Visstun, Las Vegas, announced last week that it will move out of the promotional products industry to focus on its food packaging division. In an email sent to distributors, the cup and container supplier said it is still operating and will be available to handle projects, but is “no longer seeking to actively grow in the promotional market.”
“As Visstun’s food packaging division grew over the years, we made several changes to our scheduling and products that were disadvantageous to the promotional market,” the supplier said in the email. “Primarily, lead times increased with the implementation of run schedules, and minimum order quantities expanded. As a result of these changes and additional required changes, we feel we cannot adequately meet the service and delivery requirements the promotional industry needs to work effectively.”
Visstun said its products have been removed from industry databases. Beginning May 15, the VisstunPromo.com website will go offline and the Visstun.com website will redirect to the supplier’s Food Packaging Division site.
Digispec and CounterPoint, Visstun’s sister companies, will continue to operate as normal in the promotional products industry. Visstun did not say if or how the move will impact the companies’ sales forces, which combined in 2016.
“Certainly, one major consideration for this change is the desire to provide the excellent service and lead time you’ve come to expect from Digispec and CounterPoint,” Visstun said in the email. “This change enables us to maintain this service level for our legendary mouse pads and durable counter mats.”
Joe Davis, director of sales and customer service for Visstun, elaborated on the move in an email to Promo Marketing:
The lead time and minimum requirements within the promotional industry have been a major hurdle for us whenever we have had to increase either. Over the years, we have increased lead time and minimums. This has been difficult in the promotional market where small quantities and quick lead time are critical to success. We saw good success with our double wall paper cups since there was a much quicker lead time and rush options available. The growth of the double wall cups eventually required a production run schedule as well.
Eliminating the rush options on those cups created another hurdle. Larger projects that almost always come with a bigger lead time work well with our model. We would love to continue to accommodate all orders from everyone who has supported us over the years. Unfortunately, we can no longer support quick lead time orders. We will help with every project that we are able to. If there is sufficient time and the quantity meets our minimum, we will gladly produce any order.
Davis also clarified that while Visstun will no longer seek new promotional products business, the company will continue working with promo distributors. And the company’s new website, while geared toward the food packaging market, will contain the same information as the VisstunPromo.com site.
“We will continue to support distributors who have developed business over the years,” Davis said. “We are happy to continue to produce everything that we can that will fit into our production runs. You will contact your Digispec and CounterPoint rep for pricing. They will help you as they always have.”
After the announcement last week, a number of distributors expressed concerns that Visstun’s move could eventually lead to the supplier going direct and even approaching clients of distributors who have previously used Visstun for orders. Davis addressed those concerns.
“The food packaging division has been around for quite some time,” he told Promo Marketing. “It has always been separate from the promotional division of Visstun. We have not and do not approach end users who are purchasing our products through distributors. The food packaging side of the business has distributors as well. Cutting a distributor out that brought our products to an end user is not something we do. We are an honest company and always have been. I’ve been with the company since 2006 and can proudly say that we are honest in all our dealings.”
