Members of the office staff at Gold Crest Distributing and Songbird Station are (from left) Kathy Crawford, Vicki McKinney, Gail Basket, JoDee Craddock, Vivian Diener, and Norma Germain.

The Mexico Ledger "Outlook 2005" edition, Feb. 26, 2005

The majority of the income at Gold Crest Distributing and Songbird Station comes from the sales of wild bird and other backyard nature related items. The warehouse and fulfillment division has also had a good year, warehousing and shipping orders for several nationwide as well as local companies. Warehouse and fulfillment is an area Mel and Bev Toellner, owners, hope to grow during 2005 as they have the space and people to handle additional clients.

Toellner states they have continued to expand their private label brands which includes products under the Songbird Essentials, Songbird Cedar, Songbird Shake Shingle, and Lone Star Purple Martin brands. They presently make nearly 100 private label branded products. During the past year they have utilized the services of the Handi-Shop, Inc., to help produce some of these products.

During the past year Gold Crest has been fortunate to experience more than a 25 percent increase in sales over 2003 numbers with the growth accelerating as the year progressed with December sales being up more than 38 percent.

Gold Crest will celebrate its 10th anniversary on July 1.

The business is built around serving the needs of more than 1,500 independent retail stores across the U.S. and Canada. Many of these stores specialize in the sales of backyard nature products and all of them are serious about the category. Toellner believes once again in 2004 the small retail stores in Mexico and Columbia have helped the company spot and address emerging trends and needs quickly. In 2004 Toellner found the accounts were in need of more "gift" type items and they responded by adding hundreds of new items including soy candles, stained glass wind chimes, sun catchers, nightlights, puzzles, games, garden flags, spinners and more.

Toellner believes continued success is due to two main things - the staff's 100 percent commitment to customer service and satisfaction and ongoing "listening" to customers' requests and the quick response to that important customer input.

Toellner was pleased that they lost very few employees during the past year and doubly pleased that because of business growth they were able to add several new faces to the team. Toellner tried in 2004 to show employees how important they are and how much he appreciates them by having several team events including a free bus trip with a rented suite at a Saint Louis Cardinals ballgame. Toellner plans to continue fun team activities as he continues to build and reward his team in 2005.

With the help of new sales managers, Steve and Regina Garr, in 2004 Gold Crest started in-house training meetings for the women in the call center and plans to continue and expand these well received events. Likewise the warehouse management team is in the process of putting together benchmark measurements and employee training programs. Shipping all orders same day with a 99 percent fill rate will continue to be critical to the success in the future as it has been in the past. Again Toellner feels very fortunate that every member of the team strives to do his/her best to maintain efficient output and always do what's best for the customers.

As they look toward 2005 they feel more growth is ahead, and January numbers show this with sales up sharply. However, like all businesses in today's environment, Gold Crest faces many competitors both domestic and abroad. They have continued to expand selections and now stock nearly 5,000 items with more than 150 vendors. Within the next 60 days they plan to expand this by 300-500 new items.

Toellner states they will need to continue their focus on customer service and employee development, as they know these have been and will be the keys to their success. During 2005 he hopes to have more seminars, sales, etc., at the Mexico retail location at 1600 Bassford and encourages local residents to stop by and discover what several recent visitors called "the best kept shopping experience" secret in central Missouri.

There are 24 full-time employees and 18 part-time; department heads: Jeff Watson, operations and purchasing manager; Steve Garr, director of sales; Regina Garr, sales and marketing manager; Jerry Knipfel, warehouse manager; Vivian Denier, accounts payable and receivable manager; Lisa Davis, Columbia retail store manager; Jason Terrell, shipping and receiving manager; Chrystal Talley, Web sales coordinator; Terry Brandow, Lone Star Purple Martin House project manager; Debbie Feger, Songbird Essentials project manager.