Expo Bound: Numo's Jim Martin on the Next Wave of Promo Growth

As PRINTING United Expo approaches, Promo Impressions is catching up with promotional products decorators and suppliers to discuss industry trends, growth opportunities, and what they're looking forward to at the year's event. For this edition, we spoke with Jim Martin, president of Numo Manufacturing and a member of PRINTING United Alliance.

Where is your business seeing growth right now?

Jim Martin, Numo Manufacturing

We are seeing growth through product expansion primarily.  We feel like the size of our market (promo) has plateaued, and any growth being reported there is measured by distributor sales. I think growth opportunities for distributors lie in selling services other than traditional promo. Think kitting, drop shipping, 3PL, etc. So, for us, in that environment, we need to develop new products that people want.

What customer demands or print/decoration trends are having the biggest impact on the promotional products industry?

Digital and, more specifically, DTF are having the biggest impact right now. The technology is getting better, and distributors and end users are demanding smaller and smaller order quantities.

What do you think will be the biggest opportunity or challenge for promo products decorators over the next year?

Managing the rate at which technology is improving. Equipment innovation is improving so quickly; this year’s CapEx spend can be obsolete next year.  Finding that balance is challenging for sure.

What technologies, applications, or production workflows are you hoping to see demonstrated live at PRINTING United Expo?

I’m sure it will be interesting to see how AI is integrated into workflows for processing art. Like other technologies, it is getting close to being able to own the end-to-end workflow from receipt of art from the customer to output, even if the output is not digital. We are not a POD shop, and a ton of our art comes in really rough.