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News October 31, 2019

California Promo Firms Deal With Wildfires

Evacuations and absent staffers are among the issues caused by ongoing blazes.

By  Christopher Ruvo

Eddie Brascia’s response was only 13 words long, but it spoke volumes.

“We’re currently evacuated,” Brascia, the owner of Santa Rosa, CA-based distributor Sonoma Design Apparel (asi/329869), told Counselor. “I will have to get back to you next week.”

Brascia was replying to Counselor’s question about how he and his team were faring amid the latest round of wildfires raging through parts of northern and southern California. The Kincade Fire in NoCal’s Sonoma County had prompted Brascia’s evacuation, causing obvious personal and professional disruption.

The blaze, which had scorched 120 square miles of vegetation and destroyed 260 homes and businesses, including a 150-year-old winery, as late of Wednesday, was combining with planned power outages aimed at reducing the spread of the flames to present danger and challenges to other promo professionals from Sonoma south to the San Francisco Bay Area. The fire was about 45% contained by Thursday morning. Meanwhile, ad specialty suppliers and distributors in the Los Angeles area were grappling with fallout from blazes that included the Getty Fire, which as of late Wednesday had torched hundreds of acres, damaged or destroyed homes, and forced the evacuation of 7,000 residents. Residents were returning later in the week, but the fire was only 27% contained as of late Wednesday.

Supplier Origaudio (asi/75254) has operations not far from the fires in both northern and southern California. Co-Founder Jason Lucash, also an executive in Origaudio’s parent firm Top 40 supplier HUB Promotional Group (asi/61966), said both he and members of the Origaudio team have been affected by the Kincade blaze and related power outages.

“At my house, we’ve had super heavy winds, lots of downed trees and no internet or cable potentially for upwards of a week,” he told Counselor. “Some of our staff members have no power at their houses, and we’re dealing with closed roads, closed schools and more. A lot of the grocery stores don’t have power, and there are closed gas stations. The biggest problem of all is the smoke. The whole region out here in the East Bay has been blanketed by smoke, and the air quality has deteriorated to unsafe levels in a lot of areas.” The air was so bad that authorities were recommending individuals consider wearing respirators.

Despite the challenges, Lucash said Origaudio has, so far, been able to carry on without upheaval in operations or detriment to sales. Early in the week, Lucash warned that, should Origaudio lose power or the fires threaten closer, that could change. Fortunately, however, he said that by late Wednesday the fire situation was improving and Origaudio was functioning as normal. “We’ve been closely monitoring the weather patterns in both northern and southern California,” Lucash said. “Ensuring our staff’s safety and wellbeing is our top priority.”

That’s a top priority for supplier Sonoma Promo (asi/88188), too. While one employee had to evacuate from home, the Sonoma, CA-based company is otherwise operating as normal, according to Nickolai Mathison, Sonoma Promo’s general manager and vice president of sales and marketing. “Sonoma County is more than 1,700 square miles, and we’re in the opposite corner from where the fires are going. Although we are stressed, our company is open and doing well. Phones are ringing,” Mathison told Counselor.

Elsewhere, Los Angeles-based Top 40 distributor Jack Nadel International (asi/279600) was feeling the effects of the Getty Fire this week. “It’s hard to put a number on it, but many people are out,” President Craig Nadel told Counselor. “Some roads are closed, and the power is off for many people. I don’t think it will be a huge hit for us, but it does take some productive people away.”

Los Angeles-based Top 40 distributor BAMKO (asi/131431) was also working hard to navigate the hurdles presented by the blaze.

“We’ve got employees who live in evacuation zones, and have lots of folks working from home because of the impact of the fires,” Josh White, BAMKO’s general counsel and senior vice president of strategic partnerships, told Counselor. “There are big road closures and freeway shutdowns that make the trip into the office exceedingly difficult, so the option to work from home is a good one. Plus, if people are near evacuation zones, they want to be home so that they can get valuables out and evacuate in a timely fashion if their homes get evacuated.”

Even so, BAMKO has been able to keep up with the pace of business, White said. “Fortunately, the technology that runs our business is set up in a way where people can work anywhere. This allows people to seamlessly work with co-workers across the globe – from Denver to Dehradun. Our operations are moving ahead as usual, with folks pitching in to pick up the slack for teammates who are impacted by the fires. Teamwork and technology seem to be a good one-two punch for keeping the trains running on time.” On a personal level, White noted that his brother’s home in Sonoma just escaped being overrun with flames. “Just about everyone in California has felt the impact, or has close friends or family impacted,” he said.

Jeff Solomon was among those feeling the impacts personally. A distributor with HALO Branded Solutions (asi/356000) and also the publisher of FreePromoTips.com, Solomon was working out of a cigar club on Wednesday, as power was out at his home. Several days before, his neighborhood in Los Angeles County was under evacuation orders. “Emotionally, it’s definitely taking a toll,” Solomon told Counselor. Still, he was keeping business going and even finding a silver lining of opportunity. Indeed, Solomon said the power outage problems in particular would present the chance to pitch local clients charging products, including power banks and a product from LuminAID (asi/68185) that’s a 2-in-1 solar powered lantern and phone charger. “Our industry is full of products that can help at a time like this,” Solomon said.

Battling against the threat of blazes to keep business moving, while ensuring staffers are safe, is becoming an annual occurrence for some promo firms in California. Fires wreaked havoc in both 2017 and in the summer and autumn of last year. Brascia’s Sonoma Design Apparel has had a particularly hard time of it. In 2017, for example, Brascia told Counselor that certain clients’ businesses burned to the ground, while flames destroyed a staffer’s home. Day-to-day operations were disrupted.

“This seems to be the new norm here,” Nadel said. “Much like Florida has hurricane season from late August to early October, and there are terrible winter storms in the Midwest, we seem to have fire season, with some of the same issues, road closures, people out and houses lost. It’s now almost every year.”