One-Stop Shop Field Report
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Cincinnati – With four company acquisitions in the past three years, KDM P.O.P. Solutions Group calls itself a one-stop shop for clients’ needs. Through expansion and other investments the company adds custom retail design, new equipment and an online tracking tool to its current printing services.
The most recent acquisition took place when KDM and the former NDI Retail joined forces. Bringing in NDI has enabled the company to pair point-of-purchase printing with full retail environments. The division, called KDM Retail, specializes in the design, manufacture and installation of retail spaces, including permanent signage, displays and fixtures. According to Mark Koking, national sales manager, the acquisition grew from meeting the needs of KDM’s customers.
“Our goal at KDM is to constantly look to other opportunities and markets within the P-O-P industry and grow internally by acquisition.” NDI, a long-term customer of KDM, was a great fit, he says, not only for NDI’s customer base, but for KDM’s as well.
Jim Jaeger, who heads up business development and is the former owner of NDI, says, “We offer a total turnkey approach, not just from the graphics side, but for the entire department or environment.”
The acquisitions of World of Plastics, Advanced Digital & Screen Printing and Bruce Plastics in the last few years increased the company’s custom plastic fabrication and distribution, and specific printing capabilities.
KDM P.O.P. Solutions can now work with different levels through advertising, merchandising, store planning or purchasing. “All of these groups are at times working independently of each other and we can help merge those opportunities and really bring to the table a better understanding of their company and create a brand on the same page as what their company goals are.”
Koking says that prior to the acquisition, KDM focused mainly on non-permanent P-O-P solutions. “What NDI brought to KDM was more than just permanent P-O-P, but also fixturing, wayfinding signage and a host of other capabilities,” he says, including its capabilities in design and problem-solving.
While KDM’s print division and KDM Retail (operating in the former NDI facility) will remain in two separate buildings only blocks from each other, Koking says the company is able to streamline the processes of how KDM P.O.P. does business from the customer service side all the way through distribution. “Our capabilities complement each other,” he says, and helps KDM control the process by keeping printing, plastic and metal fabrication in house. Speed to market was another driving factor in the company’s joining forces, he says.
The company houses more than 36 printing presses, including the latest technologies in screen, offset, digital and other printing techniques. It recently purchased an HP Scitex FB7500, which is said to be HP’s fastest large-format flatbed digital printer to date. The machine can print on flexible and rigid media, up to 105 4-foot by 8-foot sheets in one hour.
KDM Retail works with wood, metal and plastics to create complete environments, if needed, says Jaeger, including space planning of the entire environment, complete color finishes for that environment, wall interior décor programs, permanent departmental, category, product and/or wayfinding signage programs and both permanent displays and store fixtures that complement display programs.
Koking says the company also now offers what it calls branding solutions — from logo stools and counter mats to exterior wind flags and inflatables. “It was important for us to get into that market and be able to offer our customer that full umbrella,” says Koking. “Instead of P-O-P per se, it’s more of branding on an outside and inside level.”
Developed internally and constantly evolving, the company also offers its customers Intellitrak, an online program to order and track specific point-of-purchase campaigns. Koking says it was important for the company to offer an online procurement system so customers could view and track items that are being produced for them.
“The system gathers very good data and allows for online reporting in real-time,” he says. “If one of our customers is doing a P-O-P program for a certain line of business within their organization, the Intellitrak system can give them data indicating sales versus marketing spend. That allows them to determine if they’re getting a good bang for their buck on their marketing message.” Clients, he says, are helping KDM with growing and evolving the system as they suggest how it can work better for them. Its capabilities to act as a fulfillment solution is an added benefit, Koking says. “I like to look at our system as much more than an online procurement system. It’s an intelligent system that helps companies manage their P-O-P process a lot stronger than they are currently doing.”
