Five Star Industrial & Business Supply, founded in Charlottesville in late 2003, is a contract distributor of industrial, janitorial, and office supplies to the University of Virginia. As a member of True Value Company's Induserve Supply Program, a buying co-operative consisting of 200 independent distributors, Five Star has access to 65,000 items stocked in True Value distribution centers as well as an additional 500,000 through its various alliance partnerships. The Induserve Supply Program also gives Five Star 3 billion dollars in purchasing power, and access to over 3000 manufacturers. Marketing the company as a "one-stop shop", Five Star sells office supplies to many agencies in the Commonwealth. Customers placing orders with Five Star receive next day delivery on all in-stock office supply items and a 48 hour delivery time on all in-stock industrial and janitorial items. Five Star offers electronic purchasing capabilities including an e-VA punch-out catalog for office supplies.

Business is moving in the right direction. Entering our 3rd year we doubled our sales from the previous year, and we are projecting another 50% increase in revenues in 2007.

Five Star's greatest strength is its access to a broad product line at competitive pricing as well as our great customer service and relationship-building attributes. Our biggest weakness is, as a young developing business, being able to compete with the larger companies who drop prices and work on volume, not on margin like most small businesses.

A 15 million dollar company that has several large state and federal contracts. We are currently positioning ourselves with growth strategies that will move our company in that direction.

VMSDC, MD/DCMBDC, Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce, True Value MRO Advisory Committee. I would recommend any networking group because business is all about developing key relationships.