Extex was founded in 1985. Extex can help kids to walk taller, bounce higher, and get wetter while playing. Extex, Inc. makes athletic equipment and outdoor toys for children. Products include anti-gravity boots, balls, inflatable bouncers, stilts, water guns, and zip lines. In addition to its own brand-name items, Extex features toys from such makers as Plasmart, Radica, and Radio Flyer. Extex, Inc. sells products through its website and ships across the continental US from its distribution center in California.

Big 5 Sporting Goods has outgrown its name. The company, which started out with five army surplus shops in California in 1955, is a leading sporting goods retailer with about 385 stores in a dozen mostly Western states, including California, Washington, and Arizona. The company sells brand-name (adidas, Coleman, Easton) and private-label equipment, apparel, and footwear for indoor and outdoor activities such as camping, hunting, fishing, tennis, golf, and snowboarding. Big 5 has stuck with a neighborhood-store format (averaging approximately 11,000 square feet) instead of opening massive superstores. Big 5 Sporting Goods is run by its chairman and CEO Steven Miller, the son of company co-founder Robert Miller.

Founded in 1956 by Harry Ritchie, today the regional jewelry chain is run by the third generation of the Ritchie family, including CEO Donald Ritchie. Despite the sound of its name, you don't have to be Mr. or Ms. "Money Bags" to shop at Harry Ritchie's. Harry Ritchie Jewelers offers discounted diamond and gemstone jewelry and specializes in men's and women's wedding sets at about 30 stores in shopping malls throughout the northwestern US (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and northern California). Harry Ritchie also features its jewelry collections in a monthly catalog distributed to its customers and sells its rings and things online.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions HK was founded in 2003. You've got business problems, Konica Minolta has, well, business solutions. Konica Minolta Business Solutions (HK) Ltd., a subsidiary of office machine powerhouse Konica Minolta, sells business customers digital and laser printers, multi-function printer/fax/copier/scanners, and electronic document management systems. The parent company is exiting its camera and film business though Konica Minolta Business Solutions HK does still offer some of these items. Konica Minolta Business Solutions (HK) Ltd. also sells printing and networking software and offers technical support. Launched in late 2008, its Digital Solutions Square (DSS) is a high-tech showroom for the company's newer and more innovative products.

Spicers is nothing to sneeze at -- the company is a leading office products and equipment wholesaler in the UK and France, where most of its 20-plus distribution centers are located; it also holds strong market positions in Ireland, France, and the Benelux countries, and is developing its business in Germany, Italy, and Spain. The company's 18,000 products, which are sold to office products dealers via its numerous catalogs and Web site, include office equipment, furniture, and janitorial supplies sold under major manufacturers' brands as well as its own brand, 5 Star. Spicers accounts for about one-third of the revenues of its packaging and paper parent company, DS Smith.

The firm was founded in 1991 by Graham and Ursula Hodson and is jointly owned by the Hodsons and managing director Colin Hills, who has run the business since 1997. Fresh Bouquets knows how to grow its business. The floral firm grows, sources, and distributes 100,000 bunches of flowers a week to service stations and convenience stores across the UK under the Flowerfete label. Fresh Bouquets grows its own flowers in company-owned nurseries and supplements those with selected imported flowers from Israel, South Africa, Spain, and Turkey. Through its FDL e-commerce division, Fresh Bouquets has diversified beyond flowers to offer higher-margin items such as sunglasses, umbrellas, corkscrews, and other gadgets.

Ellett Brothers is a middleman for mountain men and other outdoor enthusiasts. The wholesaler supplies over 60,000 products for hunting, shooting, camping, archery, and marine sports to small sporting goods retailers. Sales efforts include telemarketing and catalogs used by its retail customers; it also offers catalogs customized with retailers' names. Ellett Brothers buys products from some 800 manufacturers and suppliers and distributes them to more than 20,000 customers throughout the US. Ellett Brothers was founded in 1933 as a fishing supply business by Chilton Ellett Sr.

Business is "floor"ishing at CCA Global Partners. Formerly named Carpet Co-op, the company operates more than a dozen independent businesses and more than 2,700 locations in North America and abroad. Its largest units are flooring retailers Carpet One, with more than 1,000 locations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US, and Flooring America, with about 550 stores in the US and Canada. CCA Global's other specialty retail operations include The Bike Cooperative, with some 300 memeber stores, and lighting products seller Lighting One. In addition to its retail lines, the company provides mortgage banking and business services. Chairman Howard Brodsky and Alan Greenberg founded the co-op in 1984.

Aristocrat Motors operates a Kansas City showroom complete with parts and service departments. Online, customers can search inventory, look up Blue Book values, request price quotes and test drives, and apply for credit. Aristocrat Motors is owned by Detroit-based holding company Soave Enterprises.To find out what an aristocrat would drive, just visit the dealership! The company sells and services new and used vehicles from such refined brands as Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Saab. It also carries vehicles from mini-car maker smart

Uline is a bubble-wrap popper's dream come true. Its sales catalog features more than 20,000 packaging and shipping supplies (such as bubble wrap, corrugated boxes, envelopes, tape), janitorial products (brooms, cleaning supplies, trash cans), and other items (bags, merchandise tags, pricing devices). The company also markets products through its website. Uline operates distribution centers in California, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Texas. International locations include facilities in Canada and Mexico. Started in 1980 in the founder's basement, the company is owned and operated by the Uihlein family. Uline relocated its headquarters to Wisconsin in 2010.

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