Gilroy
– There are times when Georgia Trefts-Garfink surveys her
success – a burgeoning packaging distribution company bustling with
more than three dozen workers and a warehouse that could easily
swallow the biggest Safeway or Nob Hill store in Gilroy – and casts
an eye to the sky as if to say,
”
Well, we did it.
”
Gilroy – There are times when Georgia Trefts-Garfink surveys her success – a burgeoning packaging distribution company bustling with more than three dozen workers and a warehouse that could easily swallow the biggest Safeway or Nob Hill store in Gilroy – and casts an eye to the sky as if to say, “Well, we did it.”
After losing her husband, William Trefts Sr., to cancer in 1984, Trefts-Garfink was thrust into the role of running Container Consulting Services Inc., a housewife trained only in the tenacious work ethic expected of a woman raised on a small Montana farm in the 1940s.
Of course you will never hear her toot her own horn. CCS is a family owned and operated company, with Trefts-Garfink’s son, William Trefts Jr., serving as general manager, and Trefts-Garfink’s daughter, Julie Yetter, serving as sales manager.
The founding of the company could stand as a case study for any would-be entrepreneur. But the story of how this matriarchal businesswoman faced down adversity and guided CCS into the gazelle-like enterprise it is today has earned the company the title of Large Business of the Year by the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.
William Trefts Sr. was working at a company making corrugated boxes, Trefts-Garfink said. Trefts’ customers often asked him for additional packaging materials – everything from tape to polybags. Trefts’ boss wanted nothing to do with the peripheral products. As every successful entrepreneur has done, Trefts identified a need and filled it.
At first it was a two-man operation – Trefts and a partner, also from the box company. After a few years, the husband and wife team moved to Watsonville on some acreage and built a small warehouse. From there, the company has been nimble and has evolved and changed as the markets have, Trefts-Garfink said.
But tragedy struck in the early 1980s when Trefts was diagnosed with cancer. Trefts-Garfink “took care of the books” but that was as close to the operation she had been.
“I was a housewife for 20 years,” she said. But during Trefts’ illness she began going out on sales calls and learning from him the approach to business that would guide her for the next two decades.
“He was ill for a year-and-a-half,” she said. “But during that time I learned from him. He was always good with people, very service oriented. He would find out what the customers’ needs were and fulfill those needs. He’s always enjoyed what he did and he always believed he could learn something – from the shipping manager to the warehouse guys. You kind of pick up on those things.”
But moving from the role of mother and wife to the head of a rapidly growing company is daunting. It was in her late husband’s strength that Trefts-Garfink found solace.
“When my husband was ill, it was actually some of the best times in our married life,” Trefts-Garfink said. “He was so admirable. He always tried to make it easy on the doctors and nurses. He was very courageous, and after he died, I felt I had to do as well. Sometimes you wish he could be here to see, to share in all of this.”
“All of this” includes CCS being named the Large Business of the Year by the Gilroy Chamber, an award Trefts-Garfink will accept Saturday at the annual chamber dinner. Trefts-Garfink has been an active member of the chamber, as well as numerous civic organizations, said chamber Executive Director Susan Valenta.
“When I see a business being successful, but also making a personal commitment to the community in which they do business, it speaks volumes about the way the company invests – not just in the business, but in time and resources given to the community,” Valenta said.
What began as a side business in 1973 has mushroomed into a packaging distributor that serves all of Northern and Central California down to Bakersfield and even a few routes in Los Angeles.
More importantly, the company is seeing growth rates that would make any entrepreneur salivate: 30 percent year-over-year revenue growth since 2001. Julie Yetter, the company’s sales manager, laughs and adds that the company saw “a little dip” in 2000, the year the bottom fell out of the technology sector, which are among CCS’s biggest customers.
But the company is so well diversified now, it’s well-positioned to withstand industry-specific slumps. Among its customers are agriculture, processed food, industrial equipment, sheet metal, medical supplies, electronics, software, and even toys and games.”The company is very helpful, especially the mom,” said Linda Mendoza, a buyer for Hospira, a manufacturer of medicine-delivery systems with a plant in Morgan Hill. “We don’t have the room in our facility to keep the packaging materials for our IV (intravenous) pumps, and they are willing to deliver the material two to three times a day. And they are willing to help us realize cost savings.”
Yetter noted that the company has made some strategic acquisitions that provided for geographic expansion, additional accounts and a bevy of talented employees. Last year CCS acquired a Hayward company called Parachute Packaging that set CCS up with an East Bay presence and nine talented sales professionals, Yetter said. From there CCS has leap-frogged into Oakland and the Livermore area.
But rapid growth can be challenging to manage. Everything from managing credit lines to maintaining a sufficient workforce is stretched and always needed yesterday. For Trefts-Garfink, it’s simply a matter of fiscal discipline.
“My son is a lot like me, fiscally conservative. He works hard at keeping our credit in good shape, dealing with the banks, contracting for trucks, and exercising fiscal discipline,” she said.
Of course, there are upsides to a family run business.
“You get to see your children a lot,” Trefts-Garfink said.
