Three thousand miles to west, in Cypress, California, Rosemary Czopek, president of Gorilla Stationers, takes a very different view of email. “Email programs are becoming dinosaurs at this point”, she maintains. “With millennials consistently coming up through the ranks and becoming customers, we find that social media programs are the way to go.
In Huntington Beach, California, Rosemary Czopek and her team at Gorilla Stationers introduced their new location to customers and prospects recently with a special Ribbon Cutting and Open House that drew some 200 attendees, including local government officials and politicos. A long-time industry veteran, Rosemary opened the doors at Gorilla just two years ago, but it’s clearly been a wonderful ride. Back then, she was literally working out of her house but the company’s explosive growth made a move to a larger home unavoidable. Business this year is posting a run rate that’s more than three times what it was last year with no sign of a slowdown any time soon, Rosemary reports.
Rosemary Czopek, owner and president of Gorilla Stationers in Huntington Beach, California, is at the top end of the millennial age range. She worked for an independent dealer for 10 years before she struck out on her own because as she puts it “I thought I could do it better, faster and cheaper. My dream was to have my own place and Gorilla Stationers was born.” She has only worked in the office supply industry and she’s pretty good at what she does, as evidenced by earning “Young Executive of the Year” honors as part of the 2016 North American Office Products Awards program earlier this year. Czopek has 18 employees and all of them are millennials. It’s not that other workers from other generations are not welcome, it’s just that the interactive young staff, she explains, works together so well.
Rosemary Czopek and her team at Gorilla Stationers in Huntington Beach, California, are basking in some well-earned publicity these days, after being featured last month on the MSNBC show Your Business” as an outstanding example of how independent entrepreneurs with small businesses can sell successfully to federal, state and local government. Show host JJ Ramberg spoke of Rosemary as “something of a rock star in the world of government contracting” and in a piece that ran for over six minutes, she described how Gorilla Stationers has built a growing government business thanks to Rosemary’s ability to secure diversity certifications, successfully bid on government contracts and master a small mountain of paperwork requirements.
In Huntington Beach, California, Rosemary Czopek and her team at Gorilla Stationers introduced their new location to customers and prospects recently with a special Ribbon Cutting and Open House that drew some 200 attendees, including local government officials and politicos. A long-time industry veteran, Rosemary opened the doors at Gorilla just two years ago, but it’s clearly been a wonderful ride. Back then, the was literally working out of her house but the company’s explosive growth made a move to a larger home unavoidable.
Business this year is posting a run rate that’s more than three times what it was last year with no sign of a slowdown any time soon, Rosemary reports. “I’ve been in office products for over 14 years and it’s a wonderful, wonderful industry,” she says. “I’ve always had a dream of running my own business and Gorilla is giving me the opportunity to pursue that dream.”
