Forty-five years ago, in June of 1967, Dick and Kay Schmidt founded National Premium. What began as a part-time business of selling promotional products from a small room in the Schmidt house has turned into a multi-million dollar company with a strong global presence.
The company has grown significantly over the years-National Premium started with two people and now there are over 100 employees. The most recent growth-spurt occurred in August 2011 when National Premium acquired Kansas City-based CAM Inc. In the acquisition, National Premium gained 24 seasoned employees and an additional 30 percent in resources. With the addition of the Kansas office, National Premium now has a presence in five states-California, Florida, Kansas, Minesota and Wisconsin. National Premium’s overseas operations are located in Australia, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.
Dick Schmidt was the driving force behind the success of the company and lived by these words of wisdom: Make integrity your mantra, honesty your trademark, hard work your lifestyle, and friendship your legacy. Dick passed away in September of 2010 and the words he lived by are now an integral part of the National Premium company culture. The company he founded will continue to build on his legacy and will be carried on by his son, Scott Schmidt.
In 2011, National Premium was named to the list of Best Companies to Work For by PPB Magazine, one of the industry’s top publications. That same year, Scott Schmidt was named to PPB Magazine’s list of Best Bosses. Last month, National Premium was awarded the 2012 Small Business Success Stories Award by Corporate Report Wisconsin. Each year, the magazine teams up with the UW-Oshkosh College of Business to honor and acknowledge successful Wisconsin-based companies that were able to enjoy fast growth and innovation, displayed the ability to transition from the past to the present, and faced adversity throughout but were tenacious enough to succeed.
National Premium had its best year in company history in 2011, and so far in 2012 the company is on pace to reach $40 million in sales by the year’s end. Schmidt attributed the company’s success to the relationships built with clients. “We’re good at building relationships in every area that touches our business,” he said. “It’s the strength of those relationships that have allowed National Premium the success that we’ve had.”
A few of the top clients that National Premium has built strong relationships with include Snap-on Tools, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Bushnell and Ryder Trucks. Working with many of the company’s top clients, National Premium strives to develop a corporate merchandise program that provides franchisees and associations with a source for all types of promotional products.
For more information, visit www.nationalpremium.com.
