From the massive solar array at its distribution center to its sprawling downtown headquarters, 4imprint is a company like none other in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, but still manages to be as involved in the community as any hometown distributor. DISTRIBUTOR No. 1 4imprint The Empire Is Here To Help Promo’s dominant distributor is a competitor that small businesses have long feared, but its industry leadership also creates new hope for many companies. by Josh Ellis Now entering Oshkosh, population 66,816. Crossing the city limits, the drive is treelined and lazy, with views of beauty shops and picturesque old cemeteries. There’s a left turn just before the Fox River, in front of the brewery, which gives way to a quiet downtown built close to the slow-rolling water. It’s a sleepy approach. The mind wanders a bit while passing a candy shop and a bookstore. 4imprint’s Commerce Street address sneaks up on you that way. This is the place? Yes, right here on the corner, across from a bank. Parking is around back. It feels like a typical distributor in Anytown, USA, I think to myself as I walk through the front entrance expecting the usual product showroom. But there is nothing to show here, of course, since customers don’t really visit. And it’s not just any distributor. A publicly traded behemoth, 4imprint is the promotional products industry’s largest, now fresh off the biggest sales year of any distributor in history. CEO Kevin Lyons-Tarr greets me in the reception area with a smile and a handshake, the way the person in charge at any other small-town distributor might. He’s dressed in a simple buttondown shirt and blue jeans, a pretty regular guy in a pretty regular Distributors | Must Read PPAI • JULY 2023 • 51
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