ASI Announces Recipients of Prestigious 2023 Counselor Awards

CHICAGO, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Advertising Specialty Institute^® (ASI), the leading technology, marketing and information provider in the $25.8 billion promotional products industry, today announced the honorees of its 2023 Counselor Awards, including Andy Shape, CEO of Stran & Company, as Person of the Year, and Teresa Fang, vice president of supply chain at alphabroder, as International Person of the Year.

For the first time, ASI's Counselor Top 40 Distributor list of the most successful companies in the promo industry, based on 2022 North American promo revenue, featured billion-dollar distributors. The Counselor Top 40 Supplier list included three multibillion-dollar promo companies, based on 2022 revenue.

Award recipients and top companies were honored at the McCormick Place convention center during ASI's annual Chicago trade show. The event attracted over 5,000 attendees, with exhibitors displaying the latest promo products, aka swag, typically given away by companies to advertise their brand or event, or thank a client or employee.

Led by Counselor Person of the Year Andy Shape, Stran & Company increased full-year sales 35.8% in 2022, with revenue of $64.3 million. In one of the boldest moves in recent promo history, Shape took a risk in late 2021 taking Stran public.

International Person of the Year Teresa Fang played an essential role in leading alphabroder, the industry's third-largest supplier with 2022 revenue of $2 billion, during pressure-bearing situations like COVID, a major supply chain crisis and the rapidly evolving post-pandemic present.

Additional 2023 Counselor Award honorees are:

Technology Executive of the Year: Irwin Goldstein, vice president of enterprise and solution architecture at HALO Branded Solutions
Distributor Entrepreneurs of the Year: Jon Alagem and Michael Scott Cohen, founders of Harper + Scott
Supplier Entrepreneur of the Year: William Lovelace, founder of Diamondback Branding
Distributor Family Business of the Year: Walker-Clay
Supplier Family Business of the Year: Burnside/Sierra Pacific
Woman of Distinction: Mary Dobsch, president of The Chest
Bess Cohn Humanitarian Award/Distributor: Donna Raucher, CEO of Proforma GPS
Bess Cohn Humanitarian Award/Supplier: Teresa Fudenberg, CEO of Storm Creek

In tribute to his unwavering commitment to the promo products industry, ASI Chairman of the Board Norman Cohn received the 2023 Counselor Lifetime Achievement Award. The innovations Cohn championed since 1962, when his family bought ASI, range from print product encyclopedias, magazines and catalogs, to microfiche, CDs, DVDs, software, web and now artificial intelligence (AI).

"From humble beginnings in Iowa, selling food gifts, Norman helped to reinvent the industry from one peddling promo items to a sophisticated industry offering integrated solutions to solve the most vexing marketing problems of businesses of every size," said Timothy M. Andrews, ASI president and CEO. "The stories of this year's honorees are extraordinary and speak to everything that's great about this industry and, in my mind, our country: the boundless potential to innovate, to create and to impact lives."

Counselor Award recipients are nominated by industry peers and chosen by an in-house committee.

ASI's list of the top companies in the promo industry included 4imprint and HALO Branded Solutions, with 2022 revenue of $1.1 billion and $1 billion, respectively, the first time the Top 40 Distributor list featured billion-dollar firms. Staples Promotional Products, Custom Ink and Proforma rounded out the top five.

Issaquah, WA-based SanMar continues its reign as the largest promo products supplier with an estimated $3.4 billion in 2022 revenue. Rounding out the top five were S&S Activewear, with an estimated $2.1 billion in 2022 revenue, alphabroder, PCNA and Gildan.

About ASI
The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI^®; asicentral.com) serves a network of 25,000 suppliers, distributors and decorators in the $25.8 billion promotional products industry.

SOURCE Advertising Specialty Institute