ASI® Announces Winners of 2009 Counselor Distributor Choice Awards

Leed’s Named Supplier of the Year

TREVOSE, PA – January 4, 2009 – Advertising Specialty Institute^®, the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, announced today winners of the 2009 Counselor Distributor Choice Awards and named Leed’s the Supplier of the Year.

The awards recognized the most-valued ASI suppliers in 46 product categories, as determined by ASI Supplier Performance Ratings and votes cast by ASI distributors.  More than 250 finalists were recognized and 33 suppliers named winners at a ceremony at the ASI Show in Orlando. 

“With 22,000 distributor firms in the ASI network, representing about 130,000 sales executives, ASI’s balloting for the Distributor Choice Awards really represents what the industry thinks of suppliers in individual categories and which supplier is among the best of the best as supplier of the year,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI. 

“The results can help distributors discern which supplier to do business with, since service and capabilities are often far more important than price alone,” said Andrews.  “For suppliers, the list of winners provides a guidebook in terms of who to emulate to be best in class.”

To qualify for an award, finalists must achieve an overall ASI Supplier Performance Rating of four stars or higher, have a minimum of 100 transactions reported, be nominated in an award category that represents 5% or more of their product line, and be rated by at least 40 distributors.

The Supplier of the Year award, the honor that recognizes one company with the best overall ratings from distributors, was presented to Leed’s. 

“There’s good reason why Leed’s has grown to be the second largest supplier in this $19 billion industry,” Andrews said.  “This impressive company won today for consistently outperforming its peers in the ASI Supplier Performance Ratings and for receiving the best overall rankings among the winning companies.”

Distributors can rate suppliers by accessing the ASI Supplier Performance Ratings in ESP Online through the supplier details screen or the tools menu, or by visiting the supplier ratings website at asicentral.com/supplierratings.  

Winners and finalists were recognized at a premier awards ceremony at the Hard Rock Live at Universal Studios in Orlando, and they can click here to download the official awards logo for use in their marketing materials, ads, email footers and trade show booth displays.   

To learn how the ASI Supplier Performance Ratings system works, click here for a background video.  For the list of winners and finalists, and to view photos from the ceremony, visit asicentral.com/dcawards.  For more information, contact Rich Fairfield, senior vice president and publisher, at [email protected].

About ASI
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, with a membership of over 26,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of advertising specialties.  Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to over 22,000 ASI distributor firms.  Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain nearly every product in the industry from more than 3,500 reputable suppliers, to locate supplier firms and to market services to buyers.  ASI provides catalogs, information directories, newsletters, magazines, websites and databases, and offers e-commerce, marketing and selling tools.  Visit www.asicentral.com.