Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Cooper.
Gary, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Straight out of college with a Finance degree, my brother-in-law was in the Label Industry and invited me to join him and start a new division of the company selling Food Rotation and Inventory labels to restaurants. We named the division ‘Mark-The-Day Labels’ (horrible name!) A few months after my start, I was working our booth at the NRA (National Restaurant Association) in Chicago when I met the owner of Dot It (much better company name!). She wondered if we would be interested in buying her company. In just a few short months, we became Dot It. Over the years, Dot It remained a division of larger print companies and eventually, I was able to become part of that ownership. I eventually sold my portion of the company and left for a few years, but still working in the industry. I eventually heard that our biggest customer, who I had worked with for years had bought Dot It and was approached a few weeks later and asked if I would be interested in coming back to help grow Dot It once again.
Over these past 4 years, we have been on a rapid growth pattern with the support of a parent company that is solely focused to the restaurant industry and a new strategy we call Brand Fulfillment.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Since 1992 when I started, Dot It has had to relaunch itself many times adding more and more value to the restaurant industry. I think our motto ‘Restaurant Life Made Easy’ is a perfect description of what we are trying to do with our product and service offerings.
The biggest challenge today is showing how our Brand Fulfillment program can benefit a restaurant chain by taking sourcing, purchasing, warehousing, and distribution out of their hands and let them focus on growing their business and let Dot It handle all the products and services that they don’t typically get through their broadline distributors.
We are doing it one chain at a time with over 20 chains now using those services and we are adding new chains every quarter (exciting times for sure!)
Dot It Restaurant Fulfillment – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Our business is divided into two main facets. On one side, we have an ecommerce platform where we sell food rotation labels, restaurant supplies and other smallwares direct to consumers. On the other side, we work in tandem with restaurant chains’ marketing, purchasing and operations teams to help manage their supply chain on products that don’t fit into their broadline distribution. This includes things like custom print, apparel and local store marketing. We help manage new store openings and LTO rollouts to make it easy for restaurant managers to get what they need, when they need it, and the best part is we build a branded web portal for managers to purchase their products online 24/7. Restaurant Life Made Easy!
How do you define success?
I define success if I have met the expectations of my family, friends, employees and customers by treating them honestly and with respect. I know that I have succeeded in this endeavor daily based on how well I sleep at night.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2001 E Randol Mill Rd, #117
- Website: www.dotit.com
- Phone: 800-642-3687
- Email: sales@dotit.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dotitnation/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DotItNation
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/1000453/
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