Succeeding Against All Odds
South Coast Paper thrives in competitive paper industry.
Statistics show that most startups don’t survive past the first five years. After 24 years, minority startup South Coast Paper is thriving, thanks to some nimble decision-making and assistance from the sales and supplier diversity team at ODP Business Solutions, an operating company of The ODP Corporation.
The road to prosperity, however, wasn’t easy, says Kenny Loyd, South Coast Paper’s president and co-founder, who compares their troubled beginnings to hospital care.
“In our first year, we were on life support. We had lost $1.7 million,” Loyd says. “In the second and third years, we were still in bad shape, but our condition was upgraded to intensive care. By year four, we were nursed back to health, and by the fifth year, we became profitable.”
Today, the paper conversion manufacturer is a $75 million enterprise headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina, with 45 employees and production facilities in Alabama, New Jersey, Arkansas and Mexico City, Mexico. Paper converting, he explains, is an automated process of cutting 2,000-lb rolls of paper into 8 1/2 by 11 sheets that is then packaged and distributed to office supply retailers and corporate users.
Loyd got the entrepreneurial bug while studying for his MBA at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. When South Coast Paper was formed in 2000, he brought his knowledge of supply chain management and purchasing while fellow co-founder and managing partner Paul Mitchell understood how to run a business. A third partner brought his knowledge of manufacturing processes, but later left the company to focus on other business interests.
“I believe the key to driving economic impact within local communities is to provide
opportunities to smaller and strategic vendors’ that can grow within their corporate strategy.”
– CARMEN DEALE, SENIOR PROGRAM MANAGER, ODP BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
Leroy Mack witnessed South Coast’s startup struggles from a distance while working at Boise and South Coast was a customer. He joined the company several years later as Vice President of Sales.
“We think of ourselves as solution providers and consultants. We ask customers what they need. If we understand their needs, they become our long-term customers,” Mack says.
“If it wasn’t for Leroy Mack, South Coast would have been in a pickle for not getting the right product to the right customers,” Loyd recalls.
The two men met Carmen Deale through a mutual acquaintance while she was interviewing for the Supplier Diversity Program Manager role at ODP Business Solutions. Now as Senior Program Manager, Deale looks for opportunities to work with qualified minority suppliers, such as South Coast Paper. She provides resources and direction whenever the company requests it.
“I believe the key to driving economic impact within local communities is to provide opportunities to smaller and strategic vendors that can grow within their corporate strategy,” Deale says.
Loyd compares Deale to a point guard in basketball. “She points us to the right people at ODP Business Solutions when we have a supply chain or marketing question. If we want to grow our paper or packaging segment, she knows who at her organization can help us with that.”
Being a small business has its advantages. With fewer management executives, Loyd and Mack both say, South Coast Paper can take advantage of opportunities and make decisions more quickly.
When Loyd noticed an industrywide decline in paper sales, he knew the company needed to make a change. By then, more people relied on technology for their communication needs. At the same time, more people were placing orders online for groceries and other necessities, a trend that accelerated during the pandemic. To respond to this trend, South Coast Paper launched a packaging division six years ago. Working with the same suppliers as the paper business, South Coast obtained corrugated materials that they turned into packaging and boxes, which they sell back to suppliers. The packaging business, Loyd says, went through the roof.
Loyd attributes the company’s success to the people who work at the company as well as the relationships they’ve built over the years with suppliers. He is most proud of the impact their company has had on the lives of the people on their team as well as those in the communities they serve.
“I don’t like to be pigeonholed as a minority company,” Loyd says. “We have fantastic people working for us and we produce great products. We stand by everything we do.”
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