Meet Justin Weber, a sales representative with Electric Sales Unlimited (ESU). Justin works with companies across the Southwestern United States, from El Paso to California. Passionate about fiberglass conduit solutions, Justin encourages its use, especially in corrosive environments. His optimism and knack for collaboration have helped Champion Fiberglass® secure projects from data centers to wastewater treatment in the region.
Tell us a bit about your background and how you got into sales.
I started my career with an HVAC and electrical contractor. I was still in high school when I started and worked my way up to sales there. Then I took a short hiatus and went into the car industry, which was kind of fun. But, during that time, I met one of the local rep owners here in Albuquerque and that brought me back into the industry. I’ve been back for almost six years, and with ESU selling Champion Fiberglass solutions for just over a year now.
How do you position Champion Fiberglass products as a solution for customers?
Champion Fiberglass conduit is a solid labor solution. The conduit’s light weight makes it easier to handle so installation is faster and generally safer for the installers working in the trench. There are so many other benefits of fiberglass, like its low coefficient of friction which allows for longer pull distances and less pull points, especially on the larger medium voltage projects like data centers.
I also position fiberglass as having minimal corrosion risk. In wastewater treatment facilities, coated steel conduit is traditional but heavy and expensive. If the coating is damaged, the conduit is susceptible to corrosion. With fiberglass, there’s no risk of that. It’s much more durable in that sense, and it’s also one tenth the weight.
Can you share a project or sale you’re especially proud of?
Yes — the SeaFox data center project featured large elbows, eight inches in diameter, which are extremely heavy in anything but fiberglass. In this particular case, the elbows were used as stub-ups. In other materials it would be hard to align straight up and down, but because of the way that Champion Fiberglass conduit is made, it’s very consistent and temperature tolerant. It’s easy to make sure that it stays straight and doesn’t deform under intense heat.
How has Champion Fiberglass helped customers achieve their goals or solve problems?
In New Mexico, there are big temperature swings. Materials like HDPE (high-density polyethylene) will expand or contract so much that it will pull apart throughout the course of the day. Champion Fiberglass conduit holds its shape in these fluctuations and will not do that. It’s a huge solution within our climate.
What other projects feature Champion Fiberglass conduit?
ESU does a little bit of everything including commercial and industrial. There’s a wastewater treatment plant that’s been using these elbows for the same reason as SeaFox. And in the southeast corner of the state, there’s a lot of mining. Mines can have corrosive and dangerous environments and fiberglass conduit holds its own in these challenging scenarios.
What do you enjoy most about representing Champion Fiberglass?
Honestly, I really enjoy working with the people at Champion Fiberglass. It’s a great company: they’re still family-owned and everybody that works there is invested. We are able to work together and leadership is always available to help find a solution so we can say “yes” instead of “no.” Plus it’s all American-made, which is fantastic.