Walking into the Scottsdale, Arizona, showroom of Central Arizona Supply (CAS) is like stepping into a dream, one where the kitchen or bathroom of your imagination has come to life. Rows of carefully curated faucets, sinks and fixtures shimmer like jewelry in a space that feels more like a gallery than a showroom. Designers, contractors and homeowners trade ideas while a team of long-time employees answer questions with warmth and expertise.

That combination of beauty and knowledge has helped establish Central Arizona Supply as a trusted name across Arizona for over half a century. It’s a family business rooted not only in plumbing, kitchen and bath, appliances and HVAC, but also in people, defined by humble confidence, community service and a drive to find opportunity where others see limits.

“I think what makes us unique is that we’ve never tried to copy anyone else’s formula,” says Jeremy Smith, creative director and fourth-generation member of the founding family. “Every time we’ve grown, it’s come from seeing an opportunity in a market, in a community or in a person, and being willing to take the chance and figure it out as we go.” It’s this mantra, coupled with a family dedicated to community, that has made Central Arizona Supply the largest independent PHCP wholesale distributor in Arizona. 

From humble beginnings

The story of Central Arizona Supply began more than 60 years ago in a small western Illinois town, where the Smith family ran a general store. Seeing opportunity out West, Bob Smith, Jeremy’s great-uncle, moved to Mesa, Arizona, in 1968 and founded Smith Plumbing Company, a plumbing and local parts supplier.

Two years later, he encouraged his brother, Harry Smith, and his nephew, Don Smith, to join him. They did, and soon after, Don’s brothers David and Dan followed. By the early 1980s, the family had expanded the company into the thriving wholesale distribution business known today as Central Arizona Supply.

“What started as a neighborhood operation in Mesa grew organically into a trusted local supplier,” Jeremy Smith explains. “We were really known as a parts supplier for the East Valley because back then, it was hard to get to downtown Phoenix. Their intention was that you don’t have to drive to Phoenix; you can get plumbing parts here in Mesa.”

From there, the company expanded into wholesale with a store in Casa Grande, which is still operating today, followed by locations in Payson and Scottsdale. “It’s been an evolution,” he says. “It’s always been this way — just looking for an opportunity and kind of rolling with it.”

From the start, the Smith family has built Central Arizona Supply on enduring values of community, integrity and care for others — principles that continue to guide the fourth generation now leading the company. 

Jeremy Smith serves as creative director, overseeing sales, marketing and strategy; his brother, Brandon Smith, general manager and day to day operations; and their sister, Andrea Willey, is the operations manager. Their father, Don Smith, still lends his insight, while their mother, Mary Smith, as Jeremy jokes, “runs collections, which means if you’re hearing from her, you’re in trouble.”

The Smith siblings grew up in the family business, and each came into it at their own time. For Jeremy Smith, who worked outside the company prior to joining family business, states, “I realized this wasn’t just a business. It was an extension of who we are, our family, our values and our reputation in the community.” And they take the commitment to team members seriously.

“My dad always said, ‘Every time we hire someone, we take responsibility for that person and their family,’ and that is why we never take adding a new position lightly.” he says. In addition, the company believes in controlled growth, not only to ensure it delivers the same high level of customer service and excellence, but also to ensure building upon what his father had said, Jeremy Smith adds, “and it’s why we never laid off a single person during the Great Recession.”

Those decisions, guided by conscience rather than convenience, became part of the company’s DNA. Through economic swings and industry shifts, the Smith family’s business endured — a rare example of consistency and character in an era when consolidation is changing the face of wholesale distribution.

Today, Central Arizona Supply employs more than 200 people across 15 locations in Arizona and Las Vegas, including 10 showrooms featuring more than 60,000 square feet of appliances, plumbing and lighting displays combined, and nearly 300,000 square feet of warehouse space. The company serves homeowners, contractors, builders and designers, specializing in bath, kitchen, appliances and lighting solutions.

Expansion by opportunity

Central Arizona Supply’s growth has always been guided by recognizing potential where others saw limits. “You know how we ended up in Phoenix?” Jeremy Smith asks. “A mom and her son, the son still works for us today, had a small company called Sunny Pipe and Supply. They wanted to get out of the business.” Seeing potential, the Smith family purchased the company and eventually relocated it, marking the start of their expansion strategy. And in doing so, helping to keep independence in wholesale distribution.

One key to their continued success: owning their buildings and the land beneath them.

Soon after, another opportunity arose in Las Vegas when a showroom that owed the distributor money was at risk of closing. “Instead of taking the loss,” Jeremy Smith says, “we thought, ‘Let’s try to run it and see how it goes.’ Now it’s a great business, known for working with hotels on the Strip and solving specific problems.

That same entrepreneurial spirit led the family to invest in what he calls “a very weird piece of property” — a1960s Quonset hut locals dubbed the Potato Barn. “It’s this huge building - and at the time out in the middle of nowhere, that was used to store vegetables and potatoes,” he says. After buying the graffiti-covered, condemned structure, they began restoring it: “I’m redoing this crazy building. It has a beautiful ceiling.” It was an iconic building within the community, and Smith wanted to preserve its stature. 

Around the same time as rehabbing the hut, the passing of a friend who owned Benjamin Supply presented another opportunity. “The timing was just what the timing was,” Jeremy Smith says. “That’s how we grew into having two more locations.” More on that later. 

Projects such as the Potato Barn embody Central Arizona Supply’s belief in reimagining spaces that foster creativity and community.

“So many people want a formula,” he adds. “They go to industry conferences looking for someone to tell them what works, but there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. What works in Phoenix might not work in Tucson. You must look at your community, find the opportunities right in front of you and go for them.”

Each location reflects the community it serves. “No two showrooms are the same,” Jeremy Smith says. “We want each one to feel connected to its local market and to have its own personality and story. That’s not something a national chain can easily do.”

Carrying on a Tucson legacy

Nowhere is that philosophy clearer than in the story of Benjamin Supply, the 75-year-old Tucson institution that Central Arizona Supply acquired under its corporate umbrella. “Benjamin Supply was one of those businesses we always respected,” Jeremy Smith says. “It had the same values, the same family-run feel, the same focus on relationships. When the opportunity came to bring it in, we wanted to honor what it had built, not replace it.”

That meant keeping the Benjamin name and preserving its reputation within the Tucson community. “It’s still Benjamin Supply,” Jeremy Smith says. “It’s been part of that community for decades. People know them, trust them. It would’ve been wrong to change that.”

Benjamin’s story mirrors Central Arizona Supply’s own. The company was founded by two brothers, and after they passed was run by a mother-and-son team, Ruth and Mark Berman, who poured their lives into the business. After Ruth’s husband passed away, she and her son kept the business running for decades – and Ruth worked into her 80s. “She was amazing,” Jeremy Smith says. “Even in her later years, she’d still take one of the warehouse guys to Costco for supply runs because she didn’t trust anyone else to do it.”

When Central Arizona Supply stepped in, it inherited not only a business but a legacy. Many of Benjamin’s employees had been there for decades: one for 40 years, another for 29 and a salesperson for 35. “We’re incredibly proud of that team,” Jeremy Smith says. “They already embodied everything we believe in.”

A light remodel of Benjamin’s showroom and a grand party marked its 75th anniversary in 2025, capped by a community celebration.  “We didn’t buy a business, we inherited a legacy, and we’re proud to carry it forward,” Smith says with a smile.

The Secret Sauce: Independence and community

Central Arizona Supply blends wholesale expertise with a personal, design-focused approach. Its showrooms serve as creative hubs where homeowners, designers and contractors collaborate with experienced staff. “We’re not only selling product,” Jeremy Smith says. “We’re helping people make decisions on what will be in their homes for 20 or 30 years.”

At Central Arizona Supply, longevity meets energy. “We have a lot of employees who’ve been with us for a very long time,” he notes. “I think our oldest one, excluding my father, has been here 35 years. We’ve got others with 30, 25 and 20 years— and we also have people who’ve been here two to five years.”

That mix creates balance. “It’s been fun to see young people embraced by those who’ve been here for decades,” he says. “They’re helping each other — one’s teaching computers, the other’s teaching plumbing.”

This intergenerational teamwork inspired the company’s first peer-to-peer recognition program. “It started with our sales manager, who wanted everyone to be able to shout out a teammate for living our culture and values,” Jeremy Smith recalls. The program quickly connected employees across locations, celebrating both veterans and newcomers — including a Tucson receptionist recognized for outstanding customer service. 

“It was amazing to celebrate those people and those moments,” he says. “When someone goes the extra mile, their peers call it out. It’s not management telling you what matters — it’s your coworkers saying, ‘You represent the best of who we are.’”

Another part of Central Arizona Supply’s “secret sauce” is doing things differently, and that includes deep community integration. “We live here, we go to school here, we go to church here,” Jeremy Smith says. “We’re part of the same community as our customers. It’s why we always think about how every decision we make affects not only the business, but the people around us.”

That local accountability sets the company apart from national competitors. “When you’re family-owned, it’s your name on the building,” he notes. “It means everything we do reflects on us personally — and we take that seriously.”

Central Arizona Supply is also a proud member of Local First Arizona, an organization dedicated to strengthening independent businesses by showcasing them within the community. “Local First started for restaurants and expanded into other types of companies” he explains. “The entire organization is built around helping people support Arizona businesses.”

The impact is measurable. As Central Arizona proudly notes on its website:

“When you shop local in Arizona, $73 out of every $100 stays in the local economy. When you shop in a big-box store, only $43 stays here. Shopping local is the smartest choice for Arizona.”

The next opportunity

Over the years, Central Arizona Supply has continuously expanded to enhance the customer experience. Adding appliances and lighting was natural and came about, again, through opportunity. When a local appliance store was closing, Central Arizona Supply knew it would complement its current offering. The same for lighting, as the plumbing distributor realized it was a natural fit — helping customers fill the last piece of the puzzle by not having to go to another showroom to complete their lighting project.

With that mindset, the company recently entered the water filtration market.

“We had a team member come to us and say he’d sold water filtration in California,” Jeremy Smith recalls. “He said, ‘This is what I’ve done, and I think there’s an opportunity here.’ We weren’t looking for it, but we listened.”

That openness led to a growing niche in commercial filtration systems — an emerging area tied to the company’s plumbing roots. “I’m not telling you it’s a huge success yet,” he says, “but it’s new, it’s interesting and it could become the next big growth area for us. You can’t find those things unless you’re willing to explore.”

Humble confidence

At the heart of Central Arizona Supply’s culture lies one defining value: humble confidence. For Jeremy Smith, it’s the embodiment of his father’s leadership. “Our core focus is to elevate families and the community through conserving, enhancing and serving,” he says. “Our core values — honesty and integrity, being solution-minded, caring for others, work ethic and understanding the value of a reputation — all stem from that. But humble confidence – that one is very much my father.”

“When we went through our values, we asked ourselves, ‘What does Dad personify?’ he adds. “That’s how we landed on humble confidence. It’s not about being a shrinking violet; it’s about being humble about what you’ve accomplished and what you’ve done. It’s the kind of confidence that doesn’t need to be loud — it’s built on integrity, respect and caring for people.”

“We owe loyalty to our community, not shareholders,” he continues. “That’s humble confidence — knowing who you are, standing by your people and doing what’s right, even when no one’s watching.”

Cheers to Central Arizona Supply for its incredible growth, its embrace of community and its quiet excellence in partnership, all delivered with humble confidence.