Address: 9000 W. Heather Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53224
Website: www.olympusgrp.com
Year Founded: 1893
Product or Service offered: Large format custom printed graphics, tradeshow graphics, flags and banners, event graphics, point of purchase displays, billboards and backdrops, fleet and vehicle graphics, U.S. flags, mascot costumes, walk-around characters used by sports teams and corporate brands.
Projected 2013 Revenue: $25 million
President: Brian Adam
Other key members of the leadership team: Mike Young, chief financial officer; Scott Coulthurst, vice president of operations; Dan Ward, vice president of sales; Kathy Marchant, vice president of sales, and Scott Litzau vice president of IT.
Target Clientele: Event and exhibit companies, retailers, sports teams, advertising agencies, designers, restaurants, universities, amusement parks and anyone looking to promote a brand with custom printed graphics or mascot costumes.
Business organization memberships: Specialty Graphic Imaging Association, International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions, Promotional Product Association and Advertising Specialty Institute
What has fueled your company’s growth?: “Our success is completely driven by 150 great employees who always focus on our customers’ needs first. We pride ourselves on tackling the most challenging and unique requests, turning projects quickly and avoiding any rejects from leaving our facility.”
What is the biggest obstacle to your company’s growth?: “With the growth we have experienced, our biggest obstacle is ensuring we provide the same level of responsiveness that our customers have come to expect with a higher volume of business. As we continue to grow, the complexities in managing a dynamic schedule will challenge our team to come up with unique ways to meet deadlines while ensuring no rejects reach our customers.”
Do you plan any changes in your company in the upcoming months?: “We’ve added approximately 50 employees in the last two years and we anticipate adding another 10 to 15 employees to our team in the next six months. Our printing equipment is unlike traditional printing equipment and requires us to continually invest in the latest technology. We anticipate investing another $1 million in new equipment and technology in the next 12 months to ensure we are providing our customers with the highest quality graphics available.”
Who are the business people, locally or nationally, whom you admire? And what traits do those people exhibit that make you admire them?: “I personally admire the employees we have at Olympus. The team has extremely diverse backgrounds, unique skill sets and an unbelievable work ethic. We’ve had employees pull all-nighters, dig out their cars from five feet of snow just to get to work, drive hours to personally deliver product, take work home, work through power outages, and do whatever they can (without being asked) to help us exceed our customer’s expectations.”
What is the outlook for the business conditions of your industry over the next several months?: “We continue to expect modest growth in our industry for the next couple of months.”
What is your company’s most important growth strategy right now?: “Continue to hire great people and remove any roadblocks or obstacles that might inhibit them from being able to excel at their job. We have no patents, trade secrets or special technology so to be successful we need to execute better than our competition. The only way to do that is with a great team.”
