Distributor Bensussen Deutsch and Associates, LLC (PPAI 109381, D14) has entered into an agreement with BrandVia (PPAI 105536, D11) to acquire the San Jose, California-based distributor. The news was first reported in a Breaking News alert on Wednesday. With this acquisition, Woodinville, Washington-headquartered BDA significantly expands its operations in California and its portfolio of major technology clients and increases resources to further support high-performing industry sales professionals and the ever-changing needs of their clients.
The deal marks the latest in BDA’s growth strategy; in 2017 the company acquired SwervePoint, Dukes of London and Sports Merchandise Global. BDA operates out of over 40 domestic and six international offices serving clients such as Bank of America, Dell, ExxonMobil, FedEx, Johnson and Johnson and Major League Baseball.
Speaking to PPB Newslink, Jim Childers, founder and CEO of BrandVia, says, “Jay and I have been friendly for years and developed a great relationship dating back to the early ‘90s. We’ve stayed in touch and often run into each other at industry events. We’ve talked off and on about vision and what could be and decided to explore the specifics of what a deal would look like a few months back.”
Jay Deutsch, co-founder and CEO of BDA, says, “The team at BDA is both ready and excited to work with BrandVia. Jim and I share the same vision for client value creation, and how we will drive client value via BDA’s world-class suite of services. From BDA’s creative and merchandising teams to innovative sports sponsorship activation strategies and global assignments, we see this as a tremendous platform for growth and an example of what the future holds for leading client-side business models.”
BrandVia’s clients, including well-known technology giants like Adobe, Facebook, Oracle and Salesforce, will gain access to BDA’s global fulfillment and supply chain, award-winning creative team and comprehensive e-commerce, merchandise and marketing solutions.
“BrandVia has long been recognized as an innovative company with great people and great clients,” says Deutsch. “They’ve built a tremendous culture of customer service that is a natural extension of our BDA Tech division. We now have an even larger presence in Silicon Valley with a talented team that will only further enhance our compelling offer to high-tech enterprise clients who need a true merchandise agency partner.”
BDA and BrandVia will be one brand in the future to create clarity, Childers says, although this process will take some time. He adds, “Our plan is to work closely with the brand team at BDA to be thoughtful about the character and promise of the BrandVia brand and to try and incorporate the things that our clients and employees have loved about BrandVia, where it makes sense within the BDA brand system.”
On what the acquisition means for staff at the two companies, Childers says, “We expect more opportunities will be available for professional training and education, promotions, earning potential, recognition, travel opportunities, brand opportunities and fun. There will be a lot of new client assignments which will create growth personally and professionally for our employees. It’s obviously in the early days and we’re focused on trying to communicate as clearly as we can about what the future holds while doing the practical work that comes along with bringing two companies together.”
As for what’s up first for BDA and BrandVia, Childers says, “We have goals and timelines across all functional areas of the business looking out over the next 30, 60, 90, 120 days and beyond to ensure that we are capturing best practices to operate the combined entity the best way we can for clients, employees and our supplier partners. We see tremendous opportunity to scale and deliver more value, not just in the technology sector where we’ve been primarily focused, but we see a path to take that playbook into other vertical markets on a global level.”