Creates Industry’s First ‘One-Stop-Shop’ Offering Customers a Comprehensive Selection of Promotional Apparel and Products from a Single Distributor
TREVOSE, PA December 18, 2017 — alphabroder, the leading North American distributor of imprintable sportswear and accessories and portfolio company of Littlejohn & Co., LLC, closed its acquisition of Prime Line, an industry-leading manufacturer and supplier of promotional products for more than three decades.
Since its founding in 1980, Prime Line has introduced many innovative products and services and today offers more than 1700 products across 16 categories. It features exclusive brands such as MopToppers™, Leeman New York, Rubik’s® and BUILT® as well as numerous product collections. In 2016, it acquired Jetline, which was rebranded as Prime Line’s value line. Source Abroad by Prime is the company’s custom and overseas sourcing division offering fully custom products as well as fast turn import items. A founding member of QCA, Prime Line has an industry leading focus on product safety and regulatory compliance. The company will remain headquartered in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
“I have long known and respected Prime Line and its family leadership. This is a significant acquisition and the combination of our companies will create the industry’s first true ‘one-stop-shop’ offering our customers a new level of convenience, service and solutions,” said Norman Hullinger, CEO of alphabroder.
“We strongly believe in the evolving mission of alphabroder as a value added distributor of a complete assortment of imprintable products, both soft, and now hard goods,” said Drew Greenwood, Principal of Littlejohn & Co. “With hard goods being a larger market that is even more fragmented than apparel, alphabroder is well positioned to continue growing both organically and through additional acquisitions,” added David Simon, Managing Director of Littlejohn & Co.
Prime Line is alphabroder’s third strategic acquisition in recent years having added Bodek and Rhodes in 2015 and Ash City in 2014, each of which were leading manufacturers and distributors of prom0otional apparel in North America.
Jeff Lederer, along with the Prime Line management team, will join the alphabroder management team and continue to operate Prime Line.
About Littlejohn & Co., LLC
Littlejohn & Co. is a Greenwich, Connecticut-based investment firm focused on private equity and debt investments primarily in middle market companies. With over $5 billion under management, the Firm seeks to create long-term value for its investors and build sustainable success for its portfolio companies through a disciplined approach to engineering change. For more information about Littlejohn, visit www.littlejohnllc.com.
About alphabroder
Founded in 1919, alphabroder is North America’s largest distributor of trade, private label and retail apparel brands and merchandise to the promotional products marketplace. alphabroder offers more than 40 brands including a broad selection of retail and trade brands from Under Armour, Bella + Canvas, Next Level, Threadfast, adidas, Columbia, Marmot, Gildan, Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, and many others as well as sourcing our own Private Brands.
Contacts:
Jonathan Gasthalter/Nathaniel Garnick
Gasthalter & Co.
(212) 257-4170
