Our Story: 1954 → 2026

In 1954, Owen Holmes started making rubber stamps out of his Jacksonville home. He had no storefront, no catalog, and no way to reach a customer beyond the ones who knocked on his door.

Seventy two years later, that same company ships personalized products across the country from a single Jacksonville facility, employs more than 100 people, and operates nine brands. What has not changed is how the work gets made. We do not warehouse generic inventory and relabel it. Almost every order that leaves our building was produced after a customer placed it, on our own equipment, by people who live in the communities we ship from.

We are still family owned. We are still headquartered in Jacksonville. And we still measure ourselves the way Owen Holmes did: by whether the thing in the box is right.

Bob Croft joined the company in 1975 as a delivery driver. A year later, Owen Holmes Jr. joined the business, and together they helped move Holmes Stamp Company out of the family home and into its first storefront in Jacksonville’s San Marco neighborhood, giving the growing business its first real front door.

In 1985, Bob and Owen Jr. purchased the company from founder Owen Holmes Sr., officially passing the business to its next generation of leadership. In 1998, Bob bought out Owen Jr.’s interest and became the sole owner of Holmes Stamp Company. What started around a kitchen table was becoming a growing Jacksonville business, with an even bigger chapter still ahead.

Bryan Croft grew up around the family business. In 1998, fresh out of the University of North Florida, he joined Holmes Stamp Company, not as an owner or executive, but in production, learning the business from the ground up and doing the same hands on work that had built the company for decades.

At the time, Holmes Stamp had just 10 employees and approximately $800,000 in annual revenue. In many ways, it still looked a lot like the business Owen Holmes Sr. had started from his home 44 years earlier. But the internet was about to change everything, and Bryan saw an opportunity.

In 1999, Bryan made a bet that few in the industry were making at the time: selling custom rubber stamps online. The company launched HolmesStamp.com, but the first online order wouldn’t arrive until 2006. Bryan stuck with it, and by the mid 2000s, e-commerce was gaining traction. Holmes Stamp had grown to approximately 25 employees and $2.5 million in annual revenue.

Steve Fernandez joined the company in 2008, bringing operational leadership that helped prepare the business for its next stage. In 2009, Bryan Croft and Steve Fernandez purchased the company from Bob Croft, financing the purchase with a 15 year, owner financed note. Within weeks, they completed their first acquisition, Lakeland Rubber Stamp.

During the uncertainty of COVID 19 in 2020, Bob worked with Bryan and Steve to restructure the payment schedule. In August 2025, the note was paid in full, closing an important chapter in the Croft family business story and completing the transition that began 16 years earlier.