As reported Monday in a PPB Newslink Breaking News alert, the St Regis Group of Companies (UPIC: stregis) has finalized an agreement to merge with New York-based supplier K&R New York (UPIC: K-AND-R). Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed.
Over the next few weeks K&R and its affiliate Promobilia will be moving their operations into St Regis’s recently expanded manufacturing facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, which offers 150,000 square feet of production, warehousing and office space. St Regis says the transition will be seamless for K&R customers as the company will preserve its ASI, SAGE and PPAI numbers. Contact information—telephone, fax and email—will all remain the same.
Peggy Eng will continue as Promobilia’s director of business development and Merrick Falkenstein will remain as president of K&R. “This is an exciting day for the K&R team and we are thrilled to be joining forces with St Regis,” says Merrick. “Bringing these two organizations together will allow us tremendous opportunities to expand our market share and focus on what we do best: providing our loyal distributors with the most innovative products and the best customer service in our industry.”
Richard Firkser, CEO and president of the St Regis Group, adds, “We just recently cut the ribbon on our recently completed expansion, and were positioning ourselves for future growth, so the timing could not have been better. Our two organizations complement each other nicely and this deal greatly enhances our competitive edge in the promotional industry. This merger ultimately provides our customers access to a larger, more diverse product range delivered with the same excellent service and quality they’ve come to expect from both St Regis and K&R.”
In 2012 the company acquired awards manufacturer R.S. Owens & Co., Inc. and in 2013 it announced an alliance with supplier Ritter Pen to provide infrastructure, production and logistical resources. In February, St Regis completed the first phase of expansion of its Canadian manufacturing facility in Markham, Ontario. The company was founded in 1999.
