Due to severe flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Norwood has been unable to operate out of its Souvenir Writing Instruments facility since Wednesday, June 11. The company has temporarily transferred production to its Red Wing, Minn., facility as it repairs the Souvenir facility and its equipment. As of Friday, August 1, the company was excited to announce it has been able to reduce its production lead times to 10 days and will now be able to offer two-color imprints on select products. For more information on Norwood and its flood recovery efforts, visit http://www.norwood.com/files/press_room/Release-CR_Update_08-01.pdf
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Norwood’s Souvenir Cedar Rapids, Iowa Factory Update
Due to severe flooding Norwood’s Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Souvenir writing instruments plant has been unable to operate out of the company’s facility since Wednesday, June 11. The company has temporarily transferred production to its Red Wing, Minn. facility as repairs are made to the Souvenir facility and its equipment. As of Monday, July 28, the company was excited to announce it is able to take orders on 112 writing instruments and further are also reducing production lead times to 12 days on all of the products. Norwood thanks all customers for patience and continued support as they are working around the
Read MoreNorwood’s Souvenir Plant Begins to Rebuild
As reported in June, Norwood’s Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Souvenir writing instruments facility experienced severe flooding resulting in extensive damage to the plant and tremendous impact on the lives of our employees and the community at large. The company is pleased to announce salvage and clean-up is complete and on July 14 received the necessary building permits to begin reconstruction. Norwood’s Souvenir facility is in one of the areas worst hit, with 10 feet of river water flooding the plant and requiring the entire facility to be completely gutted. While the plant’s infrastructure was destroyed, the company was able to salvage some of the
Read MoreSouvenir Writing Instruments Announces 84 Items Back in Production
Due to severe flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Souvenir Writing Instruments has not been able to operate out of its facility since June 11. The company temporarily transferred production to its Red Wing, Minn facility as it worked to repair flood-caused damage to the facility and equipment. As of Monday, July 14, the company was excited to announce it is able to take orders on 84 writing instruments—asking customers to allow 15 days for production on all of these products. The company thanks all its customers for their patience and continued support as they work hard to make repairs and meet customer
Read MoreNorwood Launches Searchable Safety Report Library
Indianapolis-based Norwood Promotional Products announces the launch of Safety Search, Norwood’s exclusive online repository of product safety test reports for more than 2,000 Norwood products. These reports are available for download on the distributor portion of its Web site, www.norwood.com. “Product safety is the biggest issue we face as an industry,” said Paul M. Lage, MAS, CEO and president of Norwood. “At Norwood, we have made product safety our number-one priority and are in the process of testing every imprint ink and product we sell. These reports provide promotional products distributors with the information and peace of mind they need to sell our products
Read MoreA Caring Industry
As people have probably seen from both this week’s and last’s newsletter, there is no end to the compassion shown by the suppliers and distributors of this industry. With the two tragedies, the earthquake in China and the continuing flooding in the Midwest, came news of devastation that needs no elaboration. What also came was a true outpouring of support. Journalbooks, Norwood, PPAI amd Hub Pen are just a few of the companies and organizations providing support and relief efforts. I hope everyone will consider donating to help make their efforts a success. Below are links to articles from last week’s newsletter.
Journalbooks Aims
Norwood Souvenir Plant and Employees Devastated in Midwest Flooding
On Wednesday June 11, Norwood’s Souvenir writing instruments facility and the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa experienced a “once in a thousand years” flood, exacting a devastating toll on the lives of all the employees in Norwood’s Souvenir facility as well as the Cedar Rapids community at large. “On behalf of the entire Norwood family, we are now focusing our attention on our employee’s recovery efforts as well as deploying contingency plans to meet the needs of our customers. We will continue to update customers with direct phone contacts and with postings on our Web site, www.norwood.com, with the most recent information as
Read MoreLaunch! Norwood Rolls Out New Web Presence
Indianapolis-based Norwood Promotional Products announced the launch of an updated Web site. Norwood has been working on revisions to the site to make navigation and searching for products more intuitive, convenient and user-friendly. In addition, the Web site has been redesigned with a cleaner look and feel as well as improved speed and structure. Some of the updates include: • Products arranged by category and Norwood brand • Unique product and category URLs for easy reference • An updated search engine with advanced sort criteria • Expanded search functions including multiple product searches Improved speed and easier navigation •
Read MoreVote For Promo Marketing Excellence Awards Finalists
Philadelphia-based Promo Marketing magazine, the source of product and marketing information for distributor sales professionals, announced the finalists for the 2008 Supplier Excellence Awards. The Excellence Awards are the industry’s objective standard for supplier achievement and will honor winners in more than 30 categories, spanning the range of promotional products. “The entire Promo Marketing staff is very excited to have the Excellence Awards underway,” said Matthew Barnes, publisher of Promo Marketing. “We’re pleased to offer distributors an objective platform to recognize their best supplier partners.” Nearly 200 finalists have been chosen. Voting is currently taking place and will continue through May 30 to determine
Read MoreiPROMOTEu Announces Industry-Wide Dunk Fest 2008
Wayland, Massachusetts-based iPROMOTEu announced the establishment of Dunk Fest 2008, the first ever NCAA college basketball tournament challenge exclusively for the promotional products industry. The goal of Dunk Fest is to create enthusiasm and spirit, and to foster friendly competition, among those working in the promotional products industry. Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), based in Trevose, Pa., and Norwood Promotional Products of Indianapolis are also sponsoring Dunk Fest 2008. In years past, iPROMOTEu organized a tournament challenge just for its affiliates and preferred suppliers. This year, iPROMOTEu decided to open up its tournament challenge to the entire promotional products industry. Four winners will be recognized
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