Group O, headquartered in

Milan, Illinois Milan ( ) is a village in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,099 at the 2010 census. The village is located near the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa. History The village is on the Rock River in northwest Illinois ...

, is one of the largest

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

- owned companies in the U.S. and a provider of managed products and services.

History

Group O was founded in

in 1974 by Robert Ontiveros. Bob's initial business, Bi-State Packaging, was started to sell packaging materials and equipment to manufacturers. During the 1970s Bi-State Packaging experienced sales growth, requiring the opening of several warehouses throughout the United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico – making Group O an international business. In 1979, Group O opened R&O Specialties to provide

supply chain In commerce, a supply chain is a network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate goods and then final products to customers through a distribution system. It refers to the network of organizations, people, acti ...

solutions to industrial and consumer products companies. R&O Specialties brought a focus on

process management Process management may refer to: * Business process management ** Business Process Management Journal ** Dynamic business process management ** International Conference on Business Process Management ** Social business process management * Manag ...

and a Six Sigma culture to Group O that permeates the entire company to this day. In 1990, Group O identified additional opportunities for growth in the area of

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

support services and created Group O Direct. This venture took Group O into customer loyalty and marketing fulfillment programs which required Group O to develop competencies in the areas of:

data management Data management comprises all disciplines related to handling data as a valuable resource. Concept The concept of data management arose in the 1980s as technology moved from sequential processing (first punched cards, then magnetic tape) to r ...

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

, direct mail, promotional campaign management and

business process outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

. In 2007, those three separate companies merged under Group O to become the three divisions – Packaging Solutions, Supply Chain Solutions and Marketing Solutions – that make up Group O. In 2008, Group O began offering print procurement and premium managed services to its clients. In 2013, Group O began to promote its Business Analytics offerings as a fourth vertical, aligned closely with its Marketing Solutions division. In 2012, CEO Gregg Ontiveros was recognized by the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as the HBE Hispanic Businessman of the Year. In 2013, Chairman Robert Ontiveros was presented with the Order of Lincoln Award, recognized as the state of Illinois' highest honor. In 2013, Group O presented the first of five Hispanic MBA scholarships to a student attending

Notre Dame University The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campus ...

, partnering with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Group O has over 1,500 employees across 34 U.S. facilities and is recognized as one of the largest Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S.

Products and Services

The company is specialized in marketing services, print management, business analytics,

decision sciences Decision theory (or the theory of choice; not to be confused with choice theory) is a branch of applied probability theory concerned with the theory of making decisions based on assigning probabilities to various factors and assigning numerical ...

, managed services,

packaging Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a co ...

supply chain management In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) is the management of the flow of goods and services including all processes that transform raw materials into final products between businesses and locations. This can include the movement and stor ...

and

third-party logistics Third-party logistics (abbreviated as 3PL, or TPL) in logistics and supply chain management is an organization's use of third-party businesses to outsource elements of its distribution, warehousing, and fulfillment services. Third-party logistic ...

. The company targets a broad range of industries, including: food and beverage,

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

consumer packaged goods Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), also known as consumer packaged goods (CPG), are products that are sold quickly and at a relatively low cost. Examples include non-durable household goods such as packaged foods, beverages, toiletries, cand ...

financial services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

Clients

The company's major clients include

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

, Bristol-Myers Squibb,

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

, Frito-Lay, Kraft Foods,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

, and Staples.

Company

Management

Current CEO is Kevin Kotecki. Robert Ontiveros is the founder and chairman of the company. Bob Marriott was named CFO.

Awards and Facts

*15th Largest Hispanic Owned Business, by revenue, in the United States *2011 National Minority Supplier of the Year (Greater than $50M US revenue) - National Minority Supplier Development CouncilNMSDC Honors Group O with 2009 Regional Supplier of the Year Award
Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus, November 9, 2009 *25 Largest Employers in the Quad City Region (14th)Quad Cities First survey of Human Resources and Personnel Departments
May 13, 2008 *3rd Largest Company, by employees, headquartered in the Quad City Region

References

External links

* {{Illinois Corporations Business services companies established in 1974 Milan, Illinois Companies based in Rock Island County, Illinois Companies based in the Quad Cities Packaging companies of the United States Logistics companies of the United States Business process outsourcing companies of the United States 1974 establishments in Illinois Transportation companies based in Illinois