marcone came onto his radar. 

Why Marcone?

When Marcone approached Satrazemis, the company had many brands with rich histories under its umbrella and was looking for a way to bring the disparate brands together to become the best version of themselves. For Satrazemis, it was the opportunity he was seeking. What the company was looking to accomplish was what he excelled at — rolling up his sleeves and diving in — bringing the best of each organization into a unified voice. 

“The opportunity sounded a lot like what I had done before — taking great people and great assets, finding the best practices that exist within the organization, and giving people an opportunity to use their entrepreneurial spirit to really grow the business,” he explains.

What got Satrazemis really excited about Marcone was the opportunity to work with a group of companies like  O’Connor Company (HVAC-focused) which has been around for more than 100 years; Wolverine Brass (on the plumbing side) at 130 years old; Munch’s Supply at nearly 70 years in operations; and Marcone itself with more than 90 years in business. 

“I saw something special in bringing these great underlying businesses together,” he said. “Then, stepping back to consider the broader industry, the idea of creating a one-stop shop — serving the entire home and addressing all the needs of service techs — really resonated. It’s about making the process easier for customers and helping repairs happen faster.” 

With manufacturers consolidating and service providers increasingly handling appliance, HVAC and plumbing repairs, it made sense for distributors like Marcone to follow suit. “The combination of these established companies and the ongoing industry consolidation made it clear this was the right next step,” he adds.

Transforming Marcone from a collection of strong brands into a cohesive powerhouse was a natural alignment. “The foundation is solid, and the industry’s evolution aligns perfectly with our capabilities,” Satrazemis notes. And he smiles about the opportunity: “This isn’t a job — it’s a calling.”

Rolling up one’s sleeves 

Satrazemis’s hallmark is his hands-on, team-centered leadership style. He empowers employees to set new standards of excellence while fostering a culture of innovation and customer focus. His mission is to leverage the company’s legacy while driving meaningful, sustainable growth in a rapidly consolidating market.

Within his first 90 days at the company, Satrazemis hosted a company-wide townhall and completed more than 100 one-on-one discussions  with current and past employees, manufacturing partners and customers. 

“For me, it’s about actively listening,” he says, and refers to the multiple notebooks filled with takeaways from these conversations. “Whenever I’ve been given the opportunity to lead a business, I do it from the front line with the team. The notes from these discussions help to build the tapestry of what we are as an organization, externally and internally, and show the opportunities we have to make ourselves better.” 

It’s listening and understanding the need for change from the front line that helps build trust. “From the book of ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,’ there is a line that says, ‘Seek first to understand, then seek to be understood.’ That stuck with me,” Satrazemis says. 

His style is front-line empowerment — a skill he puts into action every day. “I like to provide the front-line team members with as much freedom to do their work on a day-in, day-out basis, to service the customer and use their own entrepreneurial capabilities,” he explains. “You must give them the freedom to do it.” It’s about creating the guard rails for how to run the business and allowing team members to use their talents and share best practices that drive growth and streamline processes. 

Satrazemis has a mantra of “Do no harm to the customer.” With team members leaning into best-practice sharing and using their skill sets to make customers’ experiences the best they can be, it is one of the many ways he knows will help the company continue to stand out in an industry where service is key. “When you empower people at the front line and share best practices across the organization, you raise all the boats,” he adds.

The new horizon: mSupply 

In March, the company unveiled its new identity as mSupply, reflecting its evolution from a primarily appliance-focused distributor to a multivertical powerhouse. The official launch of mSupply is a turning point, signaling the company’s readiness to embrace its broader mission while staying true to its roots.

“The name ‘Marcone’ is deeply respected in the appliance space, but it doesn’t fully capture the breadth of what we do,” Satrazemis explains. “Rebranding as mSupply allows us to unify our diverse businesses under a single umbrella while preserving the strong local brands our customers know and trust.” 

This rebranding effort is more than a name change; it’s a strategic alignment of the company’s mission and vision, supported by its tagline, “Right Products. Right Now.™” The tagline underscores mSupply’s commitment to speed, accuracy and customer satisfaction. 

“When customers come to us as mSupply, whether they’re working with Marcone, Munch’s Supply, or any of our other trusted brands, they’re working with a company with more than 2,500 teammates with 250,000 SKUs,”  Satrazemis notes, adding that as a unified presence under mSupply, the consolidation will allow for continued growth and an expanded breadth of offerings. 

The decision to maintain the legacy brands under the mSupply umbrella acknowledges the importance of local expertise and long-standing customer relationships. “For many service providers, the trust and familiarity with their local distributor is paramount,” he says. “mSupply ensures that legacy while offering the expanded capabilities of a national powerhouse.” 

The rebranding also marks a commitment to operational excellence and growth. With investments in technology, logistics and training, mSupply is poised to set a new standard in the distribution industry. 

Opportunities ahead

According to Satrazemis, mSupply operates within an $80 billion marketplace spanning appliances, HVAC, plumbing, commercial kitchens and pools. Part of its “secret sauce” can be credited to its high standards of customer service, coupled with its expansive inventory and extensive delivery network. With a 99.5% pick rate accuracy, coupled with 93% of orders received the same or next day, the company wants to extend its reach.

What’s on the horizon is to grow, both organically and through mergers and acquisitions. “mSupply is about ‘Right Products. Right Now,’  and we will continue to grow our footprint because we know having what our customers need, when they need it, is a critical component to their success,” he says. “We will continue to earn our customer’s trust by partnering with them to service their needs. We want to meet them where they are at any given time.” 

mSupply’s strategy involves expanding the company’s HVAC business into untapped markets such as California, Texas and Florida. Additionally, the company will continue its growth through mergers and acquisitions, targeting both geographic and vertical expansion.

In 2022, the company brought in highly regarded industry talent to launch a Commercial Kitchen division. By leveraging its deep knowledge in the appliance parts space as well as its expansive distribution footprint, they’ve been able to create both excitement and disruption in the marketplace.

Investment in real estate is also key  to support this approach. The company  has added distribution centers, including 200,000 square feet in Denton, Texas; 157,000 square feet in Denver; and Canadian facilities in Vancouver and Calgary totaling more than 250,000 square feet. “And we’re not stopping there,” Satrazemis adds. 

Technology will play a big role in mSupply but, according to Satrazemis: “It’s only a conduit for the work we’re already doing. Strong supplier relationships — some existing for more than 100 years — are critical to our success as a distributor. Our role is to connect manufacturers to end-users, creating a seamless marketplace for all parties. While technology speeds things up, it’s about leveraging the physical, human and technological elements together. Our customers are multigenerational. Our employees are multigenerational. We want to be cutting edge but not bleeding edge. It’s about making sure we’re moving along at the pace that our customers are comfortable with.”

It also includes meeting customers where they are at: “We’re not only an e-commerce platform, a bricks-and-mortar operation or a people-driven business — we’re all three. Some customers prefer physical locations, others want to interact with sales reps or customer service and some solely rely on technology. I’ve made it clear in my first 90 days that we’re embracing all three.” 

On the technology side, mSupply is connecting proprietary software for appliances and HVAC systems to create a seamless customer experience. “We’re actively partnering with service providers to integrate their platforms with ours, ensuring service techs can order from us easily,” Satrazemis says. 

Compressing delivery time to ensure customers have the Right Products, Right Now, is also underscored in the company’s forward-thinking approach to delivery. Its website states the group ships more than five million packages every year. If you need it right now and cannot leave the jobsite, in some areas you can even have your order delivered via DoorDash, an online delivery service traditionally used in the mobile food service delivery. The option allows technicians to continue working while the needed part is on the way so the job can be finished more quickly. It’s another way of meeting evolving customer needs. 

“We’re going to make it seamless for anyone to really work with us from a technological standpoint,” he says. “It’s all about being omnichannel — meeting customers wherever they are.”

The Secret Sauce: Training and community engagement

Satrazemis believes that mSupply’s “secret sauce” lies in its commitment to training and community engagement. Beyond providing products, mSupply will continue to help customers build their businesses and capabilities. 

“There’s a strong heritage of training here,” he explains. “On the appliance side, we host what I believe is the largest training event in the industry, the Marcone Servicers Association Conference. This March in Las Vegas, we’re bringing together more than 1,000 servicers, vendors and staff  for multi-day training.” Satrazemis plans to expand this to  the HVAC and plumbing sides of the organization as well. The idea is to focus on providing a one-stop shop for service technicians, offering a wide range of products, education and improving service efficiency.

“Events such as these showcase our commitment to professional development and finding best practices to help ‘raise all the boats,’” he adds. One can understand Satrazemis’ penchant for making the companies he works for healthier – as well as the industry as a whole. 

As we started our conversation with the uniqueness of the company and its many subsidiaries, Satrazemis was grounded in making sure while there are many changes and growth opportunities on the horizon, one thing remains constant — the feeling customers get from working locally at our “hometown” locations where it’s all about customer service, product availability and the knowledge bank of information and guidance.

“What does it mean to be local? It’s to be a part of your community,” he notes. mSupply does a lot of work within the communities of its businesses and helping make its customers more educated and highly trained is an investment for all.

“We’re helping our customers grow their businesses by investing in their capabilities,” he says, adding, “mSupply’s local brands engage deeply with their communities, fostering relationships that have sustained them for decades.” 

For a fearless leader who leads from the ground up, there is excitement to see mSupply grow into its next decade in business.