Sep. 18–Hidden on the top floor of a historic Greenwich office building, a business owned by two brothers is making friends with some of the largest corporations in the nation.
Listed on the National Historical Register, The Maher Building at 309 Greenwich Ave., appears to be just another impressive old structure in the upscale commercial and retail district.
Appearances, however, can be deceiving.
When first-time customers open the door to Classic Sportswear and Promotions they often are amazed by the array of clothing, leather goods and other items that have been making marketing officers and executives at companies like Viacom’s MTV, Citigroup, General Electric, Sony, News Corp. Heineken and Pepsi-Cola happy for a decade.
Owned and operated by Michael and Daniel McGurk, the business supplies many Fortune 100 companies with logoed and personalized items for valued employees and customers.
Other clients have included NFL Properties, the New York Mets, Pinnacle Baseball Cards and Late Night with David Letterman. A few of those requests have come literally with only 24 hours notice, said Michael, who founded the business in 1992 in New York City after a stint as national sales manager for a publisher of professional sports magazines.
“We look at that as an opportunity,” Michael said, viewing the urgent request as a way to develop a long-term relationship with a corporate client.
With its walls and display areas tastefully lined by an impressive selection of items, the office suite has a comfortable appearance. Other occupants include Dominic Francia, who serves sports and corporate clients and has a background in sports marketing, and Catherine Lief, creative director, who develops products and events for corporate clients and designs packaging.
The business also has seven full-time employees who man fulfillment houses in Brooklyn and Queens, N.Y. It also has a staff of part-time workers available when needed to send out orders.
“We can mail out 5,000 items per day,” said Michael, opening a drawer to show one of the 4,000 blue dress shirts manufactured for a corporate client’s employees. The shirts were made by a company in Pennsylvania for Classic Sportswear, which buys products from more than 1,000 manufacturers and suppliers.
“We still do manufacturing through contractors with private labels,” said Daniel, who joined Michael in the business soon after he started it and is director of marketing. “Companies want something new and different. That’s where Catherine comes in.”
One long-term client is Jim Gillis, president of St. Louis-based Source Interlink Cos., which has used Classic Sportswear for golf promotional items such as logoed balls, bags and shirts.
“We tried various premium companies, but Classic far and away exceeded our expectations,” said Gillis, whose company distributes magazines to retailers and provides fixture design and manufacturing. “Their design ideas have been well received by our customers and they always deliver.”
Some requests have tested the McGurks and their staff. Daniel and Michael recalled a request from Young Broadcasting Inc., a New York City company that ordered 300 black leather bomber-style jackets emblazoned with colorful patches representing the dozen radio and television stations the company owns.
“They wanted something to motivate his sales managers,” said Michael, who pulled one of the jackets from a rack. “It took about 1 1/2 months to do.” Classic Sportwear also has done work non-profit organizations, including Hedge Funds Care, an organization founded by Stamford resident Rob Davis, a managing director of the Bank of America.
Davis started the non-profit group five years ago as a charity to assist victims of child abuse. Comprised of professionals in the hedge fund industry, the organization has tapped the Greenwich business for promotional items distributed at its events.
Classic Sportswear provided bags and golf shirts with the group’s logo for 1,200 people who attended a fund-raiser at the Marriott Marquis in New York City.
“They were fantastic. They blew everyone away. They broke their backs for us,” said Davis, impressed by their reliability.
As more companies move into Connecticut from the New York City area, Classic Sportswear has become busier serving corporate customers, and the Greenwich Avenue location is ideal, said Michael, executive vice president. “The Avenue is a great place to do conduct business. There’s an energy here,” Michael said, awaiting a visit from some General Electric employees. “Few companies are as diverse as us. The key is accountability.”
The brothers declined to comment on their revenue during the past few years, but if sales figures are any indication, business is booming. “We’ve gone up over 400 percent in sales in the past five years,” Daniel said, and they expect the figure to continue to climb with an interactive Web site, www.classicpromo.com.
The Web site is designed to enhance the visibility of its services and provide clients with online tools to manage their accounts. The site is the latest milestone in an intensive marketing campaign the business initiated in the early spring.
This month, Classic Sportswear will provide gifts for the Greenwich Film Festival, which runs from Sept. 21-27.
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(c) 2003, The Stamford Advocate, Conn. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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