Lou Weisbach, a promo products industry icon who founded the firm that’s now Top 40 distributor HALO Branded Solutions (asi/356000), is leading an investment group that just acquired Waukegan, IL-based Top 40 distributor Overture Promotions (asi/288473). Financial terms of the deal were not released.

Weisbach and his partners, along with the current Overture leadership team, have an aggressive strategy for growth, saying that plans include pursuing acquisitions and expanding into new services areas, growing distribution center capacity, and building out the company’s global manufacturing footprint.

Lou Weisbach (right) and the Overture team have aggressive plans for growth. Jo Gilley (left) will remain CEO of Overture.

Weisbach and partners Mark Serdar and Michael Nemlich will join Overture’s leadership team and focus particularly on acquisition strategy, among other areas, executives told Counselor. The current leadership team at Overture, including CEO Jo Gilley, will remain in place.

Westbridge Capital, a minority-led Canadian private equity firm, is funding the acquisition and will fund any future acquisitions that Overture makes. Weisbach, Serdar and Nemlich, along with Westbridge Capital, are the owners of Overture. 

Overture is also planning to expand its staffing, a result of the company’s continued sales growth. The firm, which ranked 26th on Counselor’s 2020 list of the industry’s 40 largest distributors by revenue, had the greatest percentage sales increase – 34.1% – of any Top 40 distributor firm, based on 2019 sales compared to 2018. The company is forecasting 2020 revenue to be $125 million, an approximately 53% rise from 2019.

“Overture’s strong management team has ensured that the company responded to the challenges of this difficult year and flourished,” said Weisbach. “The company’s experienced, creative sales team has a diverse client base and a proven ability to retain customers. I believe Overture’s operational proficiency and ability to handle complex projects and customers are unmatched in the industry, as is the way they use technology to manage their business.”

Gilley said Overture is excited to get to work with Weisbach, Serdar and Nemlich, whom she described as bringing a “wealth of experience in promotional marketing, acquisitions, technology and building value.”

Weisbach, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, was Counselor’s Person of the Year in 1996. He founded HA-LO (as it was known then) in 1972 and built the firm over the years, taking it public in 1992. At one point, under Weisbach, HALO’s revenues stood at $740 million and the company employed 5,200 people in 55 offices in 11 countries. He no longer has any affiliation with the firm, which has evolved into HALO Branded Solutions. HALO is not involved with the acquisition of Overture.

Since exiting HALO a couple of decades ago, Weisbach has been active in a variety of ventures. This year, for instance, he and David Liu of Harvard University founded Americans Joining Together to Beat Covid-19 Mission. He was also a founder of Stadium Capital Financing Group, which focused on financing in the professional and collegiate sports markets.

Serdar was a managing director at JP Morgan Chase, where he held multiple senior positions in the firm, including chief technology officer and firm-wide head of globalization strategy. He was also an executive vice president at Expert Global Solutions, a $1.3 billion business process outsourcing company. Additionally, he held management roles at Accenture and Ernst & Young’s Strategic Consulting Group.

Nemlich was the investment banker responsible for taking HA-LO public. Shortly thereafter, he joined the company, and was responsible for financial and marketing communications. He was also involved in the acquisition of companies, the structuring of deals and strategic planning.

Tej Shah, vice president of marketing and e-commerce at Overture, told Counselor that Overture’s acquisition strategy will include “looking for partners that can add value to our business and to our clients.” International expansion is possible.

Tej Shah, vice president, Overture

Shah said Overture currently operates in a 200,000-square-foot facility. There are plans to expand internally within that building and add additional distribution center capacity, he said.

Overture’s sales growth in 2020 has come in a year in which industry distributors sales have, on average, decreased in every quarter compared to the prior year due to the marketplace challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Shah told Counselor that Overture’s success has been down to several key factors.

“We’re blessed and fortunate that our sales team was fast to pivot and transition to PPE,” Shah said. “We also have several clients whose business models have accelerated because of COVID, and we’ve been providing a lot of solutions for them.”