Brothers help make Chattanooga Office Supply the only surviving local office supply firm in the area

COS head Skip Ireland poses for a portrait in the office supply company's showroom Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
COS head Skip Ireland poses for a portrait in the office supply company's showroom Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
photo COS head Skip Ireland poses for a portrait in the office supply company's showroom Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Company at a glance

› Founded: 1941 by Henry Ireland› Owners: Skip and Jim Ireland, who purchased the business from their father in 1983› Staff: 48 employees, including 21 with more than 10 years experience› Production expansions: Office furniture in 1965, interiors groups in 1983, managed print services in 2008, facility maintenance supplies in 2013 and safety supplies in 2015Locations through the years› 720 1/2 Cherry Street from 1941 to 1967› 2622 Broad Street from 1967 to 1973› 903 Creekside Road from 1973 to 2002› 1548 Riverside Drive from 2002 to present

Skip Ireland and his younger brother, Jim, took over the family-owned office supply business in 1983 when their father, who had acquired the business from his father 17 years earlier, died after battling cancer at age 55.

"We had to make a decision whether to just sell the business or to try to make a go of it," Skip Ireland recalls. "I was only 27 and Jim was 23, so like I like to tell people, we were young and stupid and really didn't know any better."

But over the past 33 years, Skip and Jim have built Chattanooga Office Supply (COS) into a larger, more diversified and technologically savvy business, now known as COS Business Products and Supply. Among the nine local office supply firms that were in the market in the early 1980s when Skip and Jim took over the business, COS is the only one to have survived against the twin challenges of big box retailers such as Staples, Office Depot and Office Max and the online competition from many of their factory suppliers.

According to the Family Firm Institute, only about 30 percent of family businesses survive into the second generation, and only about one in eight are still viable into the third generation.

Skip Ireland said he and his brother have bucked those odds and kept the business going for three generations by using some of the enduring lessons taught by their father about hard work and customer service. At the same time, they have been willing to revamp and grow the business in new directions as technology, market and business conditions have changed.

Only about 3 percent of all family businesses operate into the fourth generation or beyond, studies indicate, and that may eventually be true for Chattanooga Office Supply.

"Unfortunately, neither Jim or I have any kids in the business so it looks like the third generation is going to be the last," said Skip Ireland, the 60-year-old president of COS.

The third generation owners have succeeded in not only managing the family-owned business to survive in a challenging and changing market, but to make the business thrive and grow by adding furniture, interiors, managed print services, maintenance and safety supplies over the past three decades. COS, which acquired rival businesses like the Cooper Office Supply Co. and Fulmarque Furniture in the past, could buy other businesses to enter even more markets where their customers may want or need a product or service, Ireland said.

That has been key, Ireland says, to keeping 88 percent of its customers for at least three years.

"Our customers are not just loyal; they are an integral part of our company," he said.

Unlike other office supply firms that operated retail storefronts, COS initially operated when it began in 1941 from an upstairs office at 720 Cherry Street downtown. Business was done going out selling directly to office users, rather than relying upon a storefront to attract retail customers.

So when Staples, Office Depot and other big box retailers came to town and undermined other local office supply retailers, COS managed to survive with its business-to-business approach working to customize individual business solutions.

"If it is just what you sell, they can buy it anywhere," Ireland said. "Our advantage is helping work with clients to determine what they need and what best fits their situation."

Technology has been the great equalizer, both helping COS to compete with virtually anyone but also opening up the business to many competitors.

"Technology has totally changed our business and we either had to embrace and use it, or get killed by it," Ireland said. "Technology can be either your friend or your foe. We have designed ours to support our sales and service model."

Online sales and web-based tools have allowed office product manufacturers to ship goods directly to their end users, eliminating many distributors and retailers. But e-commerce also has allowed the Irelands to expand the reach and speed of their deliveries and to help customize their service territory to ship customers supplies, furniture and other office items to facilities in 48 states.

Three decades ago, COS delivered office products in a 20-mile radius of downtown Chattanooga and had a staff of nine employees. Today, the company has 48 employees with a broader mix of office products and furniture shipped around the country.

"Our largest customers are now national accounts," Ireland said.

Another key to the growth in business, Ireland said, is the flexibility and customer focus for COS compared with other larger competitors.

"We will do what others won't or can't," he said. "We will adjust our business practice to fit our customers' needs, not vice versa."

Although fewer in number, office supply and furniture businesses are even more critical for success than in the past, Ireland said. Having the right type of office equipment and layout is key to keeping employees happy, productive and healthy. Work stations can no longer be cookie cutter models that are the same for all workers, and businesses are continually changing their office environments to promote more employee collaboration and flexibility, he said.

But for all the changes that Skip and Jim have navigated while running COS since their father's death in 1983, they still credit their father with teaching them some lasting lessons early in life when they came to the office as children - or "OP (office product) rats," as they called themselves at the time.

"He died much too soon and I wish I would have had more time to learn from him," Skip Ireland said of his father, Hudson. "But what I remember most are really the basic things. He told us, 'there is no such thing as "that's my job," 'lead by example,' and 'your name is on this company so don't let anybody outwork you.'"

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfree press.com or at 423-757-6340.

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