Distributor organization A Brand Company, parent company to Top 40 distributor BrandAlliance (asi/145177) and Activate! Promotions + Marketing (asi/141964), announced this morning that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Design Accessories Inc., a Virginia-based promotional marketing organization.

The deal includes the company’s two subsidiaries, Design Marketing (asi/179525) and PerformanceLink Systems Inc. Design Marketing will be folded into BrandAlliance in early 2016 when Activate! Promotions + Marketing completes its re-brand as the largest operating entity under A Brand Company. PerformanceLink will remain autonomous and serve as an operating entity under A Brand Company. This acquisition provides A Brand Company with a data-driven solution in the incentive and recognition sector, along with a greater presence in the Mid-Atlantic region.

“I am excited to welcome another extraordinary addition to our organization," said Fred Parker, CEO of A Brand Company. "More and more clients are asking for the ability to smartly measure, gauge and reward their employees’ performance. With this deal, we are bringing in the experienced talent and laying the framework to offer those high-demand capabilities.”

Following closure of the deal, Cynthia Lawrence, president of Design Accessories, will continue on as president of the organization’s PerformanceLink division. “The global competition for talent continues to increase,” Lawrence said. “PerformanceLink directly addresses the need for organizations to retain their talent by building a high-performance workplace culture and engaging their employees within that culture. A Brand Company is going to allow PerformanceLink to grow our footprint and we are thrilled to be a part of such a visionary company.”

A Brand Company reported in July that it had merged its operations with BrandAlliance. The company subsequently said that its Activate unit would re-brand as BrandAlliance in 2016. In Counselor’s distributor Top 40 list, BrandAlliance alone ranked as the 29th-largest distributor in the industry with $59.7 million in 2014 North American ad specialty sales. It’s expected that the combined organization will near $100 million in annual sales.