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Stran & Co. To Acquire Premier Business Services

Boston-area Stran, a Top 40 firm, says the deal to purchase the assets of the New York-based distributorship will close this month.

Stran & Company (asi/337725) is staying aggressive on acquisitions.

The Boston-area Top 40 promotional products distributor has just inked an agreement to acquire the assets of Premier Business Services (Premier NYC, asi/298487), a Larchmont, NY-based distributorship with a 34-year history.

The deal hasn’t closed yet, but is expected to during December 2022.

Peter Poser founded Premier NYC in 1988. According to Stran, Premier’s clients include one of the largest global stock exchanges, an Ivy League university, and a number of the top U.S. and international law firms, such as New York-headquartered multinational firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

“We believe Premier NYC provides us a significant opportunity to expand our operations within key sectors, while strengthening our leadership position in the Northeast,” said Stran CEO/President Andy Shape, a member of Counselor’s Power 50 list of promo’s most influential people. “Premier NYC has built a solid reputation within the industry by working with recognizable companies as well as not-for-profit organizations, and we believe we can enhance their customer solutions through the implementation of our proven technologies, making their offering even more robust, effective and efficient.”

According to Shape, Poser will help transition the Premier NYC business to the existing Stran sales and service teams. Current Premier employees will join Stran on a contract basis or as employees depending on their roles. Stran plans to maintain the Premier NYC brand “until we are able to transition that communication and marketing over to Stran as appropriate,” Shape told ASI Media.

Stran’s profile in promo has risen considerably over the last year. The firm became publicly traded in November 2021 and has gone on to make key acquisitions since then, purchasing GAP Promotions (asi/199882) and Houston-area Trend Brand Solutions (asi/346428). Stran anticipates that the latter acquisition will serve as a springboard for sales expansion in Texas and much of the South.

Expect Stran to keep making strategic acquisitions. “In addition to our continued organic growth, M&A continues to be a fundamental pillar of our strategy to accelerate growth, further establish our leadership position within this highly fragmented industry, and benefit from economies of scale,” Shape has said.

Since becoming publicly traded, Stran’s sales have soared but profitability has proved elusive as the company deals with costs tied to acquisitions, going public and inflationary pressures. Executives believe the firm will soon be back in the black.

Based on reported 2021 North American promo product revenue of $47.3 million, Stran & Company ranked 34th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry.