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In an industry where relationships, reliability and reputation are everything, Harry Warren, Inc. stands out as an example of what it means to grow with integrity. From modest beginnings as a one-man rep agency traveling the state of Florida to becoming a multi-branch organization representing premier manufacturers across the region, Harry Warren has never lost sight of what matters most: people.

Now celebrating more than five decades in business, the company’s success is rooted in the values established by founder Harry Warren and carried forward by the Mycoff family: professionalism, service and a deep respect for employees, customers and partners alike. As the company continues to evolve, expand and embrace new technologies, one thing has remained constant: a commitment to doing business the right way.

This agency’s dedication to delivering quality service and treating their employees and customers alike like family has earned them the title of Plumbing and Mechanical’s 2025 Rep of the Year.

Where it started

Harry Warren, Inc. is the epitome of humble beginnings. Harry Warren started the company with high hopes for its future. Warren got his start in the industry in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in a plumbing supply company. From there, he decided to start his own rep company that covered the Carolinas and Georgia, but later settled into Florida after doing a bit of work with the Elger Company.

For several years, Warren was a one-man rep agency traveling the state of Florida. In 1968, Warren incorporated and officially started Harry Warren, Inc. The company remained a one-man operation until the early 70s, when Warren brought on one more rep agent. Later, in the 80s, Bob Mycoff would join the team. Bob Mycoff and Harry Warren’s daughter, Leigh Mycoff, bought the company in 1989.

When the Mycoffs purchased the company, they decided to expand. However, it was vital to them that the most important aspects of the business remained the same: Harry Warren, Inc. has always stood for, in Bob Mycoff’s words, "integrity, professionalism, quality and relationships." The most important aspect, the one that has undoubtedly remained the same since day one of Harry Warren, Inc., is family.

"We are family-owned, and family values are very important to us." Bob Mycoff told us.

The team

The people are what make a company great. With Bob and Leigh Mycoff working together as co-presidents of the company, they strive to include remain true to the foundations of the company that Leigh’s father laid in place when he established the company: quality service, superior service and treating employees like family. Their daughter, Whitney Morgan and Wes Reinert, both work as vice-presidents of the company.

More than just being run by a family, treating every employee like they’re a part of the family is very important to the Mycoffs. The longest-tenured employee at Harry Warren has worked with the company for 31 years. Their secret to retaining top talent? "Well, I always say to them, you spend more time here in your life than anywhere else. We want to make sure you're happy. They're giving a lot of their life to us, and we want to support them and their families." Leigh said. Ensuring that their employees feel important is paramount to the company.

A testament to the fact that employees of Harry Warren feel valued is that several of their employees come from referrals of their current talent. "We've seen a lot of tenured employees vouch for us: saying that it's a great place to work, and bring their friends and family along. That really has been the best way we have found people so far." Whitney Morgan shared. "It's pretty neat when you have an employee that thinks enough about culture and business, people that he works with, that he'd like to encourage others to come join."

Management also believes that in-person training is one of the most important ways to ensure that their talent remains at the top. With so much of the world leaning into Zoom training, Harry Warren has found that it lacks the personal touch needed for such an important job. Also, giving contractors the opportunity to physically interact with the products that they represent also gives them a better understanding of the item.

They also encourage each member of the sales team to take one hour a day completely phone-free. "Maybe six years ago, we decided that, in all of our offices, we were going to turn our phones off for one hour, because pretty much half of our team are under a pressure cooker." Bob Mycoff told us. "Basically, phone call after phone call, manning the needs of our customers and our principals during the day. So, we decided, we just need to give everybody a break for an hour. We encourage them to not eat their lunch at their desk, but go have some good times, go to lunch with a peer or a co-worker." It’s important to management that they cultivate a culture wherein their team feels valued, and that they don’t burn out.

Teamwork also plays a major role in the culture of Harry Warren. "It's not rare that you see someone from the mechanical team working with someone from the luxury team on a project somewhere in the state that they look for expertise on, or someone from the commercial team helping out a residential guy." Whitney Morgan said. "We really encourage teamwork among our sales teams... That's not to say that we aren't a group of sales people, and we can definitely be competitive and want to win more than our fair share of sales and projects, but overall we work as a close team for most of the time."

This collaborative, values-driven approach isn’t just good for morale; it’s good for business. It has helped Harry Warren, Inc. build lasting relationships, retain top talent and maintain a high level of service across all departments. At its core, the company’s strength lies not just in the products it represents, but in the people who show up every day committed to a shared vision.

Growth

To go from a one-man rep company to one with over sixty employees is no small task. Interestingly, they have always found their footing especially well in times of uncertainty.

In the eighties, coming off of a big recession, it was clear that the company needed to move beyond the residential sale-to-sale business model. Even early on, they saw potential for the company to be more. A major turning point for the company, according to Bob Mycoff¸ was diversifying their business model.

In the early 90s, the company started representing A.O. Smith water heaters as they were transitioning from a factory sales team to manufacturers around the country. "We were one of the first to be selected, and then really changed the dynamics of our company from having a few salespeople to actually having an organization where we did a lot of different commercial business. We were still in residential, but we got involved in a lot of different products, lot more technical products." Bob Mycoff said.

Similarly, in 2004, Harry Warren, Inc. took on the Watts regulatory line. This change was particularly significant for a number of reasons: for one, this was a completely new type of product to for the company. And, perhaps most importantly, this partnership also helped Harry Warren expand into the warehouse business.

"It moved us from an office-based type of salespeople that were just out of home offices to where we actually started having structure in our offices and warehouses." Bob Mycoff said. "So, once you have a warehouse and you have inside inventory to cover overhead, you start looking at how do you then pay for the rest of the space. So, warehousing really became a new move for us." This "new move" would prove to be quite successful for the company.

"As we pivoted in COVID, we really accelerated that warehousing footprint. We went from two warehouses to five warehouses during that first year or so of COVID, just really expanding. And, the driving force there was really to have more product closer to the marketplace and try to overcompensate for the inability of our principals to ship product to our distributors."

While these changes occurred over several years, they truly set the stage for what Harry Warren, Inc. is today. What was once a small-but-successful company has grown into a premier manufacturers’ representative organization.

Today, Bob Mycoff believes what sets Harry Warren apart from other companies is their diversity in the market. "We're involved in luxury plumbing, residential plumbing, commercial plumbing, septic irrigation, residential, commercial and mechanical, so I think that gives us value in all these different levels and segments of the marketplace. When we can come together and share information across all of those channels and product lines, that really adds a lot of value to our package."

The products

Harry Warren, Inc. has cultivated a diverse portfolio of product lines over the years. This diversification has been instrumental in the company's growth and resilience, allowing it to adapt to industry changes and meet the evolving needs of its clients. The company’s longest running line, the InSinkErator, which they started working with in the 1980s, also recently awarded them with their Rep of the Year award. 

“We like to look for quality manufacturers to represent. We like to have a high standard for everything that we do,” Bob told us. 

In the commercial & residential plumbing sector, Harry Warren represents manufacturers like A.O. Smith, offering residential, commercial and tankless water heaters, as well as ASME tanks. They also partner with Bradley for commercial plumbing fixtures and emergency equipment, and with Taco for a range of pumps suitable for residential, commercial and irrigation applications. 

The luxury showroom channel showcases products that combine functionality with aesthetic appeal. Brands like Franke provide elegant glass shower doors and enclosures, while Maidstone offers luxury kitchen and bath products. 

For water systems, Harry Warren's portfolio includes AO Smith water systems, which provides residential and commercial pump, well tanks and ASME expansion tanks. They also represent Norwesco and Snyder Industries, both known for their septic and water storage tanks.  

In the fire, irrigation and waterworks segment, the company partners with FEBCO to supply backflow prevention devices essential for fire protection and irrigation systems. HOTBOX and Hubbell provide protective enclosures for municipal applications, ensuring the durability and safety of critical infrastructure components. 

Harry Warren's product lines reflect has certainly grown over the years; showcasing their commitment to providing quality products across multiple facets. By partnering with reputable manufacturers and maintaining a varied inventory, the company ensures that it can meet the diverse needs of their clients, from residential projects to large-scale commercial and municipal developments.

What’s changed

It’s obvious that a lot has changed for Harry Warren, Inc. over the years. Leigh can remember her father coming home with stacks of papers each night – orders to fulfill. Nowadays, the company uses coding systems and creating demand to help their customers know what they need, and there are in-house sales teams, an accounting team, a quote team and more.

One way that the company has adapted, according to Whitney Morgan, is to invest in quality marketing. "Our manufacturers and customers are definitely noticing our increase in marketing and how it’s helping us to tell our story as our agency brand, as well as the stories of the manufacturers that we represent and help to promote them."

Staying up-to-date with technology is also a must. Becky Campbell, marketing manager, is even working on developing an AI for the company to use in a variety of ways. "We're definitely growing in our strategic technology enhancements for our business," Morgan told us. "The company is also steadily upgrading their ERP and CRM systems.

Staying ahead of the game is no easy task, but it’s one that the team at Harry Warren is more than prepared for.

What’s stayed the same

From a one-man operation to a large team of professionals covering the entire state of Florida, you might be wondering: what has remained the same for Harry Warren? According to Leigh Mycoff, quality service and a commitment to the happiness of their customers and employees has never wavered. "We’ve changed in a lot of ways, but we have maintained that we're here to train and help our customer and sell the product to them."

Despite these rapid changes in technology and operations, the foundation of Harry Warren, Inc. has remained remarkably consistent. While the tools and tactics have evolved, the company’s guiding principles — quality service, strong relationships and a people-first approach — continue to shape every decision they make.

"I think every aspect of what we do, what we look at, how we plan, is based around that feeling that what's good for our employees, what's good for the business, what's good for our customers." Bob Mycoff said. "It's all related around a family approach. We try not to leave anybody out. When we make decisions, we think about how that decision is going to impact certain individuals."

One thing is for certain: the dedication to quality service and family has never wavered in the five decades that Harry Warren, Inc. has been in business. It has remained at the core of the business since it was founded, and that will not change. "I think we still look at ourselves as the small business we were maybe 15 or 20 years ago, and it's really great that we kept the culture and the values, but we're putting the structure in place as we evolve and grow so that we can maintain those values and really touch all of the team members, all of the employees across the board in a strategic way."

What’s next

So, what lies ahead for Harry Warren, Inc.? According to the Mycoff family, the future is all about smart growth, leadership development and staying one step ahead in a fast-moving industry.

The speed of knowledge, the speed of communication, everything in today's world in the rep agency is instantaneous. And so, our activity is not only to stay up with it, but to stay ahead of it." Morgan said. "It's a challenge, for sure, because the speed is getting increasingly faster, the amount of knowledge, the amount of information is increasing, so it's a big, big push to keep everybody at the tip of the sword. It takes a lot of very smart people to understand not just what we need, but how do we get there. So, that's why we're in the process of making sure that we're always in front of things, trying to keep it in that way."

However, it’s no secret that there are challenges facing the industry right now. The biggest hurdle, according to Wes Reinert, is how much the industry has changed in recent years. "We used to just be an outsource sales force, and we do much more than that in today's environment." Companies and consumers alike have been asking more out of rep agencies in the last decade.

"Our industry from the rep side has evolved to where we have taken on more and more services that our manufacturers used to provide to the distributors and to the contractors. So, our ability to train and educate and to know the products has really helped that demand creation, has really evolved, which is good because that actually allows the manufacturers rep to be a big and vital part of the entire industry." Leigh Mycoff said.

The role of rep agencies has shifted from order fulfillment to demand creation. Successful rep firms proactively generate market interest, working with engineers, contractors and specifiers to create pull-through demand that leads to downstream sales. "The agencies around the country that have embraced that certainly have grown. So, as you see around the country, some have merged, or some have fallen a little bit back because of just the investment it takes."

Reps today are expected to offer far more than product pitches; they now provide technical expertise, training, marketing support and logistical solutions. Manufacturers are increasingly relying on rep agencies to handle services that were once managed in-house, including product education, territory management and even customer service. However, these heightened expectations are not necessarily a negative.

"Our role in the chain has increased, but that's grabbing more value today than (we) ever have in our industry. We can become a real professional, full-fledged business as opposed to just a hired sales organization," said Reinert.

No matter the challenges of the business, the people at Harry Warren have stayed true to what has made them great. "The maintaining of our core values, the things that Mr. Warren set in place, we keep them alive in a lot of things we do."

Despite changing expectations, challenges within the industry and the ever-evolving world of technology, Harry Warren, Inc. has retained their success by staying true to what made them successful in the first place.

As Harry Warren, Inc. charts its course for the future, the company’s leadership remains committed to balancing growth with the values that have guided it for more than 50 years. The next generation of leadership is already hard at work, bringing fresh ideas and new energy to a company built on trust, professionalism and family ties.

In an industry that continues to evolve at a breakneck pace — with rising customer expectations, technological shifts and increasing demands on rep agencies — Harry Warren, Inc. stands firm in its belief that relationships are still the most valuable currency. Their ability to adapt without losing sight of their core principles is what sets them apart.

It’s this combination of forward-thinking strategy and enduring values that makes Harry Warren, Inc. a deserving recipient of Plumbing & Mechanical’s 2025 Rep of the Year. As the company continues to grow, innovate and lead, one thing is certain: the heart of Harry Warren, Inc. is still exactly where it started — focused on people, committed to service, and grounded in integrity.