Overture Promotions acquires Swedish distributor Brandon

WAUKEGAN – Overture Promotions has acquired Brandon, a branded merchandise agency headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, with an office in Shanghai.

The company will keep its name and structure, operating as a member of the Overture Marketing Group. Brandon CEO Amanda Wyatt will continue in that role, reporting to Overture CEO Jo Gilley.

Originally founded as a logistics and trading company in 1987, Brandon began working with its first branded merchandise customer in 2000, and Volvo Cars still is a customer two decades later. Brandon was acquired by PUMA in 2009 and sold back to management in 2016, with PUMA still a customer today.

“The Brandon team is so impressive, from their wildly creative approach to creating custom-branded merchandise portfolios for their customers, to their world-class systems and infrastructure, to their well-run distribution center,” Gilley said in a news release. “We are already hitting the ground running, collaborating on several global customers and creating opportunities to learn from each other – a true win-win for our customers and employees.”

Brandon will participate through Overture in the Brand Unbound global network, co-founded by Overture in 2019. The network of best-in-market promotional product experts have a shared mission of giving enterprise-level clients global thinking and management with local execution.

The acquisition is backed by Overture’s parent company, Westbridge Capital, a Canadian private equity firm with a long-term view of growing its portfolio companies. Together, Brandon and Overture Promotions form the newly created Overture Marketing Group, with plans to expand it through strategic acquisitions and geographical expansion.

Overture is certified minority-owned, woman-led and a top 25 distributor of branded merchandise, with 2023 sales of $122 million and a 2023 Silver EcoVadis rating. Overture’s hallmark is its end-to-end in-house services, including global sourcing and shipping, graphic design, webstore development, screen printing, embroidery, kitting and pick pack, which give the company internal controls over cost, quality, turnaround time and accuracy.