PPB November 2018

you know something is wrong, then fight for what’s right.” Challenges And Opportunities Now that the trial is finally over, Eyal looks forward to concentrating on ETS full time. “To be honest, this is the first time that I’m back and focused full-time on ETS in a while,” he says. “In 2017, I was saddled with the S’well lawsuit and in 2016 I focused mostly on the launch of our facility in Concord. Next year should be an exciting year. For us, that will mean new processes and products. We really feel good about where we’re heading, and our best years are ahead of us.” Where is the growth in the promotional drinkware category currently? “Right now, vacuum hydration drinkware is a very hot category,” Eyal says. “What I’ve seen in the past five to 10 years is the end user isn’t looking for cheap products to hand out. They’re looking to get higher-end products that their customers will use. That’s why this segment of the drinkware category is so popular right now.” Eyal believes compliance is one of the biggest issues in the promotional products industry today. “I think a lot of distributors and suppliers are not focusing enough on product safety and compliance,” he says. “They’re more concerned with price. To be more concerned with cost versus product safety is a little odd to me. That may come back to haunt us someday as an industry. Because as soon as something goes wrong, it can kill a whole category.” He also thinks the industry could change its perspective, so that what are initially viewed as challenges can be turned into opportunities. “As an industry, I think we’re afraid of change,” Eyal says. “The technology is changing, Amazon is coming into our industry and so on. I look at Amazon as an opportunity. It could make all of us better. We can learn from them. Hopefully we can do business with them. I always try to look for how we can turn a situation into a positive and gain from it.” Brittany Glenn is a Plano, Texas-based writer and a former associate editor of PPB. “To bemore concernedwith cost versus product safety is a little odd tome. That may come back to haunt us someday as an industry.” —SharonEyal Sha r on Eya l www.TheDistributorExchange.com • 844-251-8544 (toll free) All inquiries are strictly confidential. Do you want to sell your distributorship? We can help you sell your distributorship quickly and easily. “This type of business transaction was completely foreign to me so it was invaluable to have The Distributor Exchange take us through the process step by step. They went above and beyond in all regards. I couldn’t be happier with their efforts to make this a win win for all parties involved.” – Cindy Gibbs - Big Fish Branding 80 | NOVEMBER 2018 | THINK