John Gregory has over twenty years of business experience in strategic planning, operations, financial management and forecasting.  He brings a wealth of major corporate experience to bear on middle market companies and has developed a reputation for successfully assisting them to cost effectively reach critical mass and achieve their growth and financial objectives.  Mr. Gregory is a graduate of the University Of Illinois School Of Business with a major in marketing and a minor in finance.  He currently serves as a member of the New York University at Albany MBA Thesis Panel; with responsibility for evaluating the final theses of MBA candidates.  Mr. Gregory is a member of the Board of Directors of Chatham Plastic Ventures, Inc., a national plastics manufacturing company, and also currently writes a column “Mind Your Own Business” for The Business Review.

Mr. Gregory was recruited by HartMarx (NYSE), where he entered their executive training program; and, after several successful brand assignments, he was promoted to National Group Brand Manager.  In this position he was responsible for marketing and sales for the premier Hart, Schaffner and Marx brand; the market leader of all men’s wear.  Mr. Gregory has worked in numerous industries including medical technology, restaurant chains, healthcare, health foods, home entertainment, aircraft, bakery products, refractory, petroleum, franchising and commercial construction.

For a vascular imaging company, he developed an aggressive strategic plan with the major recommendation of refocusing their attention on generating long term, cost effective contracts with major medical facilities to address the need for healthcare cost containment.  As a result, the company increased their gross revenues over 300% and cash flow by 42% after the first year of implementation.  Mr. Gregory continues to serve this client as an advisor to the president.

For a leading refractory supplier for power plants and ovens to General Electric, Corning and St. Gobain, revenue was stagnating, market growth subsiding, and pricing was becoming very competitive.  Mr. Gregory restructured their business model to eliminate redundant human resources, streamline the inventory system and focus the company on faster service as their competitive advantage.  The result was substantial revenue growth within one year.  At that time, Mr. Gregory negotiated and secured bank financing for a new plant, equipment and a line of credit to address the needs of this revitalized company.

For a handmade, organic cookie manufacturer in Albany, New York, with a local store-door volume of 5,000 cases per week, Mr. Gregory was engaged to increase the sales volume beyond the metro area.  Cost analysis was completed to determine the impact on margins comparing store-door versus distributors at various volume levels.  Mr. Gregory recommended using food distributors for the local market development and penetrating New York City with larger distributors; a strategy that would sustain current margins when sales reached 30,000 cases.  To reduce labor costs, he also recommended moving away from handmade product and using automated equipment to fill the expected increase in volume.  The plan was executed as designed, and the company successfully penetrated the New York Metro Area, and began producing over 30,000 cases per week.

Mr. Gregory was retained by an investment group to determine if the acquisition of a region of Getty Oil convenience store franchises could prove manageable and profitable.  He determined that the franchises were located in two distinct demographic areas ranging from lower strata to upper income; each required a unique market development strategy as it related to their convenience store offerings, personnel and operations.  He developed a customer profile of each area including buying habits, product offerings, pricing strategy, personnel profiles and operational aspects to address each geographic area’s needs.  The acquisition was completed and the area plans were executed successfully as designed.