A New Mindset

After graduating from George Washington University with a degree in international affairs, Valerie Androutsopoulos says she never imagined she would end up owning a document destruction and recycling company. But any plans she had devised for herself were quickly revised when she met future-husband Angelos while traveling in Greece on vacation.

After arriving in Baltimore, Valerie’s hometown, Angelos went to work for a local recycling company, while Valerie worked on their business plan. After six months, Valerie says Angelos came home to announce that he had quit the recycling company and was ready to start their own company the following Monday.

"We looked for some equipment, and Nov. 18, 1988, we were signing a lease and incorporating a business," she adds.

That was the beginning of Vangel Paper.

To be successful, Valerie says she determined the company needed to find an underserved segment of the market to target with Vangel’s office recycling services. She identified property managers. "I convinced them that it was to their benefit to offer recycling to tenants because it would help them reduce their disposal costs," she says. "I made six cold calls, and four of them became clients. That is what got us started."

Valerie adds, "I targeted the large companies because they had the critical mass. It took off from there."

In the mid-1990s, Vangel began offering shredding to its existing clients as a courtesy, she says, after buying a small shredder from a local company that had recently been purchased by Waste Management. Vangel also worked with container supplier SSI Schaefer to add a slot as well as a push-button lock to its collection containers to ensure the security of the documents within. "It never crossed our minds to charge for the service," she says of document destruction. "We always saw it as an adjunct to giving good service to our recycling customers."

In June of 1999, the company purchased an Ameri-Shred AMS5000 after learning that Kimberly-Clark would be able to accept incoming fiber with a small amount of softbound glue. Vangel began processing softbound books through its new shredder in addition to office paper it collected for destruction, mixing the fiber with paper collected from its office recycling accounts.

Valerie identifies 1998 as the turning point when she and Angelos began to realize the importance of document destruction to the future of Vangel Paper. It was shortly after the birth of their first child, Maria. Valerie had been working at home on customer summaries and noticed a sharp decline in the amount of paper coming in to the plant. Upon her first site visit after returning to the office from maternity leave, she says she saw security consoles throughout her client’s office.

Vangel Paper hired Jim Blanchard in May 2002 to concentrate on building the company’s shredding accounts. Blanchard worked in destruction sales for the company until February of 2007. After he left, Valerie began selling the destruction services as well as the office recycling programs.

Today, Vangel’s business is virtually an even split between recycling and secure destruction services, according to Valerie.

The company’s focus on shredding has positioned Vangel Paper to better weather the recession, as most of the growth it has experienced in the last two years has been in the form of shredding accounts, Valerie says. "We did not start a single recycling program in 2008 and we added only four in 2009," she adds.

Vangel Paper manages 22 routes, with only one of its four straight trucks dedicated to a fixed route, Valerie says.

The company also added on-site shredding in July of this year when it purchased an Axo Evo shred truck.

Valerie says Vangel Paper reluctantly got into mobile shredding at the insistence of an existing client. "Up until July of this year, we were able to maintain off-site shredding. We were selling on trust, confidence and longevity and we were able to hold our own," she says, adding that that there are at least 20 mobile destruction firms in the company’s 100-mile service area, which includes the Baltimore metro area, the Washington, D.C., suburbs, Maryland’s eastern shore and western Maryland.

Her reluctance to enter the mobile shredding market, she says, had to do primarily with the environmental impact of the service as well as her belief that off-site shredding offers a comparable level of security.

"I am still encouraging off-site service as the environmentally sound alternative," Valerie says of her discussions with potential clients. She adds that while off-site service offers a cost savings to her clients compared with on-site service, she has not tried to sell the service on price. "I tout the green side of it because that is where everyone is going."

She says this remains the case, despite the recession. "I haven’t seen people calling around for cheaper pricing. They are calling because they are not happy with their current service. New clients continue to go with the off-site service because of the environmental benefit. Green is still resonating."

Valerie adds that security should be the cornerstone of both on-site and off-site destruction services, as should customer service. "The most important thing is to instill trust and confidence in your clients so that they feel comfortable with your word and that you are going to do what you say you are going to do," she says. "You need to follow up with good service."

Valerie says she was successful initially in selling recycling services to potential clients because she was able to convey her passion and belief in recycling. "With shredding, in the beginning, I didn’t believe in it, I didn’t have the passion for it," she says. "That’s why I hired a sales person. I couldn’t sit across from a client and tell him what I had been doing wasn’t secure. Now, it doesn’t matter how I feel about it; this is the law. I am able to speak with conviction about what they need to do. I am able to approach it now like I did recycling. I work with them as a consultant who will solve their problems," Valerie adds. "I can help them do this in a secure way."

CONFRONTING CHALLENGES As with many businesses, the recession has left Vangel Paper unable to pursue growth because the company is short-staffed. "From an internal perspective, we are not able to put some of the marketing plans that I have in place because I am reluctant to hire that extra person that we need," Valerie says. "We are making do, but I don’t intend to do that for long."

While Vangel remains fully staffed in the plant and with drivers, Valerie says the administrative portion of the business has taken a hit. "I met with a Small Business Development Center adviser who suggested taking staff reductions in administration," she says. "That stayed with me to my detriment. I come in an hour earlier and stay an hour later."

Valerie adds, "I don’t want to hire a minimum-wage employee to answer the phone. I want to bring in someone who is a third leg to a three-legged stool, someone who can support me in the office and Angelos in the plant."

Once this person is in place, Valerie says she will be able to put her emphasis on educating existing and prospective clients about the company’s full range of services, which includes hard drive and electronics destruction.

"We need to make our accounts aware that we can handle all their media," she says. "I’m not sure that all of my clients know everything our company is capable of doing."

When considering the growth and evolution of Vangel Paper, she says, "I’m proud that we have been in business for 21 years. We have an excellent reputation and have diverted hundreds of thousands of tons from landfills."

Combining environmental sustainability with security has proven to be a key selling point for Vangel Paper and one that will likely help the company continue to grow. n

The author is editor of Secure Destruction Business and can be contacted at dtoto@gie.net.