2019 Top Distributors: Proforma's Vera Muzzillo on Business Tech, More

By Sean Norris

Each year, Promo Marketing compiles the top promotional products distributors into one comprehensive list. We asked some of the 2019 top distributors for their thoughts on the industry, their plans for the future, what they love about promo and much more. Here, we profiled Vera Muzzillo of Proforma, the No. 4 company on our 2019 Top 65 Distributors list.

Proforma has been a fixture in the top five of our list for as long as we can remember, and the distributor posted another strong year in 2018, finishing No. 4 by a wide margin. The company spent three years and $10 million developing a new business technology management platform, and Vera Muzzillo, CEO, says it’s already getting results, with owners using the system reporting a 20 percent increase in sales over the prior year. It’s all part of the company’s emphasis on technology as it looks to continue its run atop the industry sales charts.

“Today, the clear-cut differentiator is technology,” Muzzillo says. “Because it optimizes workflow processes, grows sales and margins, and improves efficiency.

Best thing about promo: “I love the people,” says Muzzillo. “I love that we are in the dream business, the business of helping our owners’ dreams come true. It means a great deal when people come up to us at our convention and Million Dollar Club, give us a big hug and tell us, ‘Thank you for building Proforma, because it changed my life.’ That is an amazing feeling. Regarding what the industry could do better—it could continue to mentor and train its members and associates, resulting in a higher level of professionalism and business success.”

What people may not know: “Proforma operates internationally—through its distributors, their offices, their customers and their supplier partners—on almost every continent. We have been involved in some significant capacity in every Olympics over the past 20 years, and we conduct business with more than 80 percent of the Fortune 1000.”

View the full 2019 Top Distributors list (including a separate list of the fastest-growing distributors) here, or click here for stats, trends and analysis from the list.