By: Deborah Johnson Wood
In 2007, Holland-based Rutherford & Associates logged a third consecutive year of 100 percent revenue growth and added six jobs. This year, the company hopes to add another nine high-tech positions by April.
The underlying reason for the company’s growth is its proprietary eoStar software, which has attracted a number of new clients, including Texas-based Andrews Distributing, a beer distributor whose sales volumes places it in the number eight slot nationwide.
The eoStar software platform, introduced five years ago, supports the wholesale packaged food and beverage industry by integrating every aspect of the business: sales, inventory, management of delivery fleets, and operations—and does it all wirelessly.
“Sales managers can stop in a restaurant and talk with the owner, input the sale on any handheld device like a smart phone or tablet computer, wirelessly submit the order, and the order is fulfilled for delivery typically the next day,” says Jovo Filips, vice president of sales and marketing.
“The software now handles $1.5 billion of consumer packaged products,” he adds. “Our growth has been tremendous and we’re still growing.”
Rutherford increased its staff 50 percent between 2006 and 2008, and now has 20 employees. Filips says they’ve begun to fill the nine new jobs, but are still looking for the right people.
“These are really good high-tech jobs,” he notes. “We need software developers who are highly specialized, technicians who are very familiar with technology, customer services people who will help our clients with the technology and sales people. Our sales people are being strained right now because of the interest that’s been generated; a lot of companies are interested in our software products.”
Source: Jovo Filips, Rutherford & Associates; Amber K. LaCroix, Airfoil Public Relations
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.