Connection to community keeps company in Moraine for four decades

The head of Allied Shipping & Packaging Supplies in Moraine has a abundance of advice on how to successfully run a business.

“Always tell the truth and believe in yourself,” said Shelly Heller, ASAP’s president. “Stay true to your core values. It may sound cliché but the ‘customer is always right.’ Be sure to take time to get to know your customers personally and stay connected. Trust your employees to do their job to the best of their abilities by creating a culture that allows them to grow.”

Heller’s advice is backed by decades of experience.

ASAP, a woman-owned, family business, recently celebrated 40 years since its founding by Heller’s father, James Robinson. It specializes in supplying packaging to minimize damage ratios while supporting the aerospace, automotive, distribution, electronics, human tissue and blood, medical devices and retail industries by utilizing packaging design innovation.

“We offer our clients a long-term strategic partnership in design, product warehousing and vendor-managed inventory,” she said.

ASAP started in its current building at 3681 Vance Road, just off Dryden Road in Moraine in a small office area in 1982, then was on Washington Street for about 10 years before moving back to Vance Road in 2005 because it needed the space for its inventory, Heller said.

Certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract program, ASAP has been designing custom solutions for “hard-to-package” manufactured items since its start.

Heller started her career with ASAP in sales in 2000, working her way up to district sales manager before becoming president in 2008, the company said. She has a marketing and public relations background, having spent 11 years with a public relations firm in Chicago, as well as manufacturing and sales experience, ASAP said.

The company, which employs 13 people, runs two trucks daily and services an area stretching from Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, up through Greater Dayton and north to Columbus and the Sidney area.

It’s conveniently located near I-675 and I-75 and also offers dropship capabilities nationwide.

“We’ve had many of the same customers since my father founded the company and many more 20-plus years, due to our veteran knowledgeable employees, our service. You always get a live person,” Heller said. “Our close relationships with our manufactures enables us to turn custom box and foam orders in a few days instead of a few weeks in most cases.”

ASAP stayed in Moraine instead of looking elsewhere because of its connection to the community, Heller said.

“We firmly believe in the mission of the Moraine Police Department, National Night Out, Christmas Smiles (and the) Moraine business community and my chief operating officer, Beth Radford, has donated time, supplies and been involved in these organizations and events through the years,” she said.

Heller said she is proud of ASAP’s “one-of-a-kind” culture that has kept its turnover rate “extremely low, almost non-existent.”

She said she’s “very grateful” about the company reaching the 40-year mark.

“It’s truly amazing and a very big deal to us to have been able to do what we love to help our customers grow and play a small part of their success stories, as well as our own, by providing the one-of-a-kind service we believe in,” Heller said.

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