Paper Mart has a simple key to its 95 years as a family-owned business: Be adaptable.
The online discount provider of gift wrapping and packaging supplies started in “a small building behind my great-grandparents’ home in Los Angeles County,” said Buffy Simoni, the president and board chair for the company.
Today it operates in a 247,000-square-foot office and warehouse facility with 36 delivery bays on Batavia Street in Orange.
It employs 250 companywide, keeps 26,000 items in stock, and can generally deliver products within 24 hours if it receives an order by 3 p.m.
Simoni declined to provide company revenue, but the Business Journal estimates that Paper Mart has more than $100 million in annual sales.
The products range from shipping boxes and packaging peanuts to take-out boxes for restaurants, glass bottles and wooden baskets for retail displays, as well as holiday wrapping paper and ribbons for gifts, jewels for craft projects, and every possible item for a holiday party.
Customers benefit by knowing there is a consistent price for wrapping and packing products.
Online in 1995
“The company published a product catalog until four years ago,” said Allison McGuire, Paper Mart’s marketing director.
It published its first mail-order catalog in 1965 when direct-mail marketing was a new way to sell directly to prospective customers.
Simoni said that her father, John Frick, who led the business for about 50 years, regarded the catalogs as “an artistic opportunity to catch customers’ attention.”
All of the company’s products are now online, thanks to an “intense conversion effort,” she said.
But don’t assume that Paper Mart is new to online retailing. It’s been on the web since 1995 and was among the first companies to sell directly to customers when it placed photos of products online.
“We only had 10,000 products back then,” Simoni said.
Going online made sense, she said, because the company leaders have always asked, “How can we reach new customers?”
And Paper Mart has no intention of outsourcing the web services to another website operator or online retailer, McGuire said.
“We like having our own quality controls and customer service specialists,” McGuire said.
Having everyone—sales staff, warehouse specialists and company leaders—in the same building assures the quality of the products, a high level of training and that everyone shares the same information with customers, Simoni said.
Customers also get the benefit of efficiencies, according to McGuire.
“We’re the lowest cost distributor every day,” she said.
The company has never had to adjust to waves of online customers, Simoni said, because its early adoption to an online sales model allowed it to grow and learn various lessons as online retailing matured in the past 20 years.
Wholesale, Retail, Individuals
Commercial wholesalers, niche retailers and companies in need of gift wrapping items account for 60% of Paper Mart’s revenue, Simoni said.
That’s “a fairly steady” source of revenue, she said. Larger businesses always will need shipping boxes, gift bags, and rolls of wrapping paper and ribbons.
The remainder comes from home businesses, bridal or wedding event planners, holiday parties, or customers who need customized paper products.
That’s where the company needs to be flexible, Simoni said.
“That area is more trend sensitive,” she said.
Polka dots, for example, were very popular a couple of years ago.
“Now there’s more interest in organic products and rustic items like burlap,” she said.
The company obtains its products by buying from wholesalers around the world.
Simoni said her team follows trends by listening to customers and suppliers, travelling to tradeshows, browsing social media sites, and heeding Pantone LLC’s advice on the color of the year.
Pantone is a company in Carlstadt, N.J., that issues a specific color each year that is used in the making of dresses, paint and fabrics.
Strategy
Paper Mart avoids getting stuck with gluts of merchandise that missed the mark with customers by bringing in a small amount, prominently introducing it on the website and then closely monitoring sales.
Interested customers usually call customer service staffers to inquire about products, Simoni said.
Representatives can match customers to the appropriate products by learning about the businesses’ needs, the product and color preferences, and the types of events.
They’re trained to listen to customers and to glean market information with questions of their own about new uses for products or a simple, “What else would you like?” said Simoni.
That helps cut down on merchandising misses, although there’s always something left over in the retail business.
The company can quickly move any surplus products by further discounting them on the website, McGuire said.
“Online customers will usually add one (discounted) item while they are shopping for other things,” McGuire said.
Decades of Changes
Paper Mart has had a few name changes since the company was founded by G.A. and Emma Frick in 1921.
The company started business as California Towel and Linen Supply and provided tablecloths and placemats to Los Angeles-area restaurants.
The Fricks eventually began selling paper table covers and mats as restaurants started to switch from linen items.
The couple grew the company slowly and steadily, building to 14 employees by 1929, and managed to survive the Great Depression. Then came World War II, when their son, Robert, drove delivery trucks for the company to help it overcome the labor shortages that came as soldiers shipped out to the training camps and battlefields.
He assumed leadership of the company in 1946, changed the name to Frick Paper Co., and started selling paper towels and tissue, janitorial supplies, and shipping supplies.
The company became Paper Mart in 1964 when Robert’s son, John, took leadership and decided it should become a discount mail-order catalog business.
It became a national distributor after launching its website in 1995 and started to provide retail and industrial packing products.
Simoni said she joined the family business in 2014 after a 10-year career as an elementary school teacher.
“My parents did a wonderful job of allowing us to pursue other passions,” she said.
Simoni said she enjoys the “intellectual challenge” of adapting the business, walking the warehouse floor and working alongside everyone during the holidays.
Customers usually want their gift wrap products around Thanksgiving or Black Friday, she said.
She said the board of directors has no intention of selling to a private-equity firm or pursuing an initial public offering.
The company is still growing as more customers learn about it, she said.
“We bought this building. We’re here to stay.”
