An Editor’s Journey

Reproduced, for your reading enjoyment, is a portion of associate editor Michael Cornnell’s travel diary, chronicling his trip to Dallas and back.

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Custom HBC Corporation Launches New Web Site

Waconia, Minnesota-based Custom HBC Corporation, a health and beauty care supplier to the promotional products industry announced, in coalition with New York-based Buttonwood Technology Group, the launch of a new Web site to better serve Custom HBC Corporation’s customers.

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Hotel Redux

In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to write a bit about selling to the hotel industry this week. Larry Wilhelm, president and owner of Custom HBC, gave me a ton of information that I wasn’t able to use for my March travel feature, but I thought was interesting and useful and I don’t want to let it slip by. What follows is Wilhelm explaining different ways distributors can target the hotel industry with health-care promotions, more or less directly from our interview, edited only for length and clarity.

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Custom HBC Hits Milestone In Pocket Sprayer Production

Custom HBC, Waconia, Minn., recently celebrated the 10 million mark in the production of its Pocket Sprayer. According to president, Larry Wilhelm, since the product’s introduction in 2005, the company has expanded the line to include 13 cap/sprayer colors, 28 product fills, three attachments and two sizes, “ensuring there is a Pocket Sprayer suitable for any promotional application,” he said. Wilhelm added, “We continue to be pleased with the acceptance of our Pocket Sprayers by distributors. It has truly become a universal promotional product appropriate for virtually all end-users.” For more information on Custom HBC, visit www.customhbc.com or call (877) 442-9881.

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A DOSE OF GOOD Advice

DISTRIBUTORS WOULD DO well to check out the latest health and wellness products. From items comprised of amped-up oxygen to those that undergo rigorous testing to ensure efficacy and even those that help ease neck pain, this year’s health and wellness products have come to the aid of ailing bodies and bottom lines. A REFRESHER COURSE Ballanda Corporation, Santa Fe Springs, Calif., brings something breathtaking to the industry this year—oxygen. The company is the exclusive supplier of O+ (Oxygen Plus), a portable oxygen product that “boosts energy, increases alertness and alleviates the effects of jet lag, altitude and [hangovers],” according to

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Custom HBC Corp. Names Rouda as Southern California Sales Rep

Custom HBC Corporation of Waconia, Minn. has named Jean Rouda as its multiline representative for Southern California. Custom HBC president Larry Wilhelm, said, “Jean has a wealth of promotional products and health & beauty care selling experience. She has worked on both the distributor side and as a multiline representative and has a good background in health and beauty products”. Founded in 2000 by Larry Wilhelm, former president of Softsoap Enterprises and Minnetonka Brands Inc., Custom HBC Corporation is a developer, manufacturer and supplier of customized health and beauty care products in the promotional industry. Custom HBC Corporation supplies over 1,500 different health

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Larry Wilhelm Speaks To Entrepreneurship Club at Luther College

At his Decorah, Iowa appearance, HBC Corporation president Larry Wilhelm spoke on “Opportunities in the Promotional Industry,” offering insight into how entrepreneurship is utilized within the promotional products industry. Attendees learned what works and what doesn’t from strategy to tactical applications, when quickly growing a business. Wilhelm brings more than 30 years of health- and beauty-care experience and leadership to the promotional products industry, managing large-scale projects involving custom formulations and custom imprinting. Richard Leake, professor of economics and management at Luther College said, “The historical approach he used helped students understand the personal and professional experiences that Mr. Wilhelm had prior to starting

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Custom HBC Corporation Ranked #5 on Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal FAST 50 Listing

Custom HBC Corporation, Waconia, Minn., a health- and beauty-care supplier to the promotional products industry, was ranked fifth on the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal FAST 50 Private Companies list, the 50 fastest-growing private companies in the Twin Cities based on revenue growth over the past three years (published in the magazine’s October issue). The Fast 50 list includes manufacturers, banks, high-tech and med-tech companies, architectural firms, and consulting companies. Together, these 50 Twin Cities’ companies had more than $1 billion in revenue in their most recent fiscal year and averaged 161 percent growth since 2004. Six of the top 10 on the list, including

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