Woodinville, WA-based branding giant Bensussen Deutsch & Associates (BDA) announced it has completed the acquisition of UK-based sports, events and promotional products provider The Great Branding Company.
BDA is a merchandising agency as well as an activation and launch partner for major sports leagues and teams, including Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, The National Hockey League, FIFA, Manchester United, Arsenal, and The French Football Federation.
BDA said the acquisition will broaden BDA’s reach in the EMEA by strengthening the company’s sports portfolio and expanding its retail services for new and existing clients. The deal comes a year after the company acquired Germany-based ipm|gruppe, further supporting BDA’s sales and distribution reach in Europe.
BDA said The Great Branding Company, led by Pino Grillo, has over 20 years of sports licensing expertise. Leagues, sponsors, and clubs the company has served over the years have included Manchester City, Inter Milan, and UEFA Champions League finalists Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. The Great Branding Company supports both promotional and retail merchandise needs.
BDA said that with the acquisition, The Great Branding Company’s clients “will benefit from its extensive operations and full scope of agency services, including product development, e-commerce and retail solutions, supply chain expertise, and global distribution network.”
“I want to extend a warm welcome to Pino and the entire team to the BDA family! Joining forces with The Great Branding Company was a no-brainer for BDA; we see numerous synergies with our culture, values and customer-centric approach to delivering incredible curated and bespoke products,” said Jay Deutsch, CEO and co-founder of BDA. “They have regional expertise that will be invaluable to our organization as we double down on our operations across EMEA. This acquisition further expands our retail infrastructure in Europe as they have tremendous clients and licenses and will enable us to take both our promotional and retail sports merchandise solutions to the next level.”
“BDA has been on our radar for years as a fierce competitor and best-in-class merchandise provider. We jumped at the opportunity to unite with BDA and look forward to leveraging their global footprint and vast resources to expand our service offerings for clients,” said Grillo, CEO and co-founder of The Great Branding Company. “We are very proud of what we’ve accomplished as a standalone company and look forward to delivering even more great creativity and innovation in branded merchandise as part of BDA.”
BDA operates offices in the UK, France and Germany and will integrate The Great Branding Company’s UK and German teams into its existing BDA operations.
Image courtesy The Great Branding Company
