Q&A: Jeff Lederer, President of Prime Line, on Recent Acquisitions and Outlook for 2014

On Jan. 13, top 50 promotional products supplier Prime Line announced that it had acquired industry direct sourcing companies R.O.I. by Source Abroad and Get It Global in separate transactions. In an interview with Promo Marketing, Jeff Lederer, president of the Bridgeport, Connecticut-based Prime Line discussed how the acquisitions came about and what it means for the company. Below, read Lederer's thoughts on overseas sourcing, what it means for the company and for distributors, and what to expect in 2014.

Promo Marketing: Tell us how the deals with R.O.I. Line by Source Abroad and Get It Global got started.
Jeff Lederer: In general, our first focus is always how can we give distributors higher levels of service, more competitive pricing and help them get more orders, and have them do that with Prime. That is what was important to us when we looked for opportunities to grow that side of our business. Specifically with R.O.I. Line, they had a very good reputation in the industry with sourcing, they have good logistics with how they do their sourcing of products, they have a great network of Chinese suppliers and they have a terrific following with distributors. All of that we want to keep in place. On top of that they have a California operation, which is really important to us to give folks on the West Coast more peace of mind with Prime's presence in that region. The product line that they have, their expertise and the personnel there are all very important parts of why we wanted to do the deal with R.O.I.

With Get It Global, what attracted us to them was an area where we think we can do better with them—customized projects, including packaging. Andrew Brody, who is going to be our vice president of global sourcing from Get It Global, will be focusing on our logistics and ensuring speedier quoting to distributors with our existing legacy overseas business.