Counselor magazine is proud to announce the companies on its annual list of the fastest-growing Canadian promotional products firms. At the top spot is Humboldt, SK-based Spotlight Sport & Corporate Wear Ltd. (asi/332753), which reported 296% growth between 2016 and 2018.

Since 2007, President Mike Yager and his wife Shannon have offered custom apparel, embroidery, digital printing, screen printing and promotional products to the Prairie Provinces.

While the Yagers once focused mainly on serving local customers, that all changed in the spring of 2018. The company and the small town of Humboldt gained international attention when a bus carrying the local hockey team, the Humboldt Broncos, crashed into a semi-truck while traveling to a game on Friday, April 6. Of the 29 passengers, 16 players and support staff were killed and 13 were injured.

Spotlight immediately jumped into action, quickly designing “We Are Humboldt Strong” T-shirts in the team’s green and gold colors and offering them for sale to benefit the victims and their families. Yager says they estimated about 200 total T-shirts would be ordered, perhaps 500 on the high end. However, in less than 24 hours, they had received 600 orders. In the weeks following, they were coming in from Europe, Australia and the Middle East.

“It became a media circus, especially when U.S. outlets picked up the news,” Yager told ASI Canada. “Our showroom was packed with people, and regular client orders were all on hold for a while. They understood and told us that the Broncos come first. Meanwhile, we said to ourselves, ‘What have we done?’”

As the Yagers and their small team tried to keep up with all the orders (which took until June to complete), they were able to negotiate with Purolator Courier, a major Canadian shipping company, to offer free shipping worldwide for Broncos gear, a special agreement that still stands.

The distributor even expanded their Broncos offerings to include hoodies and jerseys, in addition to the T-shirts, which raised more than $300,000 for the victims and their families. “The fundraising campaign gained us regional, national and global exposure as a caring, community-minded company with core customer values,” Yager says. “As a result, we gained new clients, including the Saskatchewan Highways Department and DMC Mining Services.”

In the months after the fundraiser launched, Spotlight also entered into an official partnership with the Broncos to supply all of its apparel and hard goods, and continues to give a percentage of Bronco product sales back to the team and families of the crash victims.

At the end of the company’s 2018 fiscal on May 31 last year, just after the major fundraising efforts, year-over-year sales had increased more than twice over. At the end of May this year, sales had increased 10%. With the sudden growth, Spotlight had to bring on additional workers and more equipment.

Yager says they’re waiting for Broncos hype to end, and it hasn’t. In fact, people from all over the world still visit Humboldt on their travels through Canada and buy Broncos items from Spotlight.

“The merchandise has become a symbol,” Yager says. “It shows solidarity and pride, it shows that the wearer is emotionally connected with what happened, and it also shows that they donated to the team, the victims and their families. The whole experience restored our faith in humanity.”

These are the fastest-growing Canadian companies from 2016 to 2018: 

1. Spotlight Sport & Corporate Wear Ltd. (asi/332753), 296% growth
2. The Promo Addict (asi/302225), 167%
3. Polar Promotions & Sportswear (asi/138454), 105%
4. Cutter & Buck Canada (asi/47967), 104%
5. Promotional Drives (asi/54536), 99%
6. BCG Creations (asi/37693), 65%
7. StickerYou.com (asi/89791), 60%
8. Fashion Biz Wholesale (asi/53716), 51%
9. Bradson Promotional Group (asi/144668), 48%
10. Rise Promotions Ltd. (asi/309183), 46%
11. DML Creation (asi/48031), 46%
12. PromoPlace (asi/144084), 40%
13. Genumark (asi/204588), 31%
14. Brand Blvd (asi/145124), 30%
15. Justin Case (asi/63698), 27%

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