Ronald

1983: Sal Longo and his brother Ronald found a home-based business selling first-aid kits and safety gear out of a van to local factories and municipalities in Frankfort, N.Y. 1985: The company adopts the name Northern Safety and enters the direct mail industry with an 8.5-inch-by-11-inch mailer with two gloves on one side. Armed with 1,000 names from the McCray’s Industrial Directory, Northern Safety sends the mailer in a No. 10 envelope and sees a 2.5 percent response rate. Later that year, the mailer turns into a 24-page catalog. Sales increase threefold over the previous year, and the company moves into a

By Matt Griffin&000;&000; &000;&000; Unique prospecting methods, employee empowerment and a key acquisition have fueled Northern Safety's speedy growth In just a year, safety and industrial supplies cataloger Northern Safety has acquired a competitor, added an outside sales force, nearly doubled its staff and opened the doors of a new distribution center. In the process, the company has increased its annual sales by more than 70 percent. Sal Longo, president of the Frankfort, N.Y.-based business-to-business (B-to-B) catalog, says this growth is the result of aggressive prospecting, strategic partnerships and empowering employees to get the job done on their own terms. Not that growth