Hay Hampers joined the UK’s top small businesses as it was recognized as one of this year’s Small Biz 100 at an exclusive House of Lords reception. The Bourne luxury food and wine gift company received plaudits for its contribution to the UK economy and its local community ahead of the recent Small Business Saturday. The House of Lords reception echoed the support for the event seen across Government since the campaign came to the UK in 2013.

Willsmer Wagg kicked off 12 months of celebrations as it enters its 20th year in business by inviting some of its longstanding suppliers to celebrate at an afternoon tea presentation and gala dinner. Key partners joined the distributor at its head office in Worthing for the event. After the tea, Lawrence Angelowofthe Advantage Group gave a speech on the history of the company and managing director Debbie Willsmers hard work, highlighting the strength of the company, its awards, and its reputation within the industry.

European promotional supplier PF Concept and Black pool manufacturer SPS EU have become one operation under the name of PF Concept UK Ltd. The move follows the acquisition of SPS EU by PF Concept in December 2017. As part of the transition, PF Concept is investing in the UK business to increase capacity, make it easier for customers to place orders, and deliver good customer service. PF Concept and SPS will combine their product portfolios into one collection, offering PF Concept products alongside The British Collection.

London, UK January 7th, 2019: UK Distributor GeigerBTC (https://www.geigerbtc.com) , a subsidiary of Geiger, a multi-generational family owned and operated company in the US, announced it is acquiring London based distributor EMC Advertising Gifts as part of their continued expansion strategy to support clients in the UK and across Europe.

EMC has been in business since 1966 and has gained a reputation as one of the best known promotional merchandise distributors in the UK. GeigerBTC made the acquisition as part of their ongoing strategy to support the needs of global customers in North America, Europe and worldwide.

“We’re looking forward to PSI because we enjoy meeting up with friends in the industry across Europe. Everyone is very welcome to join us,” says Colin Loughran, General Manager of Goldstar, the pens specialists.

“Some may say selling pens can be boring, but not at Goldstar. After all, who wouldn’t want to sell the leading promotional items in the industry? We enjoy doing business, we want to make it fun and enjoyable for everyone around us,” Colin Loughran continues.

Andrew Dwerryhouse MD at Wild Thang commented: “It’s this time of year that our thoughts turn to those most in need, we know that every little counts no matter how small can really make a difference! That’s why this festive season Wild Thang are very proud to have supplied the branding for the Emergency Homeless Survival Packs to the Cotton Street project free of charge.

This project is a truly unique and groundbreaking initiative that has been created by Signature Livings Lawrence Kenwright, we know that these packs will make a difference & we will be going even further by donating a sizable amount of stock clothing such as jackets, hoodies and hats to the Cotton Street Project which will hopefully keep a number of vulnerable Homeless people safe and warm this winter.

Find the hidden pens within our wreath to be in for a chance of winning a Luxury Christmas Hamper! Enter by commenting the correct answer on the wreath post on our Facebook or Twitter pages! All correct answers will be entered into our prize draw. Winner will be announced on Facebook & Twitter on Monday 17th December. Entry closes on Friday 14th December. Good Luck!

Fluid Branding are delighted to be awarded with the 2018 Sourcing City Distributor of the Year Award for the third year in a row! The Sourcing City Annual Awards are a way for suppliers and distributors within the promotional merchandise industry to vote for who they think is the best company to work with. Each participant gets three votes, on a first to third basis, so that they can give weight to the suppliers or distributors that they value the most.

The 15th British Promotional Merchandise Association’s Annual General Meeting was held at The London Mathematical Society, Russell Square on Wednesday 7th November 2018.

Graeme Smith opened his Chairman’s review by summarising industry challenges and opportunities, the successful Merchandise World shows, research, member benefits, education, events for 2018 and 2019 and more, including the BPMA’s Product Media Magazine which is now the principle magazine for the industry and continuing to grow.

This November, 5 members of USB2U’s trade sales team decided to “grow a mo” to raise money to fund research into some of the biggest health issues faced by men.

The Movember campaign is committed to fighting some of the most common health issues faced by men. The funds raised help finance research into prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health and suicide prevention. These issues could affect any one of us, be that directly or through friends, family members or colleagues, so it did not take much convincing for the boys to get on board.

Branded bag specialist Bagco has added a new member to its team who is well versed in some of the world’s top retail brands. Account Manager Hayley Clark has worked with a portfolio of leading names such as Disney, Cath Kidston, Paperchase and FitFlop in previous retail head office roles.

The Promo Trade family are taking part in Windsor’s Santa Dash, 25th November 2018, for their chosen charity Alexander Devine. Promo Trade work closely with Alexander Devine, assisting them in many ways with their fundraising or promotional merchandise. Alexander Devine is a Children’s Hospice Service and was founded in 2007 with the aim of providing a dedicated Children’s Hospice service, for all children with life limiting and life-threatening illnesses in Berkshire and beyond.

Bagco’s Black Friday event is here and this year, they are doing things a little differently.

They have teamed up with Plastic Oceans, a charity whose vision is to stop plastic pollution within the space of one generation. Launching today, Bagco are giving you the choice to DONATE or DISCOUNT on every order you place with them throughout the week…the choice is yours.!

The Galpeg Associate Programme continues to go from strength to strength, with the addition of three new promotional product distributors.

LKG Merchandise, Insignia Promotions and GB Merchandise, and all recently signed up to the programme, which provides time-saving outsourcing tools and resources for independent distributors, allowing them to concentrate on growing their businesses.

On Thursday November 15th three members of the Scanglo team will be sleeping rough for the night outside Norwich City FC to raise awareness of youth homelessness in support of local charity The Benjamin Foundation.

ARC Textiles, formerly ARC Apparel are excited to announce the rebrand of the company. ARC textiles now offer a wider range of branded textiles, under the new company name.

Our versatile collection of products includes new additions to our range of digitally printed towels, fleece blankets, printed tea towels and picnic blankets.

Hot-footing it back from the Far East, Matt Pluckrose brings news of the latest in tech.

So, the annual technology fairs have now hit Hong Kong and after around 60k steps on my activity tracker we have finally finished and are ready to start work on launching the latest gadgets for 2019, but what is trending? Totally new concepts were thin on the ground, but it did highlight some popular trends in technology. Probably the single most popular technology concept is ‘true wireless stereo’ (TWS) or the ability to pair two Bluetooth audio devices to each other to create wireless stereo.