Diverse Customer Base Helps Drive Douglas Companies’ Growth

By choosing Conway, Douglas Companies Inc. is able to go to a lot of new places.

In 2005, the wholesale convenience store supplier consolidated its distribution operation in Conway, combining facilities previously located in Texarkana — where the company began — and Jonesboro.

Susan Douglas Munson is COO and co-owner of the family business, along with her brother Steve, president and CEO. She said that for the company to execute as it wanted, and to employ new technology, a central location like Conway was ideal.

“We needed one, state-of-the-art facility to do that,” she said, “and Conway was the logical choice because, first of all, it’s very centrally located and we just had such a great workforce here to pull from. We go 24 hours a day and it was really, basically, the workforce and the location. We just really like Conway.”

The warehouse expansion and consolidation positioned Douglas Companies to continue to fill the needs, other than beer, of convenience stores around the nation and to diversify its clientele and push into new markets. Demographics have changed since company founder Bob Douglas opened the business in 1973, and Douglas Munson said that has been a plus in the young century.

“Approximately 40 percent of our customer base, convenience stores, are owned and/or operated by a diverse group of 21st Century immigrants from South Korea, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan and other non-European countries,” Douglas Munson said. “These individuals have migrated to the U.S. over the last 15 or so years and are operating many convenience stores, hotels and restaurants. Many are American citizens, are excellent business owners, and are active in their local communities.”

Many of these minority-owned businesses are in urban population centers and are often the only stores in their neighborhoods. While convenience stores comprise the bulk of Douglas Companies’ clients, the company also supplies grocery items to small markets and bodegas. 

“They are very good operators,” Douglas Munson said. “They are very family oriented people. And really their stores, it’s a family business. … Not only their immediate family but their extended family is involved. They work at it 24/7. They work really hard to be good business citizens in the community.”

There wasn’t necessarily a push to enter these new markets, Douglas Munson said. It was simply a response to the natural flow of business.

MINORITY BUSINESS PANELISTS

Susan Douglas-Munson
Co-owner, Douglas Companies Inc.

Drew Gainor
Managing Director, Northwestern Mutual

Lee Harris
Owner, Harris Plastering & Construction

“The market came to them,” she said. 

With annual revenues approaching $230 million, Douglas Companies has been a step ahead since Bob Douglas went into business at the dawn of America’s convenience store boom.

Rather than drive from location to location, selling from trucks, Douglas Companies pre-sold orders for next-day delivery, enabling a greater variety of goods and products sold.

Acquisitions of various wholesalers, including Conway’s Eagle Candy Tobacco and Paper on Front Street, followed. The 2005 consolidation and relocation followed Bob Douglas’ sudden death in 2003, and whether it’s a diverse customer base or technology, the company still is exploring new ground.

An ancillary kiosk business, Pinnacle Refreshments, is underway, and last year Douglas Companies completed a 60,000-SF warehouse expansion that includes a new freezer and training room with a kitchen for training customers.

Third generation family members are coming to work at the company, and thanks to its diverse clientele and Conway location, business should continue to thrive.

“If we want to stay in the business, grow the business and invest in the business, Conway is where we need to do it,” Douglas Munson said. 

See more about Conway’s economic growth at Outlook Conway.