#32 Michael Brugger

Fully Promoted (asi/384000) – President

2021 Rank: #41

Industry Experience: 28 years

Previous Appearances on Power 50: 1

Having spent nearly three decades with United Franchise Group (the parent company of Fully Promoted), Brugger has overseen another year of growth since taking over as president in 2018, with many of the Top 40 distributor’s 300 locations increasing their local market share. “We kicked things off early in the year at the ASI Fort Worth show and had owners from all over sharing best practices, learning about new products, and taking in some great Fully Promoted and ASI education,” Brugger says. “We’ve helped some of our franchisees expand their client list, such as our Cleveland-area franchise acquiring Garment Specialties, and have worked with other locations to bring on additional books of business. Although the labor market is still tight, we’ve been making progress adding salespeople and additional locations.”

Other highlights this year include the launching of recruitment tools and videos such as staff/manager videos  and owner videos; a franchise winning a Counselor Promo Campaign Award for best use of video; the addition of 45 new owners worldwide; and the expansion of contract decorating and machinery. “This helps ‘keep it in the family’ for our office locations and even other distributors who count on us to do embroidery and screen printing,” Brugger notes. “We now have 10 larger production sites and see this as an area of continued expansion.” Additionally, growth is seen with fulfillment partnerships and more onsite product storage for re-occurring business, as well as two additional marketing staff members to help locations “get business the 2022 way – which includes more online and social interaction,” he adds. “We’re winning by providing customers our signature ‘Real Products - Real People - Real Results’ way. This has been one of our most successful campaigns to date.”