Episode 337: Mastering Client Complexity Through Mergers: A Chat with Kate Ivory and Laura Mazy, Premier Press

Mergers and acquisitions on the distributor side of the business have been hot for the past 12-18 months and one company who has been making some amazing acquisitions is Premier Press. 

Premier Press acquired KG Specialties a few years ago and last year acquired GIDI Promotions, all three are commonsku distributor customers and all three are based in Portland, OR 

On today’s show we’re exploring mergers, acquisitions, marketing, and the changing landscape of an increasingly complex customer. 

Premier Press is a privately held, women-owned company. They're carbon-neutral, wind-powered, and a SGP company, which means they are a Sustainable Green Printing Partnership-certified company that creates luxury products through earth-friendly practices.

Headquartered in a 170,000-square-foot facility in Portland, Oregon, with over 200 employees 

Their expertise lies in leveraging data, commercial offset and digital printing, packing, kitting, warehousing, mailing, and distribution services. And with all of these services onsite. 

Joining us today, two guests Laura Mazy, Director of Marketing at Premier, and Kate Ivory, who is now the Director of Promotional Merchandise at Premier … 

Laura Mazy is a marketing and brand leader with 30 years experience working with Fortune 20 clients and celebrities. Her career spans coast to coast, starting with agency-side work in Philadelphia, D.C., and New York City, she managed large-scale brand activations, including celebrity-level spring break events. Her experiential marketing clients included NBC, MTV, the VMA Awards, Ben & Jerry’s, Coca-Cola, Calvin Klein, and many more A-list brands. Laura also spent 12 years at Kroger, where she oversaw and led all general merchandise advertising campaigns nationally. 

Kate Ivory is now the Director of Promotional Merchandise at Premier and prior to merging with Premier was the founder of GIDI Promotions, Kate starting her career in retail, moved into management in the restaurant industry, and several times in her career was awarded Employee of the Year. Kate started Gidi, her distributorship in 2003 with nothing more than grit and determination and grew it to a multimillion-dollar distributorship. She has served on the NWPMA Regional board, is a PPAI Fellow, and currently the RAC liaison for NWPMA. And here’s one of the most important things about Kate, she is one of the most beloved people in the industry, her honesty, insight, humility, and her ability to face life –not matter the obstacle– with a smile, has encouraged so many of us,  it’s a joy to talk with her as she joins the Premier team and expands their vision for what branded merch can do. 

Tune into our chat with Laura and Kate!