Business activity: Jerry Holschen was enjoying retirement until family members and others he had worked with convinced him to start his own company.

For the first time in his career, Holschen had to put together a business plan. With help from Mary Shannon of Tax Strategies, he devised a plan for operating a wholesale business supply company.

After two banks turned him down through form letters, Holschen met with a senior vice president of First Banks. When Holschen finished outlining his plan, First Bank's response was, "How much money do you need?"

In July 2, 2001, Holschen and 13 others opened Universal Business Supply in Earth City. Most of the employees had been with Corporate Express, the company that had purchased the assets of bankrupt U.S. Office Products.

"The sales people had been at Corporate Express, and we weren't sure how they would react. We had an unbelievable response. Sales people would make 20 calls in a day and we would get 30 customers. People seemed to like dealing with a locally owned company."

Most of the early customers were from the St. Louis area and constitute about three-quarters of the clients today. Universal has a contract with United Stationers in Greenville, Ill., a distributor which has 35 centers in the United States, and enables Universal to keep very little inventory on hand.

Because of today's sophisticated technology, if the company receives an order by 2 p.m., it can be deliver by the next day. Universal has five trucks hauling products throughout the area. People report to work at 4 a.m. and all trucks usually leave the dock by 6:30 a.m.

Universal lists more than 26,000 items in its catalog and has 60,000-70,000 items available. "With computers, some people said we would become a paperless society. Paper-copy paper, printing paper - is by far the biggest seller," Holschen said. "We sell a trailer load of paper each week, that's 840 cartons a week.

"Basically, we carry anything people have in an office, including light bulbs and Breakroom supplies, such as coffee and bottled water."

Executives: Jerry Holschen, 53 is a native of St. Louis who attended Florissant Valley College. He has been in the business products supply industry for 34 years, starting in 1968. Holschen worked for American Loose Leaf for many years, advancing to senior vice president. He remained after the company was bought by U.S. Office Products from the Mendelson family and retired from the firm in January 2000.

His wife, Patti, works as receptionist and unofficial director of human resources.

Other owners of the company are David Holschen, Jerry's brother, who has the second largest stake in the company and is its sales manager. Jerry's son, Bobby Holschen, along with Gene Bogucki, Sherri Accardi and Ken Venhaus, own equal amounts of stock.

Ron Garner is warehouse manager; Frank Pope, who has been in the office products industry for 43 years, does all the purchasing; Donna Bower is the lead customer service representative and has 24 years experience in the industry.

Company History: When Holschen decided to start Universal, he had some distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Not only did he have encouragement from relatives and former co-workers, but Holschen had been in the industry for more than 30 years and had a host of contacts.

However, it is a highly competitive field that includes giants such as Office Depot and Boise Cascade. "Some of our competitors said some disparaging things about us, saying we wouldn't make it." Holschen said.

Signing on with United Stationers, which has $13 million inventory, was a big plus. It ensured Universal would have not only a sufficient amount of supplies, but also fast delivery around the country. "They have a center in Industry, Calif., " Holschen said. "It's near LA and we have a lot of business in California."

Holschen, who said he takes a conservative approach to business, keeps overhead low and the organization flat. The firm has 25 employees, including seven family members, and Holschen said the company can increase its business without adding people. The company employees eight sales people.

Because overhead is kept low, Universal not only can be competitive on price with some of the large-volume companies, but provide a better price at times, Holschen said.

He said all customers are contacted at least once a month, and the firm carries a database of 1,000 customers.

Companies, such as Sara Lee and Stifel Nicolaus, which started doing business with Universal in St. Louis, get their supplies nationwide from Universal.

Universal had revenue of $6 million in it's first year, and Holschen said, conservatively, the company will double its revenue this year.

Professional services: Tom Mendelsohn, who has own practice, is the corporate attorney and is a nephew of the former owners of American Loose Leaf; Mary Shannon, who owns Tax Strategies, is the company's accountant; Andrew Haberran at First Banks is the banking representative; Nancy Higgins at Lents & Associates does marketing and public relations.