About Us
Distinct Sales & Marketing was formed in 2014 to focus on representation to Dollar Tree in Chesapeake, Va. We have since expanded our customer base to other value retailers such as Ollies Bargain Outlet and 5 Below. When Family Dollar moved its headquarters in to the new Dollar Tree corporate offices, Distinct Sales combined efforts with CDZ Sales and moved into a larger showroom. This showroom is less than 1 mile from the Dollar Tree HQ offices.
The co-owner of Distinct, Bryan Bagwell, began his career with Dollar Tree when the company opened it’s first store and retired 27 years later as the Senior VP of Merchandising. 80% of the Distinct team members also began their careers as part of the Dollar Tree Merchandise department, and continue to drive business now as manufacturer representatives!
Our Distinct team.
Bryan Bagwell
Bryan Bagwell is co-owner of Distinct and oversees the everyday operation in addition to making HQ sales calls. Bryan began his career with Dollar Tree when the company opened its first store. He left as a senior VP of Merchandise 27 years later when the chain had grown to 2700 stores. He was very instrumental in the development of all categories at Dollar Tree from its very early stages of existence. Since he left in 2004, Bryan has been involved in global sourcing as well as starting his own rep agency.
Luanne Mccarty
Luanne began her career in retail at store level with Dollar Tree before moving to corporate HQ. She steadily progressed through the ranks, learning all facets of purchasing including imports. Luanne ultimately became the buyer of the HBC category at Dollar Tree. She excels in product development, strategic planning, forecasting and most importantly, developing unique solutions to difficult challenges. That trait has proven invaluable to vendors since Luanne left Dollar Tree several years ago to pursue a career as a manufacturer’s rep.
Jason Lowe
Jason joined Distinct in Jan 2015 as a Business Analyst. He has a AS in Business Administration, 6 Sigma Green Belt Certified, and has over 22 years with Cox Communications, most recently as the Manager, Cox Business Technical Operations / Customer Experience. In this role he has worked with many data bases systems, to include Oracle, Power BI, Tableau, and Excel. Jason is very experienced in advance data analytics and allows him to take complex data sets and make it easy for his users to understand.
Kay Bousman
Kay started her career at Dollar Tree Stores where she spent over 25 years in various roles from the warehouse to buying. Most of that time was in the merchandise area. She was one of the original buyers for the company from store number 1! She has experience in many categories such as HBC, Housewares, Party, Stationery and Seasonal. The last few years she has been on the sales side of the business working for many suppliers as a sales rep and assisting with product development from China.
Melissa Bradshaw
Melissa is the newest member of the Distinct team. She has spent the last 14 years at Dollar Tree as Manager of the Import Merchandise Administration. In this role she interacted with both buyers and suppliers regarding many aspects of the buying process. From the product, samples, packaging, PO’s, to testing and logistics.