A Chat With Dennis Garvey, chief operating officer, U.S. Cavalry

© Profile of Success, Catalog Success magazine, February 2007

Interview by Matt Griffin

Catalog Success: When was the catalog established?

Dennis Garvey: The catalog was first established very early on in the company, about 34 years ago, back In 1973. The company started in retail and relatively quickly started a catalog business, which really was one of the first in this industry, the military and law enforcement equipment industry.

CS: Where are your headquarters?

DG: Radcliff, Kentucky. Right outside of Fort Knox.

CS: What is your primary merchandise?

DG: It’s primarily been military gear, but we’ve expanded into law enforcement gear over the past few years. We always had a law enforcement following because of tactical teams, such as SWAT because they’re equipment is much more like the military. But we’ve expanded into much more broad-based law enforcement offerings as well.

CS: What are your primary customer demographics?

DG: Military and law enforcement, and we get a lot of customers who are outdoor enthusiasts who use a lot of our equipment for non-official pursuits as well.

CS: When did you join the company?

DG: About three years ago. And you may not know this, but U.S. Cavalry has been around for a while, but in 2000/2001, the company had gotten into difficulties and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A new ownership group came in March of 2003, and I came on shortly thereafter.

CS: Had you any experience in cataloging when you joined the company?

DG: I did not. I came from a distributor, and I had a lot of experience there, but none of it was with catalogs. So that was a learning experience for me. We had some folks here who had been doing it for a while.

CS: What was your biggest challenge in the first few years with U.S. Cavalry?