Wednesday, April 3, 2002

Party City turns 10

Party City of Atlanta, Inc. celebrated its 10th anniversary as the popular "discount party superstore."

The privately held Atlanta based company opened its first store in February 1992 in Sandy Springs and has rapidly grown to 22 stores including Fayetteville and other major markets in Georgia.

According to company President, Dick LoPresti, "Our success has far exceeded our initial expectations. We have been blown away by the tremendous support received from people throughout Georgia as we attempt to help them celebrate the special events in their lives. In 2001 alone, we served over 5 million customers throughout the state."

As a way of saying "Thank You" to their customers, the company celebrated this milestone anniversary by offering refreshments at each of their stores in addition to discount coupons and custom designed anniversary balloons.

The company also distributed specially designed anniversary logo T-shirts to their 600 employees.

One of the things that LoPresti and his partner, Frank Buonanotte, are most proud of over the last 10 years is the conscious development of a positive, people-oriented culture at Party City of Atlanta. As a result of this culture, Party City has had extremely low employee turnover.

"Some of our original employees from our first store are still with us."

LoPresti credits the growth and success of the company to great customer service and unmatched product selection.

"We have great people working for Party City and they are really excited about how much fun it is to help people celebrate. Our business truly has been built by taking excellent care of our customers," said LoPresti.

The superstore carries more than 30,000 paper goods and party supply items, including balloons, decorations, wedding and shower supplies, and invitations at deep discount prices. The company prides itself in being a one-stop shop for party supplies for any occasion, including birthday parties, anniversaries, picnics, and holiday celebrations of any kind.

In addition, the company carries over 400 children's and adult costume styles for Halloween and year round, as well as a large selection of wigs, masks, make-up and Halloween decorations.

"Halloween is our busiest season of the year. Last year, we served over one million customers in October."

"As we continue our expansion throughout Georgia and beyond state lines, our founding principle of nurturing and empowering employees will continue to be our primary focus. Well-trained employees who know that the company cares about them pass that feeling on to our customers and the result is magical," said LoPresti.

The company has been recognized by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in Atlanta, and has now grown to over 600 employees.

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