ASB Completes Refinancing After Struggles
Following almost two years of business-threatening infrastructure problems and subsequent unprofitability, Counselor Top 40 distributor American Solutions for Business (ASB) (asi/120075) has announced the completion of private refinancing efforts and newly-pledged banking support. The $3 million refinancing was driven by investments from sales associates, personnel and community supporters and has been joined by a credit extension from Wells Fargo into 2013. "We had converted to an ERP system, Oracle PeopleSoft, and it presented a significant challenge to our team," Larry Zavadil, CEO of ASB, said in an exclusive interview with Counselor yesterday. "We had spent our excess capital and maxed out credit. It was drastic. Instead of paying vendors in 15 to 20 days, we were paying them in 40 to 60 to 75 days."

Zavadil said his company's new system created "havoc for everybody" and even led to longtime supporters "losing faith and running for the hills" at the height of the struggles. "Looking on paper, there was no hope," Zavadil admitted. "If we hadn't fixed operational issues by November or December of last year, we would have probably taken a different course. We never considered bankruptcy, but we would have had to think of something."

The conversion problems at ASB, according to Zavadil, started in August 2008 when the Oracle system first went live to selected departments. Instead of easily sharing data in real-time like an ERP system should, integration efforts at ASB failed, creating an efficiency meltdown. "It would take 30 clicks to enter an order instead of five clicks," Zavadil says. "We never changed our commission model, but we had to lay off people and cut a lot of expenses. We finally brought in consultants and experts in PeopleSoft and started cleaning up the problems. Now we're getting healthy and have funding."

Custom HBC Evaluates Private Equity Options
Custom HBC (asi/47934) announced this week that it is exploring private equity investment options to help the company grow. The supplier announced it has partnered with The Transition Companies (TTC) in response to interest from private equity groups. According to a press release, Custom HBC "is primarily interested in a capital infusion to help it continue to grow at 20%-30% per year, but could also use the funds for acquisitions and to develop new products and processes."

The Minnesota-based supplier expects about $10 million to $12 million in revenue this year, and is looking to complete a private equity deal by year's end or early in 2011. "Private equity firms and other strategic investors will be interested in capitalizing on the business model that propelled our growth while other companies declined," said President and CEO Larry Wilhelm.

Headquartered in Dallas, TTC advises privately-held companies on transition strategies as well as mergers and acquisitions. "The decision to engage TTC makes perfect sense for a private company like Custom HBC," said Gene Sartin, CEO and president of TTC. "TTC's extensive M&A experience will empower Custom HBC to broaden its resources and further strengthen its position in the promotional products sector with its health and beauty products specialization."

Newton Manufacturing Reports Security Breach
Counselor Top 40 distributor Newton Manufacturing Company (asi/283300) has had its databases breached at least three times by hackers since the fall of 2008, according to a letter sent to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office. The attacks were found during a security audit at Newton, prompting the Iowa-based company to begin an investigation and then refer the matter to the FBI.

According to the letter, which was sent by a law firm representing Newton, data breaches occurred in September and October of 2008 and February of 2009. Newton’s initial investigation traced the attacks to Canada, where alleged hackers were able to access the personal information, including names, addresses and Social Security numbers, of a number of Newton customers. The letter was sent to officials in New Hampshire after it was determined that at least one resident of the state was a victim of the breach.

The breach of Newton’s systems is the third major attack on an industry company in the last year. Last August, Gateway CDI (asi/202515) suffered a significant breach, leading its client Mozilla Firefox to temporarily shut down its online store which sold promotional items like T-shirts, mugs and mousepads. In November of 2009, hackers overloaded servers at Leed’s (asi/66887), disabling the supplier’s main website for several days. 

The Joe Show: Smart Products For Smart Promotions
In this episode of The Joe Show, Counselor Managing Editor Joe Haley shows off some products perfect for the savviest clients. Have clients looking for the latest smart items to surprise their promotional recipients? Check out these items. 

Click here to see this smart-products edition of The Joe Show.

Want more videos? Subscribe now to our YouTube videos .

Encore Group Renamed After Sale
Giftware supplier Russ Berrie US Gift Inc., d/b/a The Encore Group (asi/52475), announced that it has sold its ad specialty division based in Winston-Salem, NC, to a privately-held group. While no financial terms of the deal were released, the transaction will result in the company now being named Xpres, which was the original name of the company in the ad specialty market in 1990. Jan Reid, who has been with the selling firm for 28 years, will now take over Xpres as CEO, and all employees associated with the ad specialty business in Winston Salem, NC, will remain with the new entity.

"This sale will allow Xpres to focus on the needs of its distributors more fully," Reid said in a statement. "By keeping the employee infrastructure in place, we expect this transition to be seamless to our clients. We are extremely excited to expand our product offering as well as printing techniques we need to grow our presence in this market."

Tuesday Morning Radio Show Live On The Air
Every Tuesday morning from 10:30 a.m. eastern time to 11:00 a.m., a team of ASI editors debate the most important topics facing the industry. We also, of course, offer our own off-beat look at the market. This morning, we discussed the comeback of incentive travel programs and debated who should be keynote speakers for the 2011 ASI Shows.  

If you missed the show, a recording is now available at www.asicentral.com/radio. And, don't forget to join us for our next broadcast on Tuesday, May 25. Log on to www.asicentral.com/radio at 10:30 a.m. ET to listen to the radio show, and give us a call at 215-953-4979 to hear your voice on the air.

Jetline Hires Honig As President
South Carolina-based supplier Jetline (asi/63344) has named former software executive Michael Honig its new president, effective immediately. Eric Levin, Jetline’s founder, will continue as CEO, focusing on operations and production, while Honig will concentrate on sales and marketing. “I’ve known Eric for a very long time and I’ve been involved in his business as more of a consultant,” says Honig. “The last couple of years I’ve dabbled in some private equity ventures and now I felt the time was right for this move. I’m excited about our vision and I want to execute it.”

Prior to joining Jetline, Honig worked at software company Intuit, most recently as director of business development and strategy, managing sales and marketing teams. Honig will be based at Jetline’s Mt. Vernon, NY, office, with a staff of about 15 other employees. “I’ve always been impressed with Jetline’s customer service,” Honig says. “That’s how we’re going to grow. We’re going to serve our customers and listen to them, and at the same time offer them new and innovative products.”

While Honig admits Jetline’s recent transition from New York to Gaffney, SC, was challenging, he believes the move will be “overwhelmingly positive” for the company in the long term. “We had a goal of moving our infrastructure with little disruption and I think we’ve done a pretty good job,” Honig says. “We’ve doubled the size of our facility, increased capacity and brought in top managers. Our sales were up 20% in 2009 and we outpaced the industry. Sales are continuing to trend higher now and we’re going to keep pace with industry growth this year.” 

Get On Counselor's Hot List
Are you doing something unique, hip, fun or trendy in the industry right now? Do you know somebody who is? 

Counselor is looking for nominations of people for its third annual Hot List, which will be published in August – our Hot Issue. We're on the lookout for anyone in the industry who is taking an interesting approach to business, shaking up the status quo or simply networking like a maniac at all hours of the night. We're in search of those people who are making the industry a unique marketplace that's fun and energetic. 

Send an e-mail to Karen Akers at kakers@asicentral.com explaining in 50 words or less why your nomination should be recognized on Counselor's Hot List in August. And, please make sure to include a picture of the person you're nominating.

Nominate Your Company For The Best Places To Work Contest
For the third year in a row, Counselor is setting out to identify the industry companies that employees simply love to work for. These are the distributors and suppliers that have a loyal work force and that provide a work environment which employees want to go to every morning.

Counselor will be unveiling its second-annual Best Places To Work issue in September, and it will undoubtedly include an elite list of industry companies. Do you want your company to be considered? Getting involved is easy – and it's completely free to participate. The only necessary qualification is that a company has at least 10 employees. To nominate your company, or any others in the market that you think deserve to be recognized, simply click here. Also, there's no risk to participating. Only the honorees – those companies with the best scores from the survey – will be published in Counselor.

So, don't delay. Click here to register your company to be considered for one of the most exclusive lists in the ad specialty market: Counselor's Best Places To Work.

In The News
Animal Fair (asi/36235) has announced that top executives from its parent company, Princess Soft Toys, recently met with Congressional leaders to discuss safety and compliance issues in the toy industry.

iPROMOTEu (asi/232119) has announced that 19 distributors affiliated with the company in April, representing an estimated annual sales volume of nearly $6 million. Among the new affiliates are: Sherry Alexis, Fixed Impressions, Portland, OR; Manuel Almendarez, Almen Group Corporation, Burkburnett, TX; Michael Anderson, Provision Promotional Apparel, La Verne, CA; Allan Bienenstock, Allan Bienenstock Co. LLC, Flushing-Queens, NY; Mark Carey, Sac City Enterprises, LLC, Sacramento, CA; Bill Council, Image Solutions, Matthews, NC; Simeon Cross, Biltmore Marketing, Asheville, NC; Linda Fleisher, The Deb Kay Promotional Advertising Company, Harrisburg, PA; Mark Goldstein, Goldmark Enterprises, Inc., Florissant, MO; Dan Hedrick, 3rd Eye Promotional Products, Cheyenne, WY; Margaret Higgins, Get Promoted LLC, St. Charles, MO; Jeff Jones, Jeff Jones Co., Sioux Falls, SD; Pam Lacey, Royal T's LLC, Doylestown, PA; Ronna Rosenblatt, Promote It! Nationwide Sales, Newburyport, MA; Tom Struhm, The Recognition Group, Inc., Fair Oaks, CA. In addition, Cynthia Dienelt of CME Advertising, Inc. in Fort Wayne, IN, affiliated in March.

Premier Promotional Group has awarded $1,000 scholarships to Dustin Baellow, whose parents own distributor Bright Ideas (asi/146026) in Troy, VA, and to Jacob Lampen, whose father works for supplier Howard Miller Company (asi/61943) in Zeeland, MI.

The Allen Company (asi/34330) has announced that Dhu Dazey, customer service manager, is the 2010 recipient of the Tri-State Promotional Products Association Scholarship.

The Vernon Company (asi/351700) is offering two free race weekends (June 19-21 and July 29-31) at the Iowa Speedway to distributors who are interested in attending a race event in conjunction with visiting the company's corporate office in Newton, IA. For information, go to: http://vsales.vernoncompany.com/fast-track.

UPS, an ASI affiliate, has partnered with P&T Express to establish UPS Vietnam as a joint stock company. Per the deal, UPS will extend its express pickup and delivery service to 63 provinces in Vietnam and offer later pickup and cut-off times, growing its intra-Asian capabilities.

World Emblem International (asi/98264) has been honored with the Dale Carnegie Training Leadership Award, recognizing excellence in innovation and organizational creativity.

People On The Move
Ad-A-Day Co. Inc (asi/31040) has added Helene Doherty to its customer service staff. 

HotLine Products (asi/61960) has announced that Bob Teese, vice president of sales and marketing, will retire effective May 31.

Points of Light (asi/78825) has hired Michael Kogutt to serve as vice president of sales.