In addition, ASI honored the Supplier Salesperson of the Year, Meghan Kory, key account manager at Top 40 supplier Hit Promotional Products (asi/61125); the Supplier Customer Service Rep of the Year, Tiffani Burlingame, customer service manager at Top 40 supplier Evans Manufacturing (asi/52840); and the Distributor Salesperson of the Year, Brett Marz, co-founder of Top 40 distributor BAMKO (asi/131431).

The individual winners, along with the top vote-getting companies, were celebrated during an online awards ceremony. During the virtual event, ASI shared highlights from each individual winner’s accomplishments in 2020, followed by short acceptance speeches winners recorded themselves. Gemline’s video featured over 15 employees from across the company.

“This was no ordinary year,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI, in announcing the ceremony’s top award. “Pushing through a global health and economic crisis required extraordinary effort, leadership and teamwork. It took a trusted provider – the industry’s go-to supplier for high-quality branded product solutions and, above all, critically-needed PPE. In a word, it took Gemline – our 2021 Supplier of the Year.”

Founded in 1958, Gemline is a premier supplier of bags, business accessories, stationery, drinkware, gifts and writing instruments. Headquartered in Lawrence, MA, with an office in Southern China, Gemline was No. 13 on Counselor’s most recent ranking of suppliers with the most revenue in the promo industry. In 2020, despite the pandemic, Gemline achieved record company sales, provided more philanthropic support than ever to worthy causes and increased U.S. staffing levels by about 30% to 500 people.

Throughout the crisis, Gemline Chairman/CEO Jonathan Isaacson hosted a voluminous number of educational webinars and podcasts for the industry on COVID-19 and PPE, while bringing in new lines that tapped into markets flourishing because of the virus: Osprey, Modern Sprout, American Red Cross-branded items, Soapbox and Beekman 1802.

To determine finalists for the Counselor Distributor Choice Awards (CDCA), Counselor examined multiple levels of Supplier Performance Ratings data in ASI’s ESP^®, as well as clicks suppliers received for their products within specific categories. Finalists needed to have at least 15 distributor ratings, received at least a four-star rating overall throughout the past year, and been ranked among the top click-getters in their category in ESP. Once the 522 finalists were chosen, winners were voted on by ASI distributors across North America, who cast over 34,000 votes.