A Long Time Ago Founded in Indiana by Dick Nelson under the name Nelson Marketing in 1985, the company had a direct marketing model well before the internet existed. In those days, the medium was catalogs. Nelson grew the business until 1996, when he sold to a small U.K.-based public conglomerate, Bemrose Corporation. It took on the 4imprint name in 2000, and even as the ecommerce business found its early roots, the catalogs continued as a mainstay. Growth began to slow, however. Lyons-Tarr, just into his 30s at the time, joined in 1991 after impressing executives during a one-weekend stint as a technical consultant. He held a number of roles in his first dozen years at the company, heading sales, operations and technology. Then in 2003, an activist private equity investor took on a controlling share of the company’s stock and led a sort of revolution that culminated in 2004 with Lyons-Tarr installed as CEO and a directive to get more serious about the online business. It was around a $50 million organization then, one of the industry’s larger distributors, though nowhere near its current stature. “When you’re faced with needing to get this thing growing again and trying to lead it to its fuller potential, you had to lean into the internet hard,” LyonsTarr says. “We needed to stop being a catalog company. We needed to be a promotional products business that happened to have catalogs, but it also had an internet presence. “You started to realize at that time it wasn’t about catalog or internet. Those are marketing techniques you use to drive the business. It was about bringing customers the best possible service, bringing them the best range of products from very good suppliers.” Suzanne Worwood, a native Brit who had joined the company as an import services director in 2000, got a promotion to merchandising VP around this time. Later earning a senior VP nod, she has become one of the industry’s most powerful executives. Working closely with Brian Campbell, 4imprint’s vice president of supply chain compliance, Worwood now carries arguably more clout with supplier partners than anyone else in the industry. She and Campbell oversee the sprawling product offering. Lyons-Tarr runs the business as a whole, including the nittygritty of responses to customer emails that hit his inbox, one method he uses to keep his finger on the pulse of buyer sentiment. Suzanne Worwood Brian Campbell Must Read | Distributors Rank Score Name 2022 Revenue (Millions) Change Since 2019 21 210.84 Positive Promotions $117.9* 30% 22 Corporate Imaging Concepts $115.4* 33% 23 Cintas $184.1* 2% 24 Stran & Company $64.3 103% 25 DiscountMugs $209.1* -3% 26 AIM Smarter $147.9* 6% 27 Leaderpromos $51.3 37% 28 Deluxe $139.7* 3% 29 AIA $154.9 -26% 30 Quality Logo Products $56.4 25% Revenue Growth Industry Faith Professional Development Responsibility Innovation Employees Happiness Online Presence Distributors Earned HIGH MARKS in The Following Categories Score equals the total number out of a possible 500. * Estimate. 2019 revenue calculated based on figures reported to PPAI and others. All 2022 revenue figures have been certified by a company representative unless denoted. 54 • JULY 2023 • PPAI
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