Pulled from June 2006 article of St. Louis Business Journal.
Peter Foley and John Lynch of Integrated Network Cable started their company with a single product line and a big assignment for $3 billion investment services firm Edward Jones.
"We started out in 1995 making cable harnesses for their voice, video and data communications," said Lynch, chief executive of Integrated, which makes and sells cabling and related products. "They had a new system rolling out across a lot of locations, and they needed a vendor to pull it all together. They were our first customer."
People at Edward Jones connected Lynch and Foley with other potential clients, and a thriving company took root. Integrated began doing business with customers such as BP Amoco and Wal-Mart, and became a Dell partner, supplying low-voltage cabling for sites across the nation. Now, Integrated has three business areas -- voice/video/data cabling; nationwide information technology installations; and a cabling-product e-commerce site, www.showmecables.com.
Foley said the company landed the Dell deal about a year and a half ago. Integrated now does about $700,000 in annual business with the $56 billion computer firm. Integrated also has handled the installation of thousands of routers at U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture offices across the country. For BP Amoco, Integrated tackled the urgent repointing of data satellites following a satellite-system meltdown.
Integrated has hooked up with locally based clients such as A.G. Edwards, Build-A-Bear Workshop and Panera Bread, and Edward Jones continues to be a good customer. "We did Build-A-Bear's wiring nationwide for their retail locations' computers," Lynch said. "It's amazing how much technology goes into one of their stores."
Integrated helped Panera roll out that company's Wi-Fi network in its bread and bakery stores. "Installing a Wi-Fi router isn't that big of a job until you're talking about doing it at 200 locations," Lynch said. To handle multi-state jobs of that kind, Integrated contracts with local installer and technician partners in various cities.
Last year, the company reached revenue of $4.6 million, and it's projecting $5.5 million to $6 million this year. "We've had growth of at least a million dollars a year over the last few years," Foley said. The company ranked No. 13 on the Business Journal's 2006 list of fastest-growing private companies. It competes with larger suppliers such as St. Louis-based Graybar and Glenview, Ill.-based Anixter Inc.
Integrated's online business packs and ships cabling supplies all over the planet. Customers such as the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army place orders online at showmecables.com, or by phone, and Integrated ships the products to them anywhere in the world. Local clients can pick up orders in person.
"Our sales staff asked us about three years ago to build the Web site," Foley said. "We had a lot of cabling, jacks and other products hanging around at our headquarters at the time. So we created the e-commerce site to sell them online."
Three years ago, 80 percent of Integrated's revenue came from 10 or 15 clients; now, with the e-commerce site, the company is pulling in thousands of new customers annually. Foley said Integrated brought in 13,000 new clients last year, and expects about 20,000 more this year. Now, the 10 or 15 clients account for 30 to 40 percent of Integrated's business, he said.
This client-base diversification makes Foley and Lynch feel confident about their future. "It has spread out the risk on our end. It does happen sometimes that a big customer suddenly gets bought or goes out of business," Foley said. "For ourselves and our employees, we have a more stable situation now. It can be hard when most of your revenue is in the hands of a few customers."
The company's growth will necessitate a move to larger quarters, but Lynch and Foley haven't decided where that will be yet.
The company has no managers in its company structure, according to Foley. "Everyone on our 15-person staff has their own responsibilities. There's no one standing over them, watching them work," he said. "We find they like that kind of environment."
Key executives: Peter Foley is president of Integrated, and John Lynch is chief executive. They own the business.
Service providers: Bill Criscione at Wright Criscione & Co. takes care of accounting needs for Integrated. Tad Eckenrode at Eckenrode Maupin is the company's attorney, Chris Costello of Commerce Bank helps with monetary matters, and Marc Arbesman of Throttlenet provides Web design services.
St. Louis Business Journal Original Article