PPB June 2020

Paul Gittemeier CEO Tic Toc Dallas, Texas How have your sales and business been affected by the pandemic? We’ve had a few clients go dark such as those with multiple retail and hospitality locations, but we have health-care and technology clients that are knocking it out of the ballpark. Our company is comprised of two divisions—one is branded merchandise and apparel, the other is performance marketing (reward and recognition programs and sales promotion programs). Although sales are down slightly in promotional products, the performance marketing side of the company is doing well. Something I learned a long time ago: the fruit we are eating today is from bushes we planted a year or two ago. We haven’t had any layoffs, furloughs or compensation reductions and we are busily planting bushes now that will feed us over the next six, 12 or 18 months. This planting gets pushed aside under normal circumstances, but the bushes look like relationship development, vendor appreciation, new product and promotion concepts, thank-you notes, industry research, etc. When do you foresee your sales returning to pre-lockdown levels? It’s hard to say but hopefully we won’t see much of a tail-off when things open back up. It’s only been six or seven weeks since we have been “working normally,” so hopefully we’re not going to be shut down long enough to see much of an effect in Q3 and Q4. What shape of recovery do you think this will be—U, V, W, some combination or other—and why? I think it will be an escalator (in the up direction!). A lot of it is in our control because it’s a factor of how hard and smart we are working. It’s refreshing to see the way our employees have adapted to working from home and this is what fuels my optimism. What actions are you taking now to restart your business? We’ve been staying in touch with clients via calls and emails, but a lot of the restart will come from inside our four walls. Although we’ve been socially distancing, we’ve been socializing distantly. We’ve been doing a lot of internal Tic Toc activities using the Slack messaging app and we have one or two fun things a week with our company such as Tic Toc Spirit Week, a Mask-eraders sales contest and, in observance of Cinco de Mayo, a Quarantino de Mayo Zoom happy hour featuring margarita kits and special t-shirts sent to our employees’ homes. In general terms, what are your revenue expectations for year- end? I’m optimistic because hopefully we are looking at only an eight- to 10-week window of irregular sales activity and it will have minimal impact on the next six to 12 months. Audrey Devenport President Trademarks Promotional Products Houston, Texas How have your sales and business been affected by the pandemic? Sales have dropped to about 25 percent of what we expected. When do you foresee your sales returning to pre-lockdown levels? I don’t see this recovering until fall and that depends if schools, colleges and sports open up again. What shape of recovery do you think this will be—U, V, W, some combination or other—and why? I think it will be a partial recovery. What actions are you taking now to restart your business? We received a Paycheck Protection program loan, which has helped a great deal. We are setting dates for mini open houses and have brought two new account executives aboard. In general terms, what are your revenue expectations for year-end? $5 to $6 million as opposed to $10 million last year. We received a Paycheck Protection program loan, which has helped a great deal. FEATURE | A Snapshot Of Distributor Activity 56 | JUNE 2020 |