Prime Line CEO Jeff Lederer on Jetline Acquisition, Productivity and New Product Offerings

Yesterday, we reported that Bridgeport, Connecticut-based Prime Line acquired Gaffney, South Carolina-based Jetline. Promo Marketing spoke to Prime Line's CEO Jeff Lederer about how this move will benefit distributors and end-users in the long run with new product offerings, expanded services and consistency.

Promo Marketing: Could you give us a little bit of history of the Jetline acquisition?

Jeff Lederer: One of the things that we looked at in the industry is ways that we can service our customers better with an expanded product base. [Jetline] had a pretty unique position with their value price-point items, and while we have some of those at Prime, [Jetline] seemed to have a more robust offering.

And we thought—between that and their focus on product quality and compliance—their management team seemed to be a perfect fit, [so we are] combining the best of the best of both organizations, and [offering] the new products and services to our existing customer base.

PM: What can distributors expect going forward?

JL: Well, first of all, we want distributors not to feel anything in any adverse way. We actually want to enhance the offerings. [Jetline is] focused on huge inventories and 24-hour rush. We have huge inventories and 24-hour rush, so actually distributors are going to get the best of both worlds by having an expanded offering of 24-hour rush, and [having] that consistent level of service among two top suppliers in the industry.

Our commitment to product quality and compliance is similar to theirs. We're a founding member of [Quality Certification Alliance (QCA)]. They're an accredited member of QCA, and they will at least have an even more consistent offering that they can sell. So in terms of service, they will just be able to rely on the fact that we can share inventory as we need it with similar items. We'll have more capacity because we'll be able to use capacity from both our South Carolina and our Bridgeport, Conn. [facilities]. So from a capacity, inventory and service standpoint, distributors should get more of a streamlined product and service offering.

PM: Can distributors look forward to any new product offerings?

JL: Well, [Jetline] started getting into wearables about 18 months ago. We [didn't] have that, so that will be new for Prime and Prime's customers. They have a pretty extensive embroidery manufacturing footprint, more so than we did, so that will be something that we can offer customers. They had more of a lower, more value-driven product range than we did.

So for quick-turn large inventory orders, I think that will also be a big benefit to customers. We are both focused on technology and finding ways to connect to distributors, and I think between their focus on that and Prime's focus on that, we can find even more efficiencies with the distributor base we're working with, reducing down the number of suppliers that they work with by being able to focus and have more consistency with two premier suppliers in the industry.

PM: Prime Line has made other acquisitions in recent history. How have these benefitted the company and its customers?

JL: We look at it first from a distributor perspective. How can we service them by offering new products and services? We've always done acquisitions over the years, this happens to be one of the bigger ones; we recently [acquired] Leeman New York to get us more into the leather, higher-end gift market. We, last year, closed three deals with Points of Light, which got us into more of the fun health care items, and created a new category for Prime called the "Fun Zone." We also acquired an additional two companies last year that did overseas sourcing.

So, what we do is we see where the needs of the distributors are and how we can service them, and that's how we've done these acquisitions from a strategic standpoint that creates a one-stop shop. This allows distributors to do that in an additional way. It's probably our fourth deal in two years, and it's a way to help the distributor and their customers have more consistency with quality and compliance, consistency with service in general, with back office, and with efficiencies. We intend to take the best of the best of both companies and offer those to distributors.

PM: We saw that a few familiar faces from Jetline will continue to work with Prime Line.

JL: More than a few. They have a seasoned operations person that runs their operations in Gaffney, S.C. We have Joe Hoffman, who's on their sales side [and] is going to stay on board as one of our national sales managers. And we also have Marcus Sweeney, who's our national sales manager, and Joe will be one of our national sales managers for group accounts, and the sales organization reports to Paula Schulman, [vice president of sales].

Then you have Eric Levin, who is Jetline CEO. Eric is going to remain on board as executive vice president. Also, [Jetline's] president, Michael Honig, will work with Prime in a strategic way as well.

There should be zero negative impact with customers—only positive changes for the customer in a way that will give them enhanced services, consistency with the people they work with. We're going to create some synergies with our sales team right off the bat, but, in general, they had some really awesome people in sales that are now going to be part of the Prime team.

PM: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

JL: We plan to operate both facilities in South Carolina and in Connecticut. It allows us to do what I call "load-balancing." If there are times of the year where one facility has more business than the other, it just gives us more flexibility to service the customer because we have two facilities now to be able to produce their products.

I'm thrilled about it, and I think this is a win-win for not only Prime but for Jetline and more specifically a win-win for our customers.

For more information on Prime Line, visit www.primeline.com.