Sourcing City Alliances
ASI, Sourcing City and PSI Form New International Alliance
The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), Sourcing City and PSI formed the PromoAlliance in July 2012. The purpose of the international alliance is to identify and introduce best practices and market development concepts benefiting the US, UK and European markets.
ASI, the largest media, marketing and education organization serving the $18.5 billion promotional products industry in North America, joined forces with Sourcing City, which serves the U.K. promotional merchandise industry, and PSI, which hosts the PSI Trade Show in Düsseldorf each January, with international attendance of 20,000.
The goals of the international alliance for the promotional products industry include introducing best practices, developing fresh market concepts, explaining new marketplaces and fostering education.
"We can see many benefits and opportunities for the trade from the new PromoAlliance,” said Alistair Mylchreest, CEO of Sourcing City. “Having three major players working in alliance, sharing ideas and exploring new concepts will create exciting opportunities for all of our customers. We are delighted to be a founding member of what is going to be a significant organization in the worldwide promotional merchandise marketplace."
Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI, said PromoAlliance will leverage the strength of all three organizations while providing fresh inroads to untapped markets.
"We now work in a worldwide economy, so there is no better time to form a strategic alliance with respected global partners to improve and expand the promotional products marketplace,” said Andrews. “We are certain our distributors and suppliers will benefit greatly from increased communication, education and understanding and look forward to kicking off what promises to be an exhilarating new era in our industry."
"PromoAlliance will offer major benefits to PSI members within our business network, including new ideas, inspiration and opportunities in the European market as well as within the transatlantic partnership,” said PSI Director Michael Freter. “PSI’s distributors and suppliers will gain new market perspectives and sources of information. Furthermore, PromoAlliance is an international recognition of the quality standards that are the hallmarks of our organizations."
The announcement was made on the first day of the ASI Chicago trade show, with members of participating PromoAlliance organizations joining in the announcement via webinar. For more information and to hear the recorded webinar announcement click www.promoalliance.com/video.html
Sourcing City, ASI and PSI are in active discussions with other potential PromoAlliance partners and will announce further information as PromoAlliance develops.
ASI:
Sourcing City has formed a strategic alliance with the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), the largest media, marketing and education organization serving the $18.4 billion promotional products industry in North America.
The two companies will work closely together to identify and introduce best practices and market development concepts benefiting the UK and USA markets.
Supplier members will be able to exhibit at both ASI and Sourcing City trade shows. In addition, Alistair Mylchreest, CEO of Sourcing City will soon begin serving on ASI's Supplier Global Resource advisory board. And ASI magazines such as Counselor and Advantages will now also publish stories featuring prominent UK suppliers and distributors.
"We are very excited to be involved with ASI on such a close level," said Alistair Mylchreest, CEO of Sourcing City. "In particular, we want to help professional distributors and suppliers grow their per capita spend in the UK market, and we are certain joining forces with a US-based powerhouse like ASI is one great way to accomplish that."
"ASI is delighted to align with Sourcing City, and we believe we can help members on both sides of the pond form lasting, mutually beneficial relationships," said Timothy Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI. "We benefited greatly from being invited to the Sourcing City Marketplace event and look forward to fostering an even greater understanding of customer relations and the needs of distributor partners in both regions."
Sourcing City and ASI will announce further developments as the strategic alliance and joint projects develop.
About ASI
The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) is the largest media, marketing and education organization serving the promotional products industry, with a network of over 27,000 distributors and suppliers throughout North America. ASI leads the industry in technology solutions, providing cloud-based e-commerce, enterprise resource planning software (ERP) and customer relationship management software (CRM). ESP Web is the industry’s leading tool for sourcing hundreds of thousands of products. A family-owned business since 1962, ASI also provides online research, marketing, advertising opportunities, trade shows, education, award-winning magazines, newsletters, custom websites and catalogs to help members sell, market and promote their brands. Visit ASI at www.asicentral.com and on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and the CEO’s blog.
www.asicentral.com
PSI:
The Promotional Product Service Institute (PSI) is Europe's largest business network for the promotional products industry. More than 6.000 companies are current members of PSI which was established in 1960. PSI hosts the biggest international show for promotional items in Düsseldorf, Germany, which is also the home of their HQ.
www.psi-network.de
Promidata:
Sourcing City have entered into a formal strategic partnership with Promidata, a leading European specialist product data management & software company in the European promotional merchandise industry. Promidata is an exciting and innovative company who work closely with promotional merchandise suppliers and distributors in Germany and The Netherlands.
Sourcing City have built a close relationship with the Promidata team over the past five years and each company has recognised the benefits of strategically partnering in key areas. Both companies have already developed and taken to market, a similar portfolio of market leading online services and they are also pleased to share a number of important like-minded beliefs in their corporate values.
The two companies have now entered into a formal strategic partnership; 'To create and develop online systems to share real-time product data, stock and pricing.'
Promidata currently have offices in The Netherlands, Germany and Spain. Their current European product range includes 'Promotional Office' an order management system similar to Dynamic Office Software, and 'Promotional Content' which is a promotional merchandise database with more than 60,000 products.
www.promidata.com
Sourcing City Memberships
BPMA:
Sourcing City are the official provider of market statistics & analysis to the BPMA.
Established in 1965, The British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA) is the UK's leading industry body dedicated to promoting best practice around the sourcing, manufacturing and distribution of promotional products.
www.bpma.co.uk