A recent experience between Royal Supply and Avery Products Corporation highlighted their incredible teamwork in a time crunch and opened the door for new, strategic opportunities together in the future.
Located in Elyria, OH, Royal Supply is helmed by Owner and President Don Chargin, who brought the distributorship into the group when he acquired the company in 2004. Royal Supply provides a range of industrial MROP supplies to support the success of companies and individuals in Ohio. They proclaim a mission to “keep industry competitive,” and live that out by offering high-quality and emerging products, impeccable customer service and technical support, and competitive pricing.
Avery, a NetPlus partner since 2016, is based in California with sales and support professionals across the country. Celebrating their 90th anniversary this year, they specialize in custom labels, cards, and tags. Their products are often used for the home or office, but their industrial-grade offerings have also proved invaluable for product labels, storerooms, warehouses, shipping, and more. With free, easy to access, and user-friendly templates, their tools, resources, and support set them apart.
Royal Supply and Avery have been partners for a couple decades, but their business together had fallen off somewhat until a recommitment to building up strategic business together this year. Don saw the value in offering Avery’s products to his customers and wanted to provide as many smart solutions as possible to the businesses his team supports. When a surprisingly large and time sensitive order came in through the Royal Supply website, Don knew he could trust his partners at Avery to turn it around.
It’s not every day you see a request for quotation (RFQ) come in for 950,000 labels in two weeks. But with the right teams and the right relationships in place, these two companies were able to meet the end user’s needs with superior service. “That’s got to be a typo,” Don initially thought.
“We thought so too!” agreed Michelle Smith, Sales Manager at Avery. She navigated this sale with Royal Supply alongside her colleague, Customer Service Representative Denise Hawkins.
A third-party logistics company needed asset management tags for a customer of theirs. When a massive equipment order came in with a tight turnaround, the logistics company included the tags as a condition of the sale to secure the business. After initially looking to buy Avery labels on Amazon at a lower cost, the company instead opted for a higher cost investment to obtain elevated service and ensure the speed necessary to get the deal done. They needed support from Royal Supply and Avery to create the tags accurately and deliver them on time.
Don immediately turned to Denise from Avery, and she brought in Michelle for additional support. Together, these teams pulled it off.
“It had to be supply chain perfect,” Don said. “They moved mountains for me and were very communicative throughout the whole process. It was a great display of partnership and working together.”
What secured the order for them, Don explained, was their response time. He was able to confidently tell the customer within two days of receiving the request online that Royal Supply and Avery could deliver.
Avery’s internal strategies made this possible in such a short timeline. They had approximately four weeks’ worth of inventory available in their warehouse, strong relationships with their raw materials suppliers, a streamlined manufacturing team, a top-notch distribution center crew, and excellent communication practices all already in place. Michelle made the necessary connections, Denise managed the internal coordination, and Don worked out the payment and timeline with the customer.
“That’s just what we do,” Michelle said, emphasizing Avery’s dedication to customer support. “Don’s just great, and I know Denise handles ordering and the everyday stuff just wonderfully. But when unusual situations like this come up, I’ll get involved. We do this for everybody. That’s just Avery.”
“It’s our job to go above and beyond for our customers,” Denise echoed. “Whether it’s a huge amount or not, which of course this was, we wanted to get right on it because their customer wanted it as soon as possible.”
Royal Supply has spotted an increase in labeling needs for manufacturing companies that follow various quality and standardization techniques. That had been one of the drivers behind their reignited relationship with Avery. They recently outfitted all 17 departments of another customer’s business with custom co-branded labels and QR codes.
Now, following this recent asset tag challenge, Don and his team is looking for opportunities to support their other customers with label solutions they’re not currently meeting. In addition to inquiring about sales opportunities, they’re working on educational and support resources for their customers to explain the advantage of having these tags from a supply chain perspective.
“We’re trying to do some more training ourselves on it, as well, because it’s always changing it seems like,” Don said. “We’re just scratching the surface of really understanding Avery’s full capabilities. They offer free software as well, which is really an advantage.”
It’s worth it to Don to encourage his team to become subject matter experts in this area so they can serve their customers and offer solutions they may not have even considered yet.
This success story from Avery and Royal Supply is a perfect example of strong partnerships empowering teams to make significant deals in the short-term and finding strategic avenues for growth in the long-term. Examine your own partnerships and open conversations to discover untapped opportunities that can support your continued success in 2026.