Cooley Group employees share in success

EAST SYRACUSE - When James Bonaventura suffered a heart attack in 2001, his sales staff worked together to keep Cooley Group, Inc.'s Syracuse branch up-and-running, he says.

"Everyone pitched in to help out, and we never missed a beat,"' says Bonaventura, executive vice president of Cooley Group and head of the firm's Syracuse office.

Cooley Group employees feel compelled to contribute to the company's success because every employee is an owner of the firm, Bonaventura explains. Cooley Group is structured under an employeestock-ownership plan (ESOP), set up by the company's founder, C.E. "Scoop" Cooley, Bonaventura says.

An ESOP is a tax-qualified, employee-benefit plan in which all or most of the assets are invested in the employer's stock according to the National Center for Employee Ownership. Programs are usually required to include all full-time employees who meet specific age and service-length requirements, the Center says.

"Because we're an employee-owned company, any change the board [of directors] wants to make affects me as much as someone who has [only] been here a few months," Bonaventura says.

The ESOP helps eliminate the hierarchy present in traditional companies, Bonaventura says. Even as executive vice president, Bonaventura is still a salesman with the firm, he explains.

"We don't have the high-paid guys sitting behind a desk, doing presidential things," says Aimee Smolen Kerr, communications specialist. "[Bonaventura] thoroughly understands every hurdle and aspect of what's going on."

In 1945, C.E. Cooley founded the firm, originally called Cooley Business Forms, in Rochester, Bonaventura says. The firm expanded to Syracuse in 1952, to the former Midtown Plaza on East Washington and Almond streets - the current site of the Syracuse University Center of Excellence construction.

In subsequent years, Cooley Group's Syracuse branch relocated to 10 10 James St. in Syracuse, then to 6390 Fly Road in East Syracuse, before settling into its current location at 6700 Kirkville Road in East Syracuse in January 2005, Bonaventura says. The Kirkville site, at 2,400 square feet, is smaller than the 2,850square-foot location on Fly Road. The firm moved because the new layout offered a more efficient use of office space, a showroom, and more warehouse space, Bonaventura explains.

After expanding to Syracuse, Cooley Group opened offices in Albany, Utica, and Rock Tavern, N.Y. Stuart Boyar, president and chairman of the board, manages the company from its headquarters in Rochester.

Since 2000, Cooley Group's annual revenue has increased about 5 percent every year, although sales of certain products have dropped off, while others have experienced "explosive growth," Bonaventura says.

"Our product mix has changed dramatically, mainly due to technology," Bonaventura says.

When C.E. Cooley foundedCooley Business Forms 60 years ago, the company sold mainly printed materials. Technological advances caused printed-material sales to remain stagnant, forcing Cooley Group to diversify the products it offers, Bonaventura says.

Currently, sales materials still account for about 75 percent of Cooley. Group's sales, while 20 percent of sales are advertising specialties the firm's fastest growing product - and 5 percent are office-furniture sales, Bonaventura says. Advertising specialties range from companybranded clothing to pens to compact-disc cases.

Cooley Group serves small to medium-sized businesses that spend less than $25,000 annually on promotional products, Smolen Kerr says. The Syracuse branch has 12,000 customers in the Central New York area, and although its client base is composed of smaller firms, it also services a few larger corporations, Smolen Kerr adds.

The firm's major challenge is meeting the varied needs of its customers, Smolen Kerr explains. Some smaller firms, with minimal technical knowledge, rely on fax machines and mail to conduct their business, while Cooley Group must also offer Internet services in order to compete with national distributors for technologically savvy clients.

On Sept. 6, Cooley Group will launch an online ordering portal, through which Cooley Group customers can purchase any of the company's products and check their order status, Bonaventura says.

"We're learning to use the technology that's out there, rather than run from it," Bonaventura says. "I'd rather be surfing the wave than drown[ing] from it."