Founded in 1944,Paul Stricker creates, develops and distributes promotional items to professionals in the sector. The headquarters are in Coimbra, Portugal, but it has offices in 3 continents and works with over 100 countries around the world. At this particular moment, Stricker has focused its strength on some key aspects of business and market development, whose specific details are here given by CFO Alexandre Gil.

“Over this time we have invested in the team – he says. Our group has always responded positively during the lockdown months, giving consistency to our services which have been maintained at a high level. In this way, customers feel that they can find a reliable partner in Paul Stricker even in such difficult times. Everything else, from high stock to high-quality printing or the competitive pricing approach, for us at Stricker is ‘business as usual’”.

In today's environment, safety products have played an important role in the market, being the guarantee of a certain volume of activity during a time when the core business was almost completely interrupted. “In addition to the sector related to personal safety, drinkware keeps being a success among traditional promotional offers – Gil specifies. We noticed a trend for more complex demands, where companies send small, customised gift boxes for employees who are staying at home. In this case, we face more structured operations, combining nominal printing with packaging and delivery”.

Waiting for what will happen in the last months of 2020 and in view of 2021, the Stricker Group has never given up to launch new, interesting and competitive items on the market, ready to meet individual needs, continuing to improve service levels. “We have the safety catalogue and the relative collection of products, the new Christmas catalogue, the 3 new customisation techniques, the expansion of our range of lanyards, both in colours and type of products, the CFO adds, while, as far as the upgrading of our service levels is concerned, I would like to point out the introduction of 10 new languages and 9 new currencies in our communication with customers, the expansion of the warehouse in the Czech Republic for more than 5,000 square meters, the recruitment of 30 new members who joined our sales team and the launch of a revolutionary and innovative logistics service based on air deliveries. All this has happened over the last 6 months! As far as 2021 is concerned, there are several things planned but... we prefer to present them in January”.

Dynamism and resourcefulness that are linked to the desire to remain always one of the reference points of the promotional sector, an example for medium and small similar realities. “We must be always proactive, invest in people and understand the market - Alexandre Gil concludes -. It is also necessary to adopt always a direct and transparent communicative approach, select reliable partners on all fronts and not to focus, over these months, only on the segment of products required by the Covid-19 emergency: now they certainly have large volumes but they will be destined to undergo transformations and reductions in the future. We need confidence, positivity and to aim always for high levels”.