Meet the Team: Hector Almanza
Hector Almanza joined Cutting Edge Supply as an Outside Sales Rep in 2018, helping to cover customers across central California, from Madera to Icehouse and the Foothills to Sunol.
“It’s fun and interesting,” said Hector of his territory and customers. “There is something new every day. One day it’s all dairy, another it’s aggregate and then one day it could be all construction.”
With more than 25 years in the heavy equipment industry, Hector has developed long-term relationships with many of his customers.
“I am fortunate in that I deal with a lot of good people who I’ve known for a long time,” said Hector. “Guys who started out at the same time as me are now running these places so that’s kind of neat. It’s like we all sort of grew up in this business together.”
Hector cut his teeth in the heavy equipment industry while still in college.
“I was studying CAD in school and went to work part-time at Guntert Steel,” said Hector.
After graduating in 1998 from San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, Hector stayed on at Guntert in a fulltime capacity.
“I started off there selling raw steel, and then moved into the estimating department where I worked on projects like hoppers or conveyers,” he said. “I’d figure out the estimates for the welding, plate processing, laser cutting, etc.”
Hector logged nine years with Guntert before moving on to an outside sales position in 2009 with Farwest Steel Corporation out of Oregon, helping to open a California branch in Stockton.
In 2011, Hector joined Billington Welding & Manufacturing as head estimator. He spent 7 years with the company, working more in an inside sales and operations role.
“I also did some field estimating still, but mostly inside operations,” said Hector. “We worked with a lot of the wineries and did a lot of projects for Amazon. Everything from processing to standard welding to installations.”
When Cutting Edge reached out to Hector in 2018 to discuss coming onboard in sales, the opportunity was too good to resist.
“They gave me the lay of the land and it sounded interesting,” said Hector. “It was an opportunity to return to outside sales with a lot of similar customers, and working for a family-owned business was also very appealing to me. Having worked at a bunch of different places — some were mom and pop, some were big corporations, and if I could do it over again, I would probably avoid big corporate jobs. I just really appreciate the family-owned situation.”
Outside of the job, Hector’s biggest passion is baseball. He grew up playing the sport himself and loves either watching his son’s 12U traveling baseball team compete or cheering on his nephew, Christian Almanza, who now plays at St. Mary’s College, where he earned ALL-West Coast Conference (WCC) Co-Player of the Year honors in 2023.
“I’m pretty much at a baseball field one way or another every weekend,” shared Hector. “Whether I’m watching my son or my nephew play ball, that’s just what I do.”