(Editor’s Note: PromoWire by PPAI Media is a running digest of updates from organizations around the promotional products industry. PPAI Media will consider newsworthy entries submitted by any member organization.)

October 16

Gemline Partners With Limerick Lane Cellars For Wine Gifting

Gemline (PPAI 113948, S11) has expanded its Gourmet Expressions food gift line by joining forces with Limerick Lane Cellars, a family-owned wine estate nestled in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County, California.

  • The addition underscores Gemline’s dedication to partnering with small, artisanal, high-quality food and beverage purveyors, and simplifying food gifting by providing one-stop-shopping.
  • Each gift set includes a branded item, like a cooler, wine tote or wine tumbler, a curated assortment of food and a Limerick Lane Cellars wine voucher with a unique code customers use to select a bottle from a curated collection of premium wines.
  • Because of the very stringent legal requirements to ship and bill wine, Gemline has incorporated the gift voucher option to ensure ease of execution for its distributor partners.

Midnite Snax Earns WBE Certification

Midnite Snax (PPAI 113793, S3) has been certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) through the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). The WBENC is the nation's leading third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women.

• Under the new leadership of CEO Lara Fraum, daughter of founder Jack Goldberg, Midnite Snax is a woman-owned enterprise committed to empowering women in the workplace and fostering an environment that promotes equality and opportunity.

“I am immensely proud to be a women-owned business,” says Fraum. “My journey has been one of determination, creativity and collaboration. In my early 20s, when my father opened Midnite Snax, I answered phones, entered orders, assembled products and packed boxes. I did whatever it took then, and I will do whatever it takes now to continue building on the legacy my father established, and take Midnite Snax to even greater heights.”

Orbus Sets Dates For Upcoming Training Sessions

Orbus Visual Communications (PPAI 428128, S7) has scheduled three upcoming sessions for its free, one-of-a-kind dealer training program, Orbus University. The dates are December 7, 2023; April 25, 2024; and June 6, 2024.

  • Orbus University is a comprehensive program that combines classroom style and hands-on learning to familiarize distributors with Orbus’ service offerings and expansive range of visual communication solutions. In the two-day program, distributors can expect to learn detailed selling tips, in-depth graphic capabilities, marketing tools and product assembly, and receive an extensive tour of the Woodridge, Illinois, headquarters.
  • Those interested can register here.
     

October 13

Ennis Acquires Eagle Graphics And Diamond Graphics

Ennis (PPAI 109056, D4) has acquired Eagle Graphics in Annville, Pennsylvania and Diamond Graphics in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

  • Since 1976, Eagle Graphics has specialized in fulfilling the commercial printing needs of its customers with capabilities such as eight-color UV web printing, digital printing, security printing, jumbo rolls, traditional forms and direct mail.
  • Diamond Graphics, founded in 1999, specializes in direct mail printing and has a combination of presses that allow for flexibility. Diamond is also known for its high-volume padding done for the non-profit industry.

“I want to welcome the employees and customers of Eagle Graphics and Diamond Graphics to the Ennis family,” says Keith Walters, chairman, president and CEO of Ennis, Inc. “Eagle and Diamond are well known brands that will grow our Pennsylvania presence along with National Imprint (NIC). These companies will strengthen our production capabilities to serve our large and growing customer base in the Northeast part of the country.”

ASB Continues As Promo Source For CoreTrust Member Organizations

American Solutions for Business (PPAI 101656, D12) has renewed its three-year purchasing agreement with CoreTrust, a leading group purchasing organization, to continue providing the group’s 3,000 member organizations with special promotional products pricing and terms pre-negotiated by CoreTrust and ASB.

  • ASB has been a CoreTrust-contracted supplier since 2014.
  • CoreTrust’s members include large corporations and private equity firms with multiple-enterprise portfolios from all of the major verticals including retail, manufacturing, hospitality and finance. It offers members access to more than 80 contract categories from its portfolio.

Facilisgroup Concludes Successful 2023 Partner Summit Series

Facilisgroup (PPAI 493664, A0) completed its 2023 Partner Summit series with a second event held September 26-29 in Denver, Colorado. It followed the July Partner Summit held in Boston, Massachusetts.

  • The Partner Summit brought together Facilisgroup distributor partners and preferred suppliers from across the industry for networking and valuable insights into industry trends and innovations. Attendees engaged through Facilisgroup’s exclusive workshop, Sized Solutions, designed to foster connections in smaller, more intimate groups through thoughtful discussions on business opportunities and challenges.
  • Keynote speaker Ellen Tucker, PPAI vice president of revenue and expositions, delivered the State of the Industry, imparting valuable insights, the most recent developments in promotional products news and a wealth of expertise to attendees.
  • Through the nonprofit organization Wish for Wheels, participants also assembled new bikes for children in the Denver area.

October 12

Charles River Apparel And Others Raise $7,500 For Tennessee Food Bank

Charles River Apparel (PPAI 111644, S10), along with Reciprocity Road and its partners, donated more than $7,500 to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. The money was raised at the recent Reciprocity Road Rally.

  • Reciprocity Road is a brand merchandising group serving more than 150 Fortune 500 companies. It includes 11 distributor partners; Charles River Apparel as one of the group’s preferred suppliers.
  • Charles River Apparel has given back to its local community for decades but wanted to do something different at this year’s Reciprocity Road Rally. The company pledged to donate $500 plus $20 for each $10 sample sold at the rally to the food bank. Reciprocity Road and its partners Robyn Promotions, Flywheel, C&S Sales, Quality Resource Group, Grapevine Designs and MadeToOrder matched the donations.

“When I let Perry Wehrle, executive director of Reciprocity Road, know that we would be doing a giveback program around our samples, Reciprocity Road immediately matched the $500,” says Sharon Steed, director of sales at Charles River Apparel. “Then, during one of the meetings early on, Cory Benton, president of Robyn Promotions, challenged other owners to match as well.”

With more than 200 samples sold, the combined effort raised more than $7,500 to help the hungry in Middle Tennessee.

Facilisgroup Unveils PromoIntro To Train New Hires

Facilisgroup (PPAI 493664, A0) is rolling out PromoIntro, the latest addition to its comprehensive educational suite, Amplifi, to the entire industry. Initially launched exclusively to Facilisgroup partners earlier this year, growing interest in PromoIntro has led to its broader availability.

  • PromoIntro is designed to provide foundational knowledge of the promotional products industry to new hires in any role, ensuring they are well-equipped to excel from Day One. From understanding pricing structures to breaking down decoration techniques, It covers essential and complex topics that are unique to the promo industry.
  • Led by industry veteran Alina Rubinshteyn, director of professional development at Facilisgroup, PromoIntro harnesses her extensive experience and expertise easing newcomers into the industry and making the onboarding process more accessible and less daunting.

New SAGE Tool Consolidates Suppliers’ Reviews, Saves Time

SAGE (PPAI 100001, A6) introduces a new AI-powered feature to give distributors a real-time summary of consolidated supplier reviews to save time and gain valuable insights at a glance.

  • Supplier review summaries can be accessed in both SAGE Online and SAGE Web, both of which are available to SAGE’s distributor customers with a Total Access subscription. All PPAI distributor members automatically receive a one-user license to SAGE Total Access as part of SAGE’s relationship with the Association.
  • The new tool is the latest in a series of AI-related rollouts. Earlier this year, SAGE introduced the Idea Wizard, a tool that helps distributors get ideas for specific client events, as well as a number of tools for writing custom content for presentations, project thank-you notes and websites.

“While many distributors enjoy the details provided by each specific review comment, we also know that it’s extremely helpful in many cases to get a general idea of what people are saying about a supplier,” says Dana Porter, MAS, SAGE’s vice president of information services. “In order to provide that capability, we leveraged the power of the latest AI technologies to help us create real-time summaries of all of our customers’ supplier reviews. The result is more time saved and more information available for our customers, and that’s exactly the type of thing we’re always hoping to provide.”