Admanco Shows off New Line; Buyer Expected by Month’s End

(Las Vegas, NV)—Cloth promotional products manufacturer Admanco, Inc., which recently terminated the majority of its employees and is seeking a buyer, unveiled its new line and catalog at the PPAI Expo last week.

Admanco, which exhibited at the PPAI Expo, showed off its new new catalog

As the centerpiece of its turnaround effort, the 83-year-old company has overhauled and broadened its line to move beyond the line of cloth tote bags it had built its business on. The new line includes imprinted duffle bags, backpacks, coolers, aprons, towels and totes in a variety of trendy fabrics and colors. The line includes 50 SKUs or about 100 products with all the color variations. Among the changes, Admanco has incorporated color into its microfiber products and has introduced such colors as aqua blue and avocado.

The 78-page catalog carries the tag line “Incredible Promotional Products is our Business. What you do with them is yours,” along with some fun and punchy images to support the theme. The company’s exhibit booth was bustling last Thursday morning, with visitors requesting samples and taking catalogs.

On Jan. 3, the Ripon, WI-based company announced that it was in receivership and had let go 150 of its 180 employees. The company’s assets are now in the hands of a state court receiver, who is responsible for selling the firm as part of a liquidation process. The employees still on board continue to process orders or are contracting orders out to competitors in an effort to satisfy distributors’ orders, said Brad Langton, VP-sales and marketing.

“The lead time has been stretched, but not greatly,” Langton said.

Langton said that 10 buyers are expected to bid for the company. The bids will be shared on Jan. 21 and a final bid will be chosen Jan. 24. The company had been in talks to secure funding from an investor to aid its turnaround, but talks fell through in December.

Langton said that the landscape had become “extremely” competitive and that the privately held company didn’t act quickly enough to outsource manufacturing to bring down its prices to maintain a competitive advantage. He added that Sept. 11 hurt the company as well, as companies cut back on spending. The company, which employed 280 people in its heyday, began laying off staff last year in several rounds as the outsourcing efforts moved forward.

“It all goes back to not transitioning to import fast enough,” he said.

Langton said the company began sourcing overseas in a small way six years ago, but only last year began to aggressively outsource. Now, 75% of the line is imported, versus 25% domestic. The company was founded in 1922 and Cris Bumby, Admanco’s current president, is the great grandson of one of its founders.

“The evolution was born out of the necessity to make ourselves more competitive, not just to survive, but to thrive,” Langton said.