For Gary Molz, vice president of EZ Office Products, the secrets to the company’s success are rooted in how “success” itself is defined.
“I’m not sure we are successful by normal standards—financially or in that we drive expensive cars,” he muses. “For us, success means contributing more to society than we take away. Our philosophy is not to sell things, but to help people buy what they need. If EZ Office Products didn’t exist, would our community be missing something? We believe the answer is yes; and we believe that is what makes us successful.”
According to Gary, this value includes giving back to the community through actions like sponsoring the local school’s softball team, buying 500 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to give to customers and donating to nonprofits such as the Black Man’s Coalition for underprivileged children and United Way. “These are the things that drive us and make business rewarding,” he explains. “Of course, I am a capitalist because you can’t do these things if you don’t make a profit. But our business model follows the ‘three Ps,’ in this order: do we treat our people well? Yes. Do we do our best to be good to the planet? Yes. Do we make a profit? Most of the time!”
A stint in a furniture factory with a toxic work environment prompted Gary’s father to open his own furniture business, despite a lack of both funds and sales experience. After school, his father would pick up Gary and the two would make deliveries together. When his father retired early for health reasons, Gary took the reins and grew the company into the largest of its kind in Pennsylvania. Later, he met his wife, Rose, and in 2002 he left the family business to help her start EZ Office Products in Madison, Wisconsin.
Today, however success is defined, Gary believes the key is straightforward: “There’s no secret to being successful—just hard work, something I learned from my father. Especially in this industry, you have to work hard; not just today, but tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. Consistency is essential. The day you stop consistently working hard is the day you start sliding backwards. If you’re willing to work harder than anyone else, you will continue to do better than the competition.”
Gary also urges other dealers to keep up to date with emerging trends and industry developments. “Always find a way to stay relevant,” he elaborates. “Also, like my father used to say, ‘Never give up.’ There have been times in this industry when I thought we might not make it, but we kept going and came through. We’ve had competition all our lives—Staples; now Amazon—and we are still in business, which I think is a form of success in itself.”
Indeed, Gary suggests that the opportunities for dealers to succeed have never been better, thanks to—rather than in spite of—the recent shakeup in the market: “I believe as an industry we relied too much for too long on wholesalers. Essendant going away forced us to look way outside the box and now we are able to better chart our own course.”
Headquarters: Madison, Wisconsin
Top management: Rose Molz, president; Gary Molz, vice president
Number of employees: 14
Annual sales: $6.5 million
Percentage of sales by category:
Office products 40%; janitorial 40%; food service disposables 12%; furniture 8%