Safety’s First, Second
and Third for This Business

Puget Safety Equipment Supplies
Local and International Clients

Article by John Cain
Photo by Dave Brumbaugh

Puget Safety Equipment, located at 3895 Hammer Drive, is one of the many success stories from Bellingham’s Bakerview industrial area.

A reseller and distributor of safety equipment for contractors and industrial companies, PSE sells not only locally, but nationally and internationally as well. Founded 10 years ago and owned by Jim and Becky Eastwood, PSE topped $1 million in sales last year and is poised to increase that business this year.

Their building — divided between offices, a small retail showroom and an attached overflowing warehouse — is crammed with equipment from flashlights to earplugs. Cases of safety goggles spill practically into the lobby from the stockroom and every available space is utilized to display merchandise and pamphlets from manufacturers.

Customers joke and chat comfortably while stealing cookies from a bin on the counter. Yet there is no feeling of uncontrolled chaos; there is definitely a method to the madness.

Becky Eastwood is an enthusiastic and friendly presence in the middle of all this activity. She took time to grant an interview in early evening, and even at the late hour we were interrupted several times by phone calls from customers.

Business Pulse: What do you do?

Eastwood: “We’re a distributor of safety equipment; we buy inventory from manufacturers and resell it to end users or resellers. We buy everything from head to toe in safety and then some — if it’s even remotely related to safety, we’ve been known to buy it!” she laughs. “It’s quite a diverse business; we deal with manufacturers, municipalities, contractors, road workers, you name it.”

Business Pulse: How did you get your start?

Eastwood: “My husband used to sell safety equipment for another company. We were based in the Vancouver (Wash.) area at the time and we got tired of living down there. We used to take all our vacations up here, so we said ‘Why not?’; let’s pull the plug and start our lives over again. He enjoyed safety, so, with a partner at the time, they talked me into it,” she laughs. “I knew the office procedures and they knew how to sell. We started up and two years later the partnership broke up. It’s been the two of us since then.”

Business Pulse: How did you get into serving a worldwide customer base?

Eastwood: “It’s been through local and national companies. One of our customers used to work for a small company called Haliburton,” she jokes. (Haliburton is a multinational oil and gas corporation.) “Somehow, he got us on the approved vendors list, and the rest is history — we’ve shipped to Thailand, Malaysia, all over Africa, Russia, Germany. Through different companies, we’ve shipped to Spain and then, of course, there’s Canada.

“It’s fun to see a small place like this serving an international market that we never anticipated.”

Business Pulse: What prompted the move from your original location?

Eastwood: “We were in 1,000 square feet, the office and all our inventory, so we were literally climbing on top boxes to get through the inventory. You couldn’t find anything, no matter how organized you got,” she says with a laugh. “We bought the property the year our partnership broke up and built this place a couple of years later. No more landlords! We’re the typical entrepreneur independent types; we don’t like to answer to anybody.”

Business Pulse: What do you like about the business?

Eastwood: “I like the people contact, to be able to satisfy people’s needs . . . When I worked for other people, I hated the word ‘no,’ and too many people say no all the time. One place I worked at, I told a customer I’d help them sort out a problem they were having with an order and I actually got yelled at for offering to help. So now, being able to do this and letting our employees say ‘yes, we can help you’ . . . it’s gratifying. It’s been really fun over the last 10 years. We have customers that are more like friends, we can joke around — that’s the type of relationship-building that we do. Customers come back and word of mouth gets around.”

Business Pulse: What do you see for the future?

Eastwood: “If last year was any indication, we’re still in a growth pattern. Our last year’s sales were up 12 percent from the previous year’s, and the profit margin was even higher, so that was just a phenomenal year and we’re anticipating the same this year.”