SANDPOINT — As experienced workers begin to retire in the plumbing, heating and waterworks industry, a shortage of employees is iminent.

To address that shortage, Consolidated Supply Co. has implemented a comprehensive training program for college graduates, and the Sandpoint branch of the family-owned, Portland-based company is participating in the program.

“I love it, because it gives you an opportunity to learn all facets of the business,” said Aaron Leake, who started the program in 2015 and is now the Sandpoint branch manager.

“I ended up in the manager chair, but I could have just as easily ended up in the estimator position or an inside sales position, but the ability to try out every portion of the business is really appealing to me and I think a really good selling point.”

The Sandpoint native began working for the company four years ago. As far as recruiting for the training program, he said, the company seeks college graduates or someone with relevant experience in the field of plumbing, waterworks and hydronics. The training process is a “ground up” approach, Leake said.

Train-ees start in the warehouse where they spend a couple of months learning about things like shipping and receiving, and then they move on to the will call counter.

“There you get to start having a little more face time with the customers, start developing your order writing skills, and along with that phase, they start training you in all different facets of the industry,” Leake said.

The Neupert family started the company in 1928, and the American Supply Association was started through the Karl Neupert endowment fund, leake said. The ASA offers an online university with trainings on water heaters, boilers, pipe valve fittings, copper tube, he said. So during the second phase of the program, Leake said that training gets “more intensive.” At some of the bigger locations, he said, the trainees will spend some time at a desk, immersed in phone-based customer interaction and learning skills such as order writing.

The trainees then enter the commercial estimating phase. Leake said the commercial side of the business is “very” different from residential, because there are “codes for everything.” As that finishes up the inside sales portion of the training, he said, the trainee moves on to the outside sales portion, developing new business relationships. The final phase of the training, he said, is assistant manager.

The company is region-wide with 17 locations throughout Oregon, Washington and Idaho. While Consolidated Supply Co. is celebrating its 90th year, the Sandpoint branch opened in 2002.

Leake said he was born and raised in Sandpoint and went to the University of Idaho in Moscow where he received a business management degree. Out of college, he went to work for Consolidated Supply's larger competitor, he said, and went through their training program, though he didn't finish before he left. He then worked at his dad's cabinet shop in Sandpoint, followed by running his uncle's cabinet shop in California for a time. He returned to Idaho in 2010 and worked with his father for about two more years before deciding to look for something else. So he called his former boss at Consolidated Supply's competitor and, through a referral, he ended up working the counter at Consolidated.

Because of his experience at the competitor, Leake said his transition through the training program was different than what most participants could expect. He skipped the warehouse phase, for example, because he had already gone through that portion.

The training is good program for people coming out of college, he said, because while most people have an idea of what they want to do, it doesn't always work out the way they plan. So being able to go through all facets of the company can give employees an idea of where they want to be.

"So that's what is exciting to me about this," Leake said. "There's operations, there's the administrative side, you can work for corporate or IT, or you could work with the customers on a day-to-day basis. There is just a lot of opportunity within the company to do any of those things."

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.