AIA Celebrates Record-Breaking Year, Honors Owner Community

AIA hosted a red-carpet celebration celebrating a successful year and its owners' achievements.

AIA Corporation, Neenah, Wis., hosted a red-carpet celebration at Celebrity Cars of Las Vegas during the 2019 PPAI Expo this week, to commemorate a record-breaking year and recognize the achievements of its owner community.

Matt Gresge, CEO of AIA Corporation, kicked off the celebration by announcing AIA’s second consecutive year of exceeding sales goals, with 2018 revenue reaching $194.9 million, up 11.1 percent from 2017. Additionally, AIA owner sales growth was strong, as 75 owners grew their sales by 10 percent or greater.

“In 2018, we took great strides to be a catalyst for change in the face of a rapidly-changing industry,” Gresge said. “We prioritized working smarter to accomplish more. We did that by hiring smart and committed leaders; developing a cloud-based platform to help owners do more in less time; prioritizing our Owner Success Management program to provide customized sales and business coaching; and investing in critical data analysis to help owners make educated decisions, specifically when it comes to sales planning, anticipating inputs and outputs, and increasing gross margins on goods sold.”

Gresge also encouraged the owner community to develop success and sales growth goals for 2019, set a plan, find a Mastermind group, and measure and adjust along the way. He detailed how AIA will walk alongside owners to provide the support needed to make these goals and plans a reality.

“I’m a big proponent of visualizing goals and then training our brains to achieve the desired outcomes,” Gresge said.

In the spirit of transparency and accountability, Gresge detailed AIA’s goals for 2019, which include:

• Grow owners’ sales and achieve a revenue goal of $210 million
• Build the AIA community by welcoming at least 20 new distributors
• Continue to serve AIA’s owners by matching innovative resources with their different needs
• Build and strengthen AIA’s partnerships with key suppliers and support their sales growth to be commensurate with AIA’s
• Continue developing the strongest leadership team in the promotional products industry
• Recognize and celebrate the success and achievements of owners, suppliers and employees

Additionally, during the event, AIA recognized owners with AIA awards. Awards were presented for outstanding performance in a variety of areas, including business execution and sales, peer engagement with the AIA community, MVP supplier engagement and overall leadership.

For more information on AIA, visit www.aiacommunity.com.