Surfing technology's wave

If a visitor to Laguna in Hackensack didn't know it before arriving at the 5-year-old computer fulfillment service's warehouse and office space, it wouldn't take long to figure out: this is a company founded by, and run by, a bunch of guys.

Heading up the stairs to 43-year-old CEO Joel Blank's office, a visitor is confronted with a large hand-painted mural at the landing. It depicts a curlyhaired surfer riding a wave. The face is too well-defined for the painting to be a generic beach bum and sure enough, Blank explains, the painting is of one of his co-founders, 52-year-old Dennis Levine.

Blank's office is dominated by framed sports memorabilia, from vintage promotional boxing posters to a framed autograph of baseball's Whitey Ford. "You like that?" he asks, when questioned about the Ford autograph. "Come in here, I'll show you something else." He leads a visitor into the company meeting room, which is practically wallpapered by framed and autographed jerseys, balls and photos. A sampling: Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Lawrence Taylor, John Elway.

If anything can match the three founders' zeal for interior decorating, it is their eagerness to grow their business. After starting the company in 1994 with an initial $75,000 investment, Blank, Levine and 40-year-old Darren Marino are anticipating sales in excess of $70 million in fiscal 1999.

Laguna has strong relationships with computer manufacturers, and serves as a fulfillment service for companies such as Compaq, Toshiba, Canon and NEC. A customer in the tristate area who orders a laptop from Compaq might have her order routed through Laguna. The order comes into the Hackensack warehouse, and is either delivered by a Laguna truck, or sent via UPS.

Jim Newins, a sales representative for Canon who works closely with Laguna, says that one of the company's assets is its relationship with companies like his. "They are wonderful partners, and they view the relationship as that--a partnership.

The three founders met at Torrance, California-based Epson in the 1980s and used relationships they had nurtured there to secure accounts with major manufacturers. Canon was first to express confidence in Laguna, extending a $100,000 line of credit.

The company learned early that fast turnaround of incoming orders would not only only be essential to success, but to their very survival as well.

"We went from having no seed money to being just fine--so long as we could turn inventory over fast enough," says Blank. Canon's trust inspired trust in other manufacturers, and Laguna was off to a running start: to the tune of $12 million in sales in its first year.

Growth was strong and steady until about 16 months ago, when it rocketed upward with the introduction of Internet fulfillment. The company had recently moved to an 11,000square foot space on Hobart Street in Hackensack and the owners found they were rapidly outgrowing it. Today, Blank sits at his desk and nods his head toward the jam-packed warehouse. "We're doubling our space, to 22,000-square feet. This volume is mainly coming from our Internet distribution business, which has really taken off."

If you go online and order a computer from Value America, Net Market, Ubid, Web Auction or Onsale, the order will be fulfilled by Laguna. The company also operates online "stores" for manufacturers like computer memory maker SanDisk.

Newins, of Canon, says that Laguna's willingness to embrace new technology has allowed the company "to take advantage of a lot of the new opportunities that are out there." It has also allowed Laguna to offer Canon specialized services that would be hard to find elsewhere.

Laguna keeps even the most hard-to-find goods in stock, and Blank brags that orders that are placed by 4 p.m. are shipped the same day. Speed of delivery being vital to customer satisfaction, Laguna has opened a distribution facility in Southern California as well, which Blank expects to be fully operational by mid-September. "This should allow us to get any product to anywhere in the U.S. by UPS two-day ground service," says Blank. "That means we'll be able to save our customers time and money."

Laguna is a rapidly growing company in a rapidly growing field, but growing up--at least completely--doesn't seem to be on the founders' personal agenda. On the way out the door, a visitor picks a golf ball up off the floor, afraid that someone might slip on it. "No, no no," says Blank, shaking his head with a grin. "That's our putting ball. We leave that there."