Bowie, MD-based business-to-business marketer Jacobs Gardner Supply Co., which mails the Jacobs Gardner Supply and Penny Saver Office Products business supplies catalogs, was sold by founder Daniel Grossman to a management team led by Kathryn Morley and Gary Luiza. Terms of the deal, which was announced June 14, were not disclosed.
Both Morley and Luiza are long-time employees of Jacobs Gardner Supply. Morley, who joined the company in 1986 and was most recently vice president of marketing, will now be the firm’s CEO. Luiza, having served as president/chief operating officer since 1993, is the chief operating officer.
“This purchase was a unique opportunity for us to lead these companies which have been a part of our lives for 20 years from an ownership perspective,” Morley says. Adds Luiza: “This change in ownership positions our company for growth, while offering continuity of management, and an even greater level of service and flexibility for our customers and suppliers.”
The company mails 50,000 copies of the Jacobs Gardner Supply catalog annually, which sells office products, funiture, and janitorial supplies as well as promotional items. Jacobs Gardner also markets via a commercial sales force, and focuses on sales to larger business and the federal government. Penny Wise Office Products, which mails less than 5 million catalogs annually, sells the same merchandise as Jacobs Gardner, but only markets via catalog and targets companies with fewer than 50 employees. The company also partners with more than 300 trade organizations including United Federation of Small Businesses, The National Association of the Self-Employed, and the American Medical Association. It has about 600,000 customers nationwide.
Grossman founded Jacobs Gardner Supply Co. in April 1978 as a retail chain with stores in the Washington and New York metropolitan areas. By 1990, Jacobs Gardner operated 23 stores, but that year the company closed the retail stores and formed a commercial/government sales force focused on the corporate base in mid-Atlantic states.