On Air: The Art of Industrial Real Estate — Episode 29
Host: All right, all right — welcome, listeners. We have M&M Quality Solutions with us today. Jeff and Brian, thanks for coming on. I’ll let you both introduce yourselves and share a bit of background on M&M.
Brian: Brian McMaster, CEO of M&M Quality Solutions and founder — originally founded with another partner who’s no longer in the business. That’s me in a nutshell.
Jeff: Jeff Hines — started at M&M recently, about 97 days now, jury’s still out on whether I belong here. I’ve been in food manufacturing, warehousing, and supply chain for over 30 years.
Host: M&M is based here in Kansas City, with locations in other markets too. What’s the origin story?
Brian: As far as the business goes, it found me — I don’t have a note from a high school guidance counselor pointing me toward logistics. My ex-business partner and I started the business in 2003; I bought him out in 2010. This June we’ll be in business 22 years, which is a feat given most businesses don’t make it past their first year — there were some questionable times along the way too.
Our first client was Harley-Davidson here in Kansas City — we did quality-inspected parts delivery to the line, inspection on the line, really a support-type supplier role for the assembly line. I’d actually moved here from south-central Pennsylvania to work for my then-business-partner, who was my boss at the time, and I’d been affiliated with Harley since I was about 11 or 13. We were doing a lot of repping for out-of-state suppliers who didn’t have a local affiliate to help with quality issues — that’s basically what M&M started as.
A couple years in, someone from Harley asked if we could store parts too, and meter them to the plant — so M&M got into warehousing just like that, though it was really about a three-year process to find space, get everything set up, then “hurry up and wait.” One job ended up paying for all the space, which let us grow — and truth be told, I had no idea what I was doing with warehousing at the time. I’m an entrepreneur, so the mentality was: if I can make money doing this, I’ll do it.
Harley was 99% of our business for years — a double-edged sword. They were reliable and paid well, good for the resume, but risky. Eventually I realized I needed to diversify, since the standard business advice is not to have any single client over 10% of revenue. First we pursued their suppliers, which helped some, and we developed a more multifunctional warehouse — sort, rework, and quality control were always feast-or-famine, needing 15 people one day and none the next. It was hard to build culture around that kind of inconsistency, so we shifted toward cross-training people — if someone knew inspection, we’d also train them to drive a forklift or pick parts, so there was always something for them to do.
We didn’t really become a full warehouse-and-pick-and-pack operation until later — really started evolving into a 3PL about eight or nine years ago. Honestly, “3PL” can be kind of an ugly word in the industry given how much that business climate shifted, especially through COVID, when remote work wasn’t an option for forklift operators. Today, Harley’s less than 3% of our business — we still do work with them in York, Pennsylvania, but nobody is more than about 10% of our business mix now.
Host: Is the “M&M” branding related to McMaster?
Brian: It is — I’m one of the M’s. The other was Scott Maroy, who used to work for Harley and started his own repping business. I actually met him delivering parts to the assembly line in York, Pennsylvania when I was 15, working for my uncle’s company, which made engine guards and rear guards. I didn’t even have a driver’s license yet. We used to have to start the delivery truck with a screwdriver — if it broke down on the 22-mile route with hot parts needed on the line, that’s what we did to get the job done.
Host: Jeff, want to share your background and how you got connected with Brian?
Jeff: Much like Brian, I’ve got an entrepreneurial background — owned restaurants and gyms when I was young. Got into food manufacturing and stayed over 30 years, working with large organizations like Pillsbury, General Mills, and the company that makes pies worldwide for McDonald’s. I got deep training in warehouse management, supply chain, procurement, quality, and food safety — went through HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) programs at Pillsbury/General Mills, which are now required in food manufacturing, learning the laws and regulations that keep food safe for consumers.
From there I moved into food safety and quality assurance for large organizations and startups, ran a local company for several years and helped turn it around, then found myself traveling internationally for startup work. With four kids and a wife at home, constant travel and hotels wasn’t sustainable for the long term, so I prayed for God to open a door locally — and that’s how I met Brian. We hit it off foundationally on morals, ethics, values, and work ethic — we both love exercise and taking care of our bodies. Combined with my background in food safety, quality control, and operations, and the direction M&M wants to go — more of a “better for you” lifestyle focus — there was real synergy there.
Brian: Now we get to build that family-atmosphere culture across all our facilities, from east coast to west coast to our two here in the KC metro. I tell people it’s like having tough conversations with your kids because you love them and want them to grow — that’s the atmosphere we want internally too.
Host: Has M&M done any work in the food industry specifically?
Brian: We’ve done some pet food work, which blew my mind — pet food is highly regulated, roughly 5% of the population apparently eats pet food at some point (intentionally or not, especially toddlers), so there has to be a “kill step” and real oversight so nobody gets sick from it. We actually have a client looking at food-grade facility conversions right now, and the capital required to get a building qualified is significant — which is part of why it’s an attractive niche for us. A lot of competitors have too much existing infrastructure to pivot into that space efficiently; we’re positioned to grow into it. Health and wellness — protein powders, supplements — is where we’re really focused moving forward, since it’s something we’re both passionate about.
Host: [conversation touches on shifting public sentiment toward health, food sourcing, and regulatory scrutiny]
Brian: Through relationships built over the years with Harley and other clients — and now Jeff’s network too — we’ve got some useful connections with influencers that are helping us navigate into that space.
Host: [Martin City “crack it open” segment — a gluten-free beer]
Host: Are either of you Harley owners yourselves?
Brian: I’m not today, but I was before — nothing to do with the quality of the bike, which is great, but the attention of other drivers on two wheels. I rode my 95th-anniversary Fatboy from Pennsylvania to Milwaukee for Harley’s anniversary — girlfriend at the time was in tears by Chicago from how much it beat her up, rain and potholes and everything, but it’s a fantastic bike and company. After getting married, you reassess what’s worth the risk when you’ve got a family counting on you.
Host: Curious how you both ended up planting your flags in Kansas City, since neither of you is originally from here.
Brian: Harley’s what brought me up north originally, back in 2003 — I remember 87th Street or Barry Road being only two lanes when I first got here. What kept me was the culture — coming from the East Coast, people can be pretty harsh; the Midwest felt a lot friendlier. Weather’s similar to Pennsylvania, four real seasons. I went to a Chiefs game at Arrowhead and a Royals game and it just felt like home — especially having grown up between Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, where everyone’s a die-hard fan of one particular team. I’ve always figured out where everyone else has gone and gone the other direction, since the odds are usually better that way. Honestly, I didn’t have a grand plan — I just let things unfold and kept going where it seemed to be working.
Host: Jeff, did you start your family here or bring kids up with you?
Jeff: We actually started our family in Tulsa, where the McDonald’s pies are made — met my wife at work, hit it off almost overnight, married a year after our first date, and three years later had four kids. We had an opportunity to move to Kansas City, and having grown up in southwest Missouri, I already knew the culture from family vacations up here — you get the big-city feel but can move just outside it into all kinds of different communities. Education was a big priority for us in choosing where to raise our family, and honestly there’s no better place. I tell people it feels like living in a bubble in the best way — you can drive down the road and wave at someone and they wave back, which isn’t universal everywhere.
Interestingly, that same friendly Midwest culture seems to show up in our warehouses in York, Pennsylvania and Salt Lake City too — whether that’s just luck finding the right people or something else, we’ve got genuinely happy team members across locations. Part of our shared mission is changing lives — we don’t have a long time on this earth, and being in supply chain and distribution, we touch a lot of people’s lives, and want to use that for good.
Host: [reflection on community, mentorship, and small local businesses supporting each other in Kansas City]
Host: What other markets are you in besides Kansas City?
Brian: Just Kansas City right now, plus a plant in Fairfax, one in Salt Lake City, and one in York, Pennsylvania.
Host: Is that Salt Lake/York footprint still primarily Harley-related?
Brian: It started that way — every single wheel that goes on a Harley goes through our facility — but we’ve grown a lot outside that now.
Host: Has a competitor taken share from you with Harley, or is it more that you’ve diversified into other business?
Brian: It’s really M&M’s own growth driving that shift rather than any change from Harley or competitors — Harley’s stayed roughly the same or grown slightly, we’ve just grown a lot more outside of it. We also just don’t like relying too heavily on one huge company, since when they make changes, even slowly, it can be very disruptive to your business.
Host: With trade wars and tariff uncertainty in the news — has that impacted your business, or created opportunity?
Brian: We’ve felt a bit of a ripple — this latest 90-day tariff situation has people pulling product in as fast as they can ahead of potential changes. But we’re positioning ourselves with customers who are less exposed to that. I do some sourcing work through contacts, and a colleague mentioned that nine out of ten calls he gets now are people wanting to get out of China. If manufacturing shifts to India, East Coast ports will get very busy — I saw an article this morning that Port of LA throughput is down about a third. We’re not feeling it hugely ourselves, but we are seeing a lot more domestic quoting activity and opportunity.
Host: That reshoring trend has been a big theme at recent industry conferences I’ve attended too — plus some growth heading to Mexico as well. I think it’s ultimately a good long-term shift, even if the near-term political climate is part of what’s driving it.
Brian: It ties back to our mission around changing lives, honestly — when I look at my own garage and closets full of stuff from overseas that I don’t really need, maybe building more domestically and needing less imported stuff is part of a broader shift away from a purely instant-gratification, throwaway culture.
Host: [light conversation about promotional swag and disposable consumer culture]
Host: Did COVID create a surge in warehousing demand or growth for you?
Brian: We were designated an essential business, which helped a lot — the toughest part was navigating all the loan programs and, honestly, managing our own people through the uncertainty and fear at the time. We warehoused for a company that made high-end sewing machines — normally selling a few hundred to a few thousand dollars each to places like Walmart, but almost overnight we were shipping thousands of them out because people were sewing masks and gowns. We even reached out to the state offering to help coordinate that. One interesting side effect: when Amazon, Target, and Walmart temporarily restricted shipping to only “essential” goods, a lot of businesses that had relied solely on those platforms started also keeping backup stock in our warehouse in case something similar happened again — which effectively opened up a new line of business for us.
Host: [reflection on how the industry and supply chains are more resilient and informed now compared to early COVID, and how that’s helped companies adapt more quickly to the recent tariff uncertainty]
Host: What are your goals for M&M over the next three, five, ten years, and how can people reach you if they want to work together or explore roles?
Jeff: We want to go after health-and-wellness business specifically — supplements, proteins, vitamins, minerals, anything that genuinely helps people become the best version of themselves. That’s going to be a bit of a transition from where our client mix looks today. Business-wise, we’re optimizing our spaces and providing strong value on warehouse capacity coming down the pipeline — the team just sat down together recently to map out where we want to go and how, focused on best service, best quality, best price. I expect us to fill up all our current warehouse space over the next year or two.
But beyond that, our real goal is changing lives and building relationships — both internally with our team and externally with clients and potential clients, developing relationships meant to last a lifetime, and helping people financially, spiritually, and holistically. Foundationally, Brian and I are aligned on how we treat our team — job title doesn’t change how we treat someone as a human being.
Brian: For much of M&M’s first 18-20 years, we didn’t really have that sense of deeper purpose — we were warehousing and would take on almost anything. Now we want to stay focused on the things we believe in. We’re in growth mode, open to opportunities — even acquiring a small mom-and-pop operation if the right one came up, say in Savannah — and looking for partners and companies that share our values, including potential freight-solution partnerships so we can add more capability for clients without becoming just another commoditized 3PL. We want to be more of an integrator — beyond just pick, pack, and ship.
Jeff: We can do quality inspections, returns processing, kitting, and — fairly new in the last year — we’ve got an internal team that can build retail displays, whether corrugate, metal, or acrylic, fill them, wrap them, and ship them. That’s real added value most warehouse/distribution partners can’t offer. We’re also exploring some technology plays around the “warehouse of the future” that we can’t say much about yet, but there are some exciting plans in motion. We’re not trying to be all things to all people — freight, for example, we’d rather partner with a specialist than take that on ourselves — but display and kitting work were natural extensions to directly help our current clients.
Host: That mirrors our own approach, honestly — wanting to build long-term relationships with people rather than being purely transactional, and genuinely enjoying who we work with day to day.
Host: One last plug — you mentioned a podcast, Spirit, Health, and Hustle?
Jeff: That’s right — only about ten episodes out so far.
Host: And M&M’s website?
Brian: mmqualitysolutions.com.
Host: Awesome — thank you both for coming on. That’s a wrap on this episode. Thanks again, guys.
