Just as Brian Bailey found out his wife was expecting triplets, the plumbing company he was working for started cutting hours. So, he decided a change was in order.
Four years ago, the three Bailey brothers — James, Joe and Brian — founded Gladiator Repipe along with Brian’s wife, Mavell. Before that, Brian, Joe, and Mavell were working for different plumbing companies throughout the Bay Area; then, Brian and Mavell found out about the triplets.
“This led us to make a very serious decision,” says James Bailey, president of the company. “As a family, we decided to start our own company and realized we had all the talent we needed to get started. All we had to do was put them together.
“Mavell ran the office, Brian handled the sales, Joe helped complete the work, and I set up the company infrastructure and handled the business and marketing ends of the company. We were all in our late twenties when we started the company.”
The company has since grown to more than 24 employees and six vehicles. Located in San Jose, the team covers a 60-mile radius surrounding the shop and specializes in whole-house pipe replacement of waste, water and gas systems. They also perform new installations.
“We are working on a repipe of 190 units in Fremont, adding individual laundry boxes to each unit,” James Bailey says. “We also have a project coming up involving a 10,000-square-foot house in Atherton with a 3,000-square-foot guest house.”
To cover these projects and more, the six vehicles range from trucks to vans. These include: one Ford F250 Diesel, three Ford Van E250s, one 10-foot Chevy box van and one 10-foot Ford box van E350. The wrap is nearly the same on all of the vehicles and is slightly adapted to fit each make/model. The design is sleek and modern with a matte/glossy black combo with accents of what James Bailey describes as “traditional” plumbing colors — blue, green and white.
“The F250 is our favorite as it has the legendary Ford 7.3L twin turbo diesel and can haul any and all equipment and employees to the job site with no problems,” he says. “It’s sturdy, reliable and is very durable. Also, with the rack, we can carry a number of pipes in a variety of sizes, saving us multiple trips.
“We decided to wrap our trucks because it is the most inexpensive form of advertising,” he continues. “According to an article we read in PM Magazine [“Look the part,” November 2016], a wrapped truck can get up to 70,000 impressions in just a week in a major metropolitan area. We used a company called King of Wraps. We’ve become good friends with the owner, Magno. He is very talented and used our logo and general ideas to make our wraps cool and stand out with all the pertinent information while not looking too busy.”
Since wrapping the trucks, Bailey has noticed a considerable increase in the number of calls they are receiving in the Morgan Hill and Gilroy area from people saying they saw the truck on the road and it encouraged them to call. He notes that one of his brothers routinely drives one of the wrapped vehicles home along that route.
“Our slogan is ‘Whole house pipe replacements, done daily,’ as we try to complete each house in just one day to minimize water service interruption,” Bailey says. “We gave ourselves the name Gladiators because the moment we arrive on site, we start attacking the project in a way that lets the homeowner know we mean business.”
