Bryan Croft is president and CEO of Jacksonville-based Holmes Custom, a product personalization company founded in 1954 that he bought from his parents in 2009. He pushed it into e-commerce sales and expanded through acquisitions into Austin and Massachusetts. Formerly known as Holmes Stamp & Sign, the company is based at 2021 St. Augustine Road, just off Philips Highway.
I refer to it as the 64-year-old startup company. The core of the company is rubber stamps and name badges. That’s what Mr. Holmes and my father started many, many moons ago. We evolved the company into manufacturing personalized products. The average order is about $35, and we process about 1,500 a day.
When I started in 1999, I was employee No. 11 and we had just about $1 million in sales. I’m confident we’re going to end 2018 with a little over 100 employees and right around $13 million in revenue.
I remember when I started here in 1999 and one of the employees said, “Oh, you’re just the kid with the silver spoon in your mouth. Your mom and dad are giving you this company.” I was offended but when I went home that night, I’m like, “Oh man, what if they’re right?” That one statement was meant as a joke, but it has really driven me to take the opportunity that I had and make it something special.
Today I focus on growing the company revenue and our culture. Life is hard, there is no way around that, so I want to make sure that we have a fun work environment. We want to grow a business, but let’s have fun doing it and grab a beer after work or volunteer in our community. Once a year we’ll take a group #Holmies – our team members – and spend a week in Haiti to help out. I don’t have a checklist on what you do to make a great culture. I think it’s a lot of little things. I am proud of what we have today and I work every day to protect and cultivate it.
I’m a Jacksonville native and attended Christ the King Catholic School, Bishop Kenny High School and the University of North Florida. My wife, Amy, and I have a 15-year-old daughter, a 12-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son.
I’m involved in the Atlantic Beach Country Club. My grandparents helped start that place in the 1950s as the Selva Marina Country Club. I got married there in 2000. I live in Neptune Beach, but Atlantic Beach is close enough I ride my bike there all the time. When we went through the project rebrand and redevelopment to Atlantic Beach Country Club, I was a big part of that. It’s a source of pride.
If I didn’t live at the beach I’d probably live in San Marco. We’re positioned geographically so that San Marco is naturally going to grow where we’re sitting. I want to help that. We recently bought 3 acres across the street so that we could potentially build there to grow our business. The property used to be a rundown hotel, which are magnets for crime. It’s one of my proudest days, bulldozing that building.
Ten or so businesses in this corridor rebranded it as San Marco East. There’s momentum. I’m not a commercial developer. I’m an e-commerce guy, but I’ll do anything I can to help keep pushing that forward. Ultimately that’s my dream and my vision.