PODCAST ALERT: Overture Promotions CEO Jo Gilley on No. 14 Top Distributors Finish, Sales Growth, Supply Chain and More

When my co-chief editor, Sean Norris, and I worked on our first Top Distributors Resource under the Print+Promo Marketing brand, we didn’t know what to expect. Sure, we dealt with the Great Recession of 2008, but that was the result of financial imbalances. The economic crisis of 2020 was from a totally external factor … a global pandemic. This was new territory for us.

Here is what we discovered. According to our data, the Top 75 Distributors totaled $6.79 billion in 2020 sales. Because this is PPM’s first joint list, it is not possible to make a direct comparison to last year’s list for this analysis. However, for a general barometer of industry health, Print+Promo’s 2020 Top 50 Distributors put forth $2.49 billion, and Promo Marketing’s 2020 Top 50 Distributors generated $6.18 billion.

Of the top 75 distributors who reported annual sales this year:

• 31 had revenue increases. Only three of those companies placed in the Top 10.
• 42 had revenue increases.
• Two finished evenly.

No. 14-ranked Overture Promotions was one of the 31 distributors that grew its sales (from $81.6 million to $126.9 million, to be exact). Naturally, we wanted to know how Overture accomplished this during a pandemic, so Sean, along with PPM’s senior digital content editor Brendan Menapace, invited CEO Jo Gilley as a guest on The Promo Marketing Podcast. In addition to chatting about her company’s financial success, Gilley told Sean and Brendan how Overture is navigating supply chain issues plaguing the industry and gave advice for other distributors looking to grow in a tough business climate.

As a bonus, I got to join the guys on this very special episode (their 50th!) to discuss the big takeaways, surprises and success stories from the 2021 Top Distributors list. It’s the perfect listening material for your Thanksgiving travels (and do stick around until the end for my hot takes on band T-shirt rules.).

Listen to the Promo Marketing Podcast Featuring Jo Gilley of Top Distributor Overture Promotions Here