CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Nestled in an old wool mill on River Road is a pair of Berkshire County-grown businesses that are still thriving after nearly 80 years in business. 

 

RIBCO Supply, which grew out of its neighbor R.I. Baker, sells outdoor power equipment, drainage and sewer supplies, snow blowers, snow plows and municipal supplies, among other things. Its neighbor is R.I. Baker Co., a commercial metal fabrication and certified welding company that began in 1938. The latter also does pipe fitting, plumbing equipment, and machining.

 

R.I. Baker was started by Russell Baker as a small plumbing shop that operated out of Baker's garage. Eventually, Baker moved his business to its current location and took up millwright services, metal fabrication, and certified welding.

 

Now, Tom Pelczynski runs the business, as well as RIBCO next door. According to Pelczynski, RIBCO started out of necessity. Contractors would come to R.I. Baker and ask if they sold supplies. At the time, they did not, but in the mid-1970s, R.I. Baker expanded and opened up RIBCO to cater to these customers.

 

Readers may not have heard of R.I. Baker before, but will recognize some of the entities that it does business with: SABIC in Pittsfield, for instance, employs an R.I. Baker millwright and Williams College and Specialty Minerals both bring their large machinery to Clarksburg for repairs.

 

"We're a job shop," said Pelczynski, meaning that they don't mass-produce mechanical parts. Rather, when some business needs a specific item fixed or produced, they will come to R.I. Baker to have it looked at. 

 

While R.I. Baker has grown over the years, it is not the behemoth that many may fear. 

 

"We're small enough to be able to change direction, change course," Pelczynski said, and are nimble enough to aid local businesses in a pinch.

 

When R.I. Baker first opened its doors, it drew on many of the businesses in Berkshire County, which included some mills. Over time, however, mills moved away, which prompted a shift in focus toward the more residential/contractor-based RIBCO.

 

RIBCO has a store on Dalton Avenue in Pittsfield, which opened in 2006, and between the two locations the business can service all of Berkshire County. They even cover Southern Vermont and parts of New York.

 

Indeed, RIBCO provided much-needed services to South County throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. When second-homeowners moved to the Berkshires semi-permanently, their septic systems often needed to be repaired because they experienced more stress than normal. RIBCO was able to supply them with the materials they needed from its Pittsfield location.

 

Another invaluable service that RIBCO provides is equipment storage. RIBCO will pick up, repair, and store equipment like lawnmowers and snow blowers. They'll deliver it "all serviced and ready to go." Customers will often store their equipment seasonally; for instance, most people will want to get their snow blowers serviced in the summer.

 

As Pelczynski noted, snow blowers "don't fail when they're sitting there in the summertime." Rather, they break when users need them most. Regular service will ensure that they run smoothly, and RIBCO can keep them that way for a low cost.

 

This focus on customer convenience is part of RIBCO's strategy to bring in more residential customers. Pelczynski wants "Joe Homeowner [to] feel comfortable walking into a RIBCO Supply," whether in Clarksburg or Pittsfield.

 

R.I. Baker services commercial businesses all over Berkshire County and beyond. It has done work for as far away as California, China, and even Indonesia. Despite this sometimes global reach, R.I. Baker is fundamentally a community business. Many of the R.I. Baker welders, fabricators and other skilled workers are recruits from McCann Technical School's co-op program, which serves as "a great feeder program" for the business.