Creative Office Interiors was founded in 1986. The artists at Creative Office Interiors use office furniture, cubicles, and filing cabinets as their medium. The company, commonly known as Creative Office Pavilion (COP), is a furniture and flooring dealer servicing the New England area from about 10 offices in five states. It offers a large line of desks, walls, seating options, and floor coverings from Herman Miller, Falcon, La-Z-Boy, and Armstrong, among others. COP also provides furniture reconditioning, interior design services, delivery, and installation. Visitors to the company's Web site can use its online tools to estimate a project's time and budget requirements.

Aaron Brothers has its hand in custom-framing and crafting. Aaron Brothers, Inc. opened its first shop in Los Angeles in 1946; today it operates some 150 stores in about 10 states. Its stores are located mostly in Texas and in the western US, but also reach to Georgia and Virginia. Aaron Brothers stores offer ready-made frames and mattes, art supplies, and custom framing services. A subsidiary of big brother hobby-retailer Michaels Stores, Aaron Brothers stores average about 5,600 sq. ft. and offer its customers some 7,100 products. Parent company Michaels Stores was taken private in 2006 by a pair of private equity firms (Bain Capital Partners and The Blackstone Group).

This company has a singular mission to distribute paper to North America. Unisource Worldwide is a leading distributor of paper products and other supplies, providing commercial printing and business imaging paper and specialty paper products through about 85 distribution centers. Its offerings include ink jet and laser paper, Xerox paper, and toner cartridges, in addition to coated and uncoated commercial printing paper. Unisource also distributes packaging supplies (corrugated papers, foam and bubble sheeting), packaging systems (pallet systems, shrink packaging systems), and cleaning supplies and equipment. Unisource Worldwide, Inc. is 60% owned by Bain Capital; paper manufacturer Georgia-Pacific owns about 40%.

Founded as Galpin Ford in 1946, Galpin Motors is owned and run by the Boeckmann family.Galpin Motors will do just about anything to get you to buy a car, even jolt you with joe at the full-service Starbucks shops attached to its luxury car dealerships. Claiming to have sold the first Saturn and ranking as the top Ford dealer in the world, it also sells Aston Martin, Jaguar, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury, and Volvo models, as well as used cars, from four dealerships and a Web site. It also rents and customizes -- or "Galpinizes" -- vehicles, such as the Tailgate Party Truck with a built-in stainless steel barbecue, blender, DVD/TV combo, and refrigerated beer kegs.

The Forzani Group in 1974. Forzani has since become Canada's largest sporting goods retailer. The company operates more than 330 company-owned stores under such banners as Athletes World, Coast Mountain Sports, Sport Chek, S3, Sport Mart, and National Sports. The company also franchises about 230 stores under names that include Atmosphere, Econosports, Hockey Experts, Intersport, and Sports Experts. It has about a 20% share of the sporting goods retail market in Canada.

Lookers sells the kind of cars that get noticed. The company operates through about 100 franchised auto dealerships in the UK. It also does business as the Charles Hurst Group in England and Northern Ireland and as Taggarts in Scotland. The company sells new and used vehicles from such brands as Aston Martin, Bentley, Citroën, Honda, Jeep, Toyota, and Volkswagen. Lookers also sells motorcycles from two dealerships. In addition to its franchise operations, the company's business lines include aftermarket auto parts (FPS Distribution) and used car supermarkets (Bristol Trade Centre and Ian Shipton Cars). Lookers was founded in 1908. Millionaire car trader Tony Bramall holds about a 20% stake in the company.

John Hine Mazda is a founding member of the California Sales Training Academy, a private training program that has become an associates degree program at a local community college. The company was established in 1957. Prior to the discontinuation of the Pontiac brand, the dealership sold Dodge and Pontiac vehicles in addition to Mazdas.John Hine Mazda (formerly John Hine Pontiac) sells new and used Mazda brand vehicles to customers in the San Diego area. The dealership also offers parts, service, and collision repair through its John Hine Auto Body Center. Visitors to its Web site can check new and used inventory, get a quote on a vehicle, schedule service, order parts, and apply for financing.

Noevir Holding of America operates Noevir USA and Noevir Canada, which distribute personal care products, such as cosmetics and skin care, formulated from natural ingredients. It also sells products for hair care, body care, and nutrition such as herbal teas and spirulina. Brand names include Noevir 505 and Noevir 99, which are sold by the company's independent sales consultants as well as in stores and online. Noevir's products are developed at about a dozen research centers in Japan and the US. The firm is a subsidiary of Japan's Noevir Co. Ltd., which imported aircraft parts when it was first founded in 1964. Noevir began operating in the US in 1979.

Lakeshore Equipment Company aims to make learning fun. Through about 50 Lakeshore Learning Stores in two dozen states, Lakeshore Equipment company sells educational toys and classroom tools, including art supplies, games, learning kits, textbooks, and teacher resource packets. It also offers products that address multicultural learning environments and special needs children, as well as in-store teacher workshops. In addition to its store network, Lakeshore Equipment markets learning materials via its two mail-order catalogs and website. Ethelyn Kaplan founded Lakeshore Equipment company in 1954. Today it is run by her son Michael (chairman) and grandsons Bo (president and CEO) and Josh (VP of Merchandising).

The Birthdays concept was later launched in 1986. Clinton Cards purchased its rival Birthdays in 2004 and runs the unit as a separate business. Amid economic turmoil and slowed consumer spending, however, Birthdays collapsed into administration (the equivalent of bankruptcy in the US) in 2009. You say it's your birthday? Well, your friends better run to a Birthdays store for those cards! The company operates about 200 (down from more than 400) Birthdays stores in the UK and Ireland offering discount greeting cards and party supplies for every occasion. Founded in 1966 as Ron Wood Greeting Cards, the company was originally a distributor of cards and gift wrap until the mid-1970s when it opened three card shops.

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