1. Give us a brief history of your company.

Rope, Soap ‘N Dope first opened in 1997 when owner, Ken Snodgrass, transformed a retired Coca Cola beverage truck into an oilfield supply shop on wheels, keeping his inventory of products at his home in Maurice, LA. Demand for supplies became so high that Ken had to expand into a warehouse located at Industrial Pkwy in Lafayette and eventually to the current location and third expansion on Petroleum Pkwy in Broussard. 

2. What would you tell the rest of Acadiana makes you special?

What makes Rope, Soap ‘N Dope special is that we are a local, family-owned business with a national reach. We are regularly interacting with customers about our products and services in Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and much more. We took our business from driving reach to shipping reach and continue to get discovered by more and more businesses each year.

3. What are you most proud of?

We are most proud of our growth over the past few years. With our increase in reach, from local driving distance to national shipping of products, came and increase in online sales. We have expanded from phone and door-to-door sales to online sales, which currently consist of about 65% of our orders. We’ve also had a massive product expansion recently. With the help of our over 100 vendors, we expanded from 3,500 products to over 65,000 products and counting. We have access to their full warehouse inventory on our website.

4. Where do you see your business in 10 years? What are your plans for the future? 

In 10 years, we would like to expand our online sales and sell to more industries. In the short term, we would like to increase our online sales from 65% to 85% within the next one to two years. We also see ourselves working with a lot more industries, which our latest product expansion set us up to do. We can fully provide products to oil and gas companies, but now we can provide office supplies, medical supplies, more cleaning supplies, pet supplies, home furnishings, and more. We now have something for everyone, regardless of the industry. So, in 10 years we see ourselves accomplishing and setting many goals because of our mission to acquire a dominant stance in our market.

5. 1A is “Focused on Forward” – meaning we are taking an active role of improving the community we live in. Our members are Focused on Forward, too! - What does Focused on Forward mean to you? How is your company Focused on Forward?

We could not be where we are without our community. Rope, Soap ‘N Dope gives back by donating to charities, such as Acadiana Animal Rescue, St. Jude, Wounded Warrior, American Lung Association, Children’s Organ Transplant Association and our owner, Ken Snodgrass, is a board member of Amana Christian Fellowship. We also make it a priority to support local businesses. We invest in the technologies the keep industries moving forward to build local, national, and global economy.