Cody Lythgoe

Bio: They say that “You can’t go home again,” but those people have never worked for Hose and Rubber Supply. Several employees have started working at Hose and Rubber, risen through the ranks, and then decided to expand their horizons and pick up a new skill, before returning to the place where they previously found such great success. 

Cody Lythgoe is one of those people. 

Lythgoe began working for Hose and Rubber Supply as a young man; it was just a part-time job that he worked while finishing school. Eventually, that part-time gig turned into a full-time career, and he worked at the Casper branch of Hose and Rubber until 2006, before working at the Billings branch from 2006 to 2010. 

Following that, Lythgoe wanted a change of scenery, and he went where, presumably, the money was. He began working in the oil field. 

“It was alright,” Lythgoe laughed. “It was a great learning experience. I loved the work; it was just the schedule, with a family and a wife. It made it real tough. I didn’t even really have a schedule. I worked 80, 90-day hitches with a few days off and then right back out there for the same thing.” 

The work was good, the money was good, but Lythgoe missed his family. He missed home. And it was about to get worse. 

“The company I was working for was going through financial troubles and shutting down their United States operations,” he revealed. “So I had the choice to either take a layoff or take a position overseas. So I took the layoff.” 

Most people don’t willingly choose to be laid off. But Lythgoe did, because he wanted to be with his family. He wanted to come home and he knew that he would land on his feet. 

“I took a few months off just to kind of decompress,” he stated. “I was dinking around, looking at jobs online and a job for Hose and Rubber came up. So I went down and talked to Adam [Weisz], because I actually trained Adam and worked with him. I kept in contact with Adam a little bit, here and there over the years. So I came back and started doing sales for him. I don’t usually remember stuff too well, but I remembered quite a bit about the industry, so I just kind of hit the ground running.”

For Lythgoe, working for Hose and Rubber again felt like putting on a glove, or a favorite pair of jeans. It just fit. 

“As soon as I went in and talked to Adam, he was excited that he had someone who knew about the industry,” Lythgoe said. “So having somebody that you don’t need to train, someone that already knows how Hose and Rubber operates was going to make his life a lot easier.” 

Indeed it did. Previously, Lythgoe worked in the warehouse when he was first starting out. Since then, he’s done counter sales, inside sales, and more. 

“You just kind of did everything,” he revealed. “You answered the phones, you helped the walk-ins, you did warehouse stuff – pulling orders, cleaning up, stocking stuff – you just kind of did everything.” 

And you did everything not because you had to, but because you wanted to. At least, that’s how the staff of Hose and Rubber feel. They all help each other out. There is no job too big, or too small. Everybody works together, because everybody wants to see Hose and Rubber, as a whole, succeed.

Lythgoe certainly did, and he began working as a Field Service Representative when he returned to the company in 2021. 

“Basically, my job is to go in and solve a problem that our customers are having,” he said. “My job is just being somebody that our customers can trust. My job is to use my knowledge and my experience to make their life easier. That’s how I look at it – taking care of the customer. And sometimes, we’re able to do it one hundred percent out of our shop, but if I’ve got to go outside of our shop and pick something up from somewhere else, or help someone turn a wrench because I’m the only one there, that’s fine. As long as the customer’s taken care of, I’m good.” 

Lythgoe is good. Very, very good. And he’s good because there’s never a problem he can’t solve. In fact, Lythgoe loves when a new problem comes up, just so he can find a new solution. 

“I like when customers challenge me,” he said. “When it’s not just your regular stop into the store. I like it when customers come to me with a problem and I can solve it for them, or help them see another way of doing something to make it easier for them.” 

That’s his favorite part of the gig, but another thing that he enjoys at Hose and Rubber is the camaraderie; the relationships that he’s built – both with the customers and with his fellow employees. 

“I talk to quite a few of the other salesmen,” Lythgoe shared. “Casey, up in Williston – I consider him a brother. And Billings is a small town, so I run into customers all the time and go and chit-chat with them. And it just kind of helps the relationship. I’ve got customers that I go and see and, I mean, we just sit and talk for hours.” 

It’s the same way with his fellow employees, and even with his bosses. The relationships between the staff at Hose and Rubber Supply are based on mutual respect. They’re based on friendship. 

“When I was at my previous company, I was a number,” Lythgoe said. “I just had an employee number.  I knew my coordinators. I knew my fair share of people. But the CEO is never going to call me and ask me how my family’s doing. He never knew my name. Whereas these guys, any time I talk to Scott Hilton or anyone in Salt Lake City, the first thing they ask is ‘How’s the family? How’re the kids doing?’ Here, I’m not just a number. I’m an actual name. I’m an actual human. And, in my time and where I’m at in my life, that means a lot to me.” 

That attitude means a lot to customers, too. Like the staff, the customers of Hose and Rubber Supply are also more than a number. 

“When I walk in and talk to a customer, I don’t ask them what they want to buy, I ask how their family’s doing or what they did on the weekend,” Lythgoe said. “It’s not all business.” 

It’s about relationships. Relationships are what brought Cody Lythgoe back to Hose and Rubber Supply, and relationships are what keep him there.  

“We’re a company that truly cares,” he said. “We’re a company that truly wants to help you. We’re not a company that says ‘no’ lightly. We will exhaust every option before it’s, ‘No, we can’t help you.’ Whether that means sending them elsewhere, to a competitor, or something else, we will go a long way for a customer, because we truly care about them.”

Cody Lythgoe cares about his customers. He cares about his coworkers and his bosses as well. Hose and Rubber Supply is a job, but it’s more than that. It’s a fraternity. It’s a family. It’s home. And Lythgoe has proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you absolutely can go home again.