Strategy October 15, 2025
ASI Power Summit 2025: New HALO CEO Lays Out Vision for Company’s Future
Jim Hilt says the Counselor Top 40 distributor will lean heavily into technology as it aims to grow into a multibillion-dollar company.
Key Takeaways
• New HALO Branded Solutions (asi/356000) CEO Jim Hilt is aiming to achieve high single- to double-digit growth over the next three years, positioning HALO as a multibillion-dollar distributor.
• Hilt says HALO will achieve this by employing technology and growing at scale instead of primarily relying on mergers and acquisitions.
• Hilt envisions HALO’s success as being mutually beneficial across the ecosystem – including clients, employees and suppliers. He stressed the importance of partnership over vendor relationships, stating that HALO’s mission is to create shared prosperity and elevate the entire industry, not just compete against peers.
Jim Hilt, the new CEO of Counselor Top 40 distributor HALO Branded Solutions (asi/356000), has aspirations for the company to be a multibillion-dollar distributor – but not at the expense of competing distributors.
“I believe in healthy, vibrant industries,” said the first-time Counselor Power 50 member. “So, I actually want competitors to succeed.”
In a one-on-one interview with ASI President and CEO Tim Andrews at the 2025 ASI Power Summit, Hilt made no secret of his goal to grow HALO to a size previously unseen in the promo industry on the distributor side – but to do so in a way that he says benefits suppliers, employees and perhaps even other distributors.
Jim Hilt (right), the new CEO of Counselor Top 40 distributor HALO Branded Solutions (asi/356000), painted his vision of what the future looks like for the company in an interview with ASI President and CEO Tim Andrews (left) at the ASI Power Summit.
It was only a month and a half ago that Hilt was brought into HALO as CEO, replacing the retiring Marc Simon, a two-time Counselor Person of the Year. As a seasoned executive with previous stops at Shutterfly, Express and Barnes & Noble, Hilt acknowledged his modus operandi of joining private equity-backed companies and helping them grow quickly. And indeed, Hilt’s ambitions have HALO growing by either high single- or double-digit percentages over the next three years.
To accomplish that, Hilt says HALO has to lean heavily into technology.
“We’re not a technology-driven company,” said Hilt about HALO. “I will even say that we weren’t deeply technically enabled. And obviously, I’m here for a reason. And one of the reasons I’m here is to transform this company into a technology company.”
The goal, says Hilt, is to “create a platform both at the technology and the operational level that deploys our creative assets for our clients at a scale that … no one else can do.” This includes current HALO employees, but Hilt envisions a broader platform that can attract the 22,000 distributor sellers who operate in this industry.
And it could perhaps even encompass an e-commerce model that only a small percentage of distributors – including Counselor Top 40 distributor 4imprint (asi/197045), the only distributor larger than HALO – employ. “I’m going to signal this a little bit,” Hilt remarked. “I’m kind of intrigued about what it’s like to think about [adding] a pure e-commerce business. I’m intrigued by how we think about scale and volume related to it.”
“I’m here for a reason. And one of the reasons I’m here is to transform HALO into a technology company.” Jim Hilt, HALO Branded Solutions
A major component of HALO’s growth over the last two decades is its considerable M&A activity. And while Hilt didn’t discount using that strategy, industry-watchers shouldn’t hold their breath expecting the CEO to make a splashy new purchase. “I’m not probably focused on [M&A] as a core strategy, and I think that’s a difference in terms of where we’ve been,” Hilt said.
During the talk, Hilt professed the desire for HALO to be mutually beneficial to everyone – including suppliers.
“I don’t want to be a vendor, and I don’t want to work with vendors. I want partners,” he said about building relationships with suppliers. “My job is to make money for our clients, make money for our company and to make money for our partners – not that it’s always about the money, but we all do need to put food on the table. I think in the end, partnership pervades all of it.”
Six weeks in, Hilt is lining up his priorities but not rushing into other decisions, such as how to potentially simplify a complex selling operation that has integrated multiple companies and business models over the years. But when asked what the future of HALO looks like three to five years from now, he responded: “I want to see a multibillion-dollar business that is creating brand experiences for clients of all sizes at a scale and operational capability that is best in the industry and is perceived by clients as the easiest and best to work with; by our partners as the ones who help them realize their best opportunity; and probably most importantly, for me, is within our employee base, a company where our teams can grow and develop and continue to thrive.”