Stanley brand tumblers gave PCNA a boost in 2023, with strong sales continuing through the first half of 2024. Suppliers | Must Read product and trumpet it internally. The progress would not be so impressive if Brown’s teams didn’t buy in, making sure that sustainability sells. She and Haesler speak every day, and both have been encouraged by the increasing interest of industry distributors. “They’re asking us about it,” Brown says. “They’re asking us about PFAS. They’re asking us about bluesign certification. There is some movement. Not with everyone, but with some pretty significant players. Their feedback is obviously incredibly important to us. You’re starting to see the momentum now, which honestly was not there a few years ago at all. I mean at all.” In 2019, sustainable products represented under 1% of PCNA’s revenue. “I’ll never forget someone said to me, ‘Come back and talk to me when you have a real business,’” Haesler says. “The reason why that’s happened is because the whole company is involved. It’s the power that PCNA brings to the table. The sales team, they are all in and excited. Our marketing efforts have been exceptional.” Brown arrived in 2021 following two years at Honeywell, and two years before that at Stanley Black & Decker. Ringel says she spends more time talking to customers than anyone else in the organization, which allows PCNA to serve distributors with platforms and tools that simplify things. Brown’s wins include Givee Select, the PCNA platform for online gifting and ecommerce stores that offers print-on-demand powered personalization. Her fingerprints are also on the recently announced loyalty and rewards program PCNA+, which is aimed at providing small and medium distributors a suite of tools and resources designed to accelerate their business growth. “She cares about the customer,” Ringel says of Brown. “When we’re around a table as a leadership team, she’s the voice of the customer. Liz will be the one who has to provide the right products. Holly’s job is to make sure that our sales team is armed and engaged to meet the customer’s changing needs, whether that be ProudPath, or whether that be data or just someone to answer the phone faster. Her job is to make sure that we’re dialed into what the community wants and needs.” If Brown represents the customer, Ringel seems more attuned to the needs of employees than most CEOs. ‘It Just Makes You Feel Good’ When he arrived in 2019, one of the first things Ringel noticed is that the firm was not paying its employees well. He’s focused efforts on changing that. Digitization has led PCNA to Benchmarking PPAI 100 Suppliers KPIs for the industry’s leading companies. Average Median 2023 Revenue $145.2 million $33.1 million Revenue Change Since 2020 +33% +14% Distributor Clients 7,905 6,100 Integrated Orders 36% 35% Gross Profit 37% 38% Sample Costs 1% 1% Factor Employee Turnover 20% 13% Office Employee Turnover 10% 7% On-Time Shipping 95% 98% PPAI • JUNE 2024 • 43
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