Gold Crest Distributing, LLC, “The Backyard Nature Specialists,” stocks more than 5,000 items from more than 170 vendors. The initial purpose of the business is helping families enjoy nature together.

Mel and Bev Toellner, owners, created the “home town” business 10 ½ years ago and the business has been in its current location at 1600 Bassford Drive in Mexico for three years.

The majority of items are related to the needs of the 1,900 retail stores the business services, who look to Gold Crest for backyard nature items. While birdfeeders, houses, baths, books, accessories, etc., make up a large number of all of these items, Gold Crest also stocks many gift items including puzzles, games, wind chimes, coffee mugs, decorative pillows, etc., which are also big sellers for the company.

“We are very fortunate in that we grew over 15 percent in 2005, despite the fact that most of our vendors’ sales were flat to down (10-20 percent). We feel our commitment to service with the help of our great employees is the number one reason we’ve continued to grow,” Mel Toellner said.

In 2005, Toellner said the staff kept a promise to ship all orders received by 1 p.m. the same day. In fact, he said, nearly all orders received by 4 p.m. went out the same day.

“This was only possible due to the commitment of all of our employees,” Toellner said. “Our customers also list our ever increasing broad range of products and 99 percent fill rate on orders as the other key reasons they do business with us,” he added.

Toellner said that in 2005, more of Gold Crest’s retail stores added Web sites and the company experienced growth helping those stores ship the orders via the Internet.

In addition, the Gold Crest Distributing Web site has been substantially enhanced and a large group of customers currently place orders at www.goldcrestdistributing.com.

Accounts that sell gift lines and other lines – like pet – saw success and ordered more total product in 2005. This trend drove Gold Crest to continue to expand the gift and pet lines. Gift lines added include mailbox wraps and yard signs from Magnet Works, weather stations from Accurite, new stained glass twisters and planters, magnetic bookmarks, made in the USA custom door mats, several lines of cutting boards, recipe boxes, stationery products, etc. In the pet line, the business has expanded from offering dog and cat toys to stocking every heated pet bed and bowl sold in the U.S., dog strollers, dog car seats, bandannas, agility kits, life vests, weather guards and much, much more. “We see pet and gift industries as big areas of growth in 2006, as a way to develop sales for us and the dealers we serve,” Toellner said.

To maintain profitability and to meet needs not currently addressed by Gold Crest’s vendors’ offerings, the company has continued to slowly expand its own Songbird Essentials line of products. In 2005, the company brought to market several window hangers, squirrel products, and feeders the customers requested but were no longer available on the market.

“We try very hard to source items domestically and we’re very pleased to work with local central Missouri companies including Continental Bag, Perry Tool and Die, and Tool Tech, to manufacture these. We’re also proud to utilize the services of the Handi-Shop in Mexico to do sub-assembly and packaging work for us. We’re very happy with the work that the Handi-Shop does for us,” Toellner said.

“To be competitive, we have to source products from abroad and direct-import from several sources in China, India, Turkey and elsewhere. Our challenge is in finding folks to develop long-term ‘trust’ relationships with us,” he said.

Several more fulfillment and call centers accounts were added in 2005 and are nearly at potential in this area.

“We have decided not to pursue any local accounts in the fulfillment market in central Missouri, as others, including Miller Warehousing here in Mexico, do a great job of serving that market. All our present contracts and future projects involve companies from the east or west coast, utilizing our services. Our central U.S. location saves these clients outbound freight and allows for three-day service to the entire country,” Toellner said.

There are 24 full-time and 18 part-time employees. Department heads are: Jeff Watson, operations and purchasing manager; Jerry Knipfel, Warehouse Manager; Vivian Diener, 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; and Sandy Steffan, fulfillment manager.