Top 40 promotional products distributor BAMKO (asi/131431) has acquired Gifts By Design (asi/205947), a Seattle, WA-based promo distributor known for providing corporate awards, incentives and recognition programs for household name brands. The deal closed on Monday, Feb. 1. Financial terms were not released.

Gifts By Design generated about $18.2 million in revenue in 2020. The firm’s sales are expected to be accretive to the 2021 operating results of Superior Group of Companies, BAMKO’s parent firm.

Jamie Stone (left), Gifts By Design; Phil Koosed, BAMKO. Gifts By Design will become BAMKO’s Awards, Recognition and Incentives Division. Stone will lead it.

Going forward, Gifts By Design will operate as the Awards, Recognition, and Incentives Division of BAMKO. Jamie Stone, president and founder of Gifts By Design, will remain with the business as the president of that newly formed division.

“Joining forces with BAMKO is not a decision we arrived at lightly,” said Stone. “I’ve known the BAMKO team for years. As I’ve watched their growth and success in recent years, it became clear that BAMKO is something very different from the rest of the industry. BAMKO has distinguished itself with its unmatched technological capabilities, an award-winning creative team, an incredible overseas sourcing operation, and an unparalleled ability to win and service major program business for the world’s biggest brands.”

Stone continued: “Joining forces with BAMKO creates incredible opportunities for our employees, offers our clients access to the most impressive set of capabilities in the industry, and gives us a platform upon which to build the best and most technologically advanced awards, incentives, and recognition solution in the entire industry.”

Jake Himelstein, chief operations officer and chief financial officer at BAMKO, said acquiring Gifts By Design enables BAMKO to become an industry leader in the growing awards/incentive/recognition market.

“We also have an immediate opportunity to extend the unique suite of capabilities and services that only BAMKO has to offer to develop new verticals across Gifts By Design’s existing customer base,” said Himelstein. “In so doing, we will be able to strengthen and deepen those client relationships and expand our sales footprint with them.”

Phil Koosed, president of BAMKO, said the culture that Gifts By Design has built over the years is a great fit for the Top 40 firm. “By joining forces, both companies will immediately become better with increased capabilities and product offerings,” said Koosed. “We are adding talent and proven leadership whose positive impact will reverberate throughout the entire organization. Our employees and clients will benefit substantially from the opportunities that this acquisition creates, and we cannot wait to get started.”

With reported 2019 North American promotional product revenue of $108.6 million, BAMKO ranked 19th on the most recent list of the 40 largest distributors in the industry. The firm, which pivoted heavily to sales of personal protective equipment in 2020, was engineering sales gains throughout last year, despite the challenges of COVID-19.