#24 Andy Shape

Stran & Company (asi/337725) – President/CEO

2022 Rank: #45

Industry Experience: 28 Years

Previous Appearances on Power 50: 1

Counselor’s 2023 Person of the Year, Andy Shape is also the highest riser of this year’s Power 50 list, catapulting more than 20 spots up the rankings. His visibility in promo has grown greatly in recent years, propelled in part by sales increases that have seen Stran & Company make the Counselor Top 40 distributor list three years in a row. Of course, Shape really made a splash when he took the calculated risk of turning Stran into a publicly traded company in late 2021 – a bold move aimed at sparking exponential growth for the firm. Shape and Stran have continued to make waves with four strategic acquisitions that further announced the firm on promo’s national scene. The company purchased a trio of distributorships in 2022 – Premier Business Services, GAP Promotions (asi/199882) and Trend Brand Solutions (asi/346428) – and continued the run with this year’s Q2 acquisition of T.R. Miller Co. Inc. (asi/272250).

Spearheaded by Shape, Stran grew sales nearly 36% in 2022, then followed that up with a 23% year-over-year sales acceleration in the first half of 2023. While profitability has eluded the company since going public, there’s no doubting that Stran has blossomed into a major player in the promotional products realm – and Shape, as its leader, one of the industry’s most-watched executives.