UPDATE: Port St. Lucie, Florida-based distributor IDProductsource has shifted to remote operations on Wednesday, October 9, and Thursday, October 10, for the safety and well-being of its staff.

Florida residents – and promo firms – have barely been given an opportunity to catch their collective breath between natural disasters.

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit Big Bend as a Category 4 before contributing to the flooding in cities like Atlanta and Ashville, a new hurricane – Milton – already reached Category 5 status on Monday and is expected to strike the Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday.

LET US KNOW: Tell PPAI Media About Hurricane Recovery Efforts & Organizations You’re Supporting

Hurricane Milton is expected to weaken to a Category 3 by the time it hits Florida, but this will not stop it from potentially causing extreme damage to the area with legitimate threats to human life.

Promo suppliers acted swiftly in preparation for Helene, but many were still forced to pause operations for safety and logistics reasons. Now, they must continue to adjust business at nature’s whims.

  • Florida leaders have emphatically asked residents of the Tampa area to evacuate with the state’s emergency management director anticipating the largest evacuation the Florida has seen since 2017.
  • The National Weather Service has claimed that it is on course to be the most powerful storm to hit Tampa in over 100 years and is warning anyone staying on the west coast of Florida to be prepared to be without power for a week.
  •  The Washington Post reports that the city of Tampa – home to 3.2 million people and a concentration of promo firms in the surrounding area – is intensely vulnerable to flooding, which could prove disastrous depending on the path of the storm.

Immediate safety of residents being the most urgent concern, there is also a potential long-term threat to businesses and general recovery for the city if the worst-case scenario plays out.

“If this storm makes landfall in Florida, it’s more than likely going to be a billion-dollar disaster because of the development on the coast,” says Stephen Strader, a hazards geographer and professor at Villanova University. “That area has had a huge boom and part of what’s driving it has been the lack of hurricane activity — people get lulled into a sense of safety. Developers let their guard down a little.”

Promo Updates

The extent to which Hurricane Milton will affect promo companies and for how long is yet to be determined but a handful of area firms have been in touch with PPAI Media to provide tentative updates.

At the moment, a number of suppliers have already made the decision to implement multi-day closures with hopes that conditions will enable them to open up at the end of the week.

LET US KNOW: Report Promotional Products Business Disruptions

Koozie Group – the No. 9 supplier in the PPAI 100 – announced that its Clearwater, Florida-based facilities will be open with limited operations on Tuesday and closed on Wednesday.

  • The company urges customers to find the most up-to-date order information by logging in to their kooziegroup.com account or via the Koozie Group Tracker.


“The well-being of our employees is always our number one priority, and we’ll reopen when it’s safe to do so,” says Matt Cook, COO at Koozie Group. “To minimize disruptions to our distributor partners, we worked over the weekend in anticipation of the arrival of this storm. As always, our support teams, including customer service, operate remotely and will continue to be available to help customers. We’ll keep you updated as the situation unfolds, and we appreciate your understanding as we focus on keeping our employees safe.”

  • Hit Promotional Products – PPA 100’s No. 4 supplier – has announced that it will be closed on Wednesday and will continue to provide updates as the week progresses.
  • Epoly, based in Naples, will be closed Wednesday and Thursday with plans to open again on Friday “as long as there is power.”


“We are working to get things out,” says Tony Milcarsky, business development director at Epoly. “However, shipping by UPS and others is normally suspended at a certain point because they will not be responsible for a lot of packages they would be forced to hold.”

  • AutoTran, also located in Naples, has already closed and will remain so “until it is safe to return to the office.”


“We anticipate returning Friday, October 11 but will be monitoring our emails and the storm as it continues,” says Brad Parker, vice president of operations at AutoTran. “Please be patient with reply emails as the power and internet may be unreliable.”

  • Tattoo Factory, based in Sarasota, closed Tuesday and will remain so Wednesday and Thursday with tentative hopes to open Friday, according to the company’s president, Stephen Bloom.