About Quill
How Jack Miller and his Brothers Led Quill Corporation to Great Success
Only in a free-market economy : a one-man startup – equipped solely with a wholesaler’s catalog and a phone line based at a live poultry store – could grow to become an office-supplies giant with $630 million in annual sales.
It didn’t happen overnight. It took 43 years of unrelenting focus and hard work and Jack Miller was the central character as the story unfolded.
The roots of Quill Corporation were planted in June 1956 on the north side of Chicago when Jack borrowed $2,000 from his father-in-law to pursue a dream of building a business that could provide a decent living for his family. However, year by year, the dream expanded through hard work, commitment, integrity, reinvestment in the business and a passion for fanatical customer service.
Without a business plan, Jack began knocking on doors – armed with a wholesale office-supply catalog and a simple discount structure. After one month, Quill Office Products had $35 in profit on $960 in sales – a modest start.
A penny postal card mailing led to bigger and bigger mailings that within a few years led Quill into becoming a mail order operation. That change powered the company’s growth trajectory from being just a local dealer into a nationwide powerhouse in the sale and distribution of office products.
Jack’s brother, Harvey, joined the company a year and a half after it started and his brother Arnold joined them 20 years later. Together they formed a formidable management team, with Jack in charge of marketing and advertising, Harvey overseeing operations and Arnold, a CPA, handling finances, accounting, credit and personnel. The brothers moved the company from its humble start in a chicken store to various facilities in the Chicago area – and regional distribution centers across the nation – as the number of employees, products and mailings continued to grow.
However, during the 1980s, office-product discount superstores emerged to challenge Quill and its smaller competitors – primarily local dealers. Quill, which for decades had driven its growth as a discounter, was forced to cut deeper into operational and marketing costs so they could slash prices even further to compete with the superstores, which they did very effectively. Despite those reductions spurred by competitive threats, the company’s firm resolve to focus on meeting customer needs never wavered – and paved the way for better service, and greater profits, than ever.
After 43 years, Jack and his brothers sold Quill Corporation to Staples, America’s pre-eminent office-products retailer. Quill remains a highly profitable business unit for Staples to this day.