Like sweet tea and college football, City Paper Company (asi/162267) is an institution in Alabama. When the company opened its doors in 1897, the city of Birmingham had existed for just over 25 years with a population of 66,277 “souls,” as it was listed in the directory.

Through four generations, the Friedman family has successfully evolved the business to meet the ever-changing demands of the marketplace. When Jacob Friedman bought the company from his brother-in-law Mannie Band in the 1920s, the shelves were stocked with school supplies, paper bags and toilet paper. As more shopping centers and strip malls popped up around the country in the ’50s and ’60s, Jacob’s son Paul capitalized on the trend of colorful and glamorous shopping bags, adding an art department to design custom packaging.

When Paul’s sons Paul Jr. and Mark joined the company in the ’70s, they opened Paper Works, a party goods store. Their sister Sandy ran the business with Mark’s wife Cathy. During City Paper’s centennial in 1997, Paul Jr. became the president and CEO while Mark became executive vice president.

(Above) City Paper’s employees feel like family, too. (Below) Brad Friedman and his wife Stephanie are the fourth-generation leaders of the company.

In the 2010s, the fourth generation of Friedmans took over City Paper: Mark’s son Brad is the current president and CEO, and his wife Stephanie is the vice president of sales and marketing. Sensing that shopping habits were changing in the digital age as more consumers bought online and fewer stepped into brick-and-mortar stores, the couple expanded the company’s focus to a growing industry: promotional products.

Pivoting the company like that could splinter a family business, especially with Paul Jr. and Mark still in leadership roles. “It was challenging at first to get them to commit to this because retail packaging was all they ever knew,” Brad says. “But they obviously understood that we couldn’t survive just selling to small and mid-size retailers. So, they took a leap of faith in our vision.”

Having served as director of branded merchandise marketing for former Top 40 distributor WorkflowOne, Stephanie sat in on C-suite conversations and learned how big businesses make corporate buying decisions. She brought that knowledge, as well as her vendor relationships and one sales rep, to help reposition City Paper. They revamped the company logo and website, built a rapport with local publications and nonprofits, and recruited high-caliber employees who could handle multiple tasks.

The strategy has paid off. From 2014 to 2019, City Paper Company’s overall revenue growth was 27%, averaging about 4-5% year-over-year. In particular, the company’s growth in the promotional products space has been over 550% since 2014. “On the promo side, what we used to do in a full year is now what we do in a month,” Stephanie says. “Our salespeople are amazing at going out and telling the story of who we are.”

Named one of Counselor’s Best Places to Work in 2019, it’s clear that the Friedmans treat their 31 employees like family. Over the past few years, the company has moved to a modern and inviting office space, instituted generous maternity- and paternity-leave policies, extended its vacation and PTO program and reassessed its health insurance package through ever-changing legislation.

Stephanie says their clients become adopted into the family, too. “Brad and I like to joke that when I worked at other companies, there was a lot of red tape,” she says. “Well, now my husband is the only red tape. We have the flexibility to do what we need for our customers when we need to do it as long as it benefits us as an organization. We’re honest and transparent; we hold each other accountable and own up to our mistakes. We’ve been successful because we go above and beyond for our clients.”