Announced earlier this month at The PPAI Expo 2023, Boston-based supplier HPG (PPAI 110772, S11) acquired fellow supplier Evans Manufacturing (PAI 110747, S11), based in Garden Grove, California.
PPAI President and CEO Dale Denham brought out HPG’s CEO, Chris Anderson, and Evans’ president, Alan Vaught to make the announcement to the large promo contingent in attendance. Later in the week, Anderson and Vaught joined Expo Live 2023 to answer questions about what the acquisition will mean for customers of both companies.
Below are seven takeaways and nuggets from the session.
- Vaught will remain president of Evans Manufacturing.
HPG did not purchase Evans in order to complicate how the fellow supplier does business, and the goal was not to change leadership. Vaught will continue his pivotal role in steering the ship at Evans.
- HPG will source some products directly from Evans.
Prior to this acquisition, Anderson explained that HPG was primarily an importer of products. Now, it will be able to source directly from Evans “behind the scenes.” This won’t be something that those outside of either company will witness firsthand, but Anderson says that it will open things up so that “more customer-facing advantages will happen over time.”
- “Send your orders tomorrow where you sent them yesterday.”
In the immediate future, everything is business as usual for both companies, at least from a customer standpoint. The Evans team will handle Evans orders and the HPG legacy team will handle HPG legacy orders.
Expo Live 2023 – HPG/Evans from PPAI on Vimeo.
- Eventually, there will be “harmonization.”
These two companies plan to come together in a more complete way from a customer standpoint in the future, but that will develop slowly as to not disrupt each company’s customer base. Anderson says that, during that process, in any scenarios or questions that might come up in regard to this eventual transition, “jump ball goes to the customer,” meaning that the customer should not be inconvenienced or denied access to anything they had previously expected.
- Nearshoring was a motivation.
Evans has an operation in Mexico. Anderson states that one of “HPG’s strategic initiatives was to nearshore as much as possible.” That goal left the company with two options: Buy or build. Partnering with Evans allows HPG access to a Mexico operation that Anderson calls “unique to the industry.”
- Evans’ California HQ provides injection molding.
Evans is headquartered in Garden Grove, California. Vaught explains that this operation specializes in injection molding, which ships 400-500 orders out every day.
- Evans had operated independently for 30 years.
As many in the promo industry understand, this was no small acquisition. Evans had operated on its own for three decades prior to the announcement. Both sides see this as both a “strategic partnership” as well as an eventual “harmonization.”
