A former professional baseball player turned business pro, Jason Miller has seamlessly moved from opportunity to opportunity with the energy and fortitude characteristic of any true athlete. His latest play is heading up Largo, Florida-based supplier Camsing Global, LLC, as president. During the past year, Miller has been instrumental in building the company’s dream team with the acquisition of seven major supplier lines: Senator, Dart, Advalite, Toppers, It’s All Greek To Me, Falcon and Avaline. Camsing’s website proclaims that the company operates in six countries, runs seven factories, maintains 14 offices and employs 3,000 individuals worldwide.
Miller says these companies make more sense together than individually. “When you put them together and leverage the operational efficiencies, one management team, one infrastructure … it looks pretty good,” he says. “All of these brands mean something to distributors in the industry. You had Toppers, Avaline, It’s All Greek To Me, Senator writing instruments, Dart business accessories, Avaline lapel pins—they all tell their own little story.”
Last year, Camsing began acquiring Dallas, Texas-based Senator Promotional Group USA, Inc. (UPIC: DART) and Largo, Florida-based supplier Corvest. The Senator deal was completed in January 2011, with Corvest following two months later. Parsippany, New Jersey-based Avaline (UPIC: AVALINE) was acquired in July.
“Looking back to August and September of last year, not knowing week to week if we were going to be able to keep the doors open here, literally, and where we are today—hiring, growing our sales and starting to make a little bit of money—it’s been quite a success story. Not for a lack of effort, I can tell you.”
Before the acquisitions began, Miller was president of Corvest, and the business was on shaky ground. “It wasn’t three months into the gig at Corvest that I realized the new owner (Siglo Holdings, Corvest Acquisition, Inc.) had some financial constraints as it related to being able to grow the company,” Miller recalls. “Corvest is an inventory-driven company, which requires a lot of cash out of pocket to secure the inventory and bring it in before you sell it. It was tough.”
Worried about the future of the company, Miller reached out to Billy Dolan, owner and CEO of Camsing and a long-time industry colleague, for help.
“I said, ‘Hey, I could use you from a supply-chain perspective. I need terms, I need good quality and I need the right price,” Miller says.
The rest is now industry history. The only remaining question is how Miller was able to get all the players in position.
“For the past few years, I’ve said jokingly that I’ve done a good job of being number two,” Miller says. “I was never the guy in the spotlight. I was the guy who would put the pieces together.”
Yet putting all the pieces together is one of the most important parts. “Jason has a fantastic organizational mind coupled with an entrepreneurial edge that rivals any business owner,” says Billy Dolan. “His fantastic hold on the day-to-day business operations allows me to focus on rounding out and improving our global business.”
His work in the day-to-day helped Miller get to know industry players. “When a deal was struck, what people would appreciate with me is that I would tell them like it is, and I would do what I say. People appreciate bad news as much as good news as long as you’re to the point, and they understand where you stand and where they stand with you. Relationships are key, especially in this industry.”
Miller started building industry relationships in the mid-’90s when he went to work for Amsterdam Printing, which had recently been acquired by Eagan, Minnesota-based Taylor Corporation—which owns both supplier and distributor companies. The job had him sourcing products from overseas factories. “I had no experience in that whatsoever. I had to get my passport for the job,” Miller recalls.
Prior to Amsterdam, Miller’s experience included earning a communications degree from The College of Saint Rose in upstate New York, a few seasons with the Texas Rangers and founding a community newspaper.
At Amsterdam, Miller continued to build relationships. “It was pre-web and pre-e-mail, so everything was done via fax machine. I faxed all my meeting requests to a bunch of factories I’d never heard of, say, on a Tuesday, and I would come in Wednesday and get responses along with their addresses in Chinese so I could give them to a taxi driver when I got over there,” Miller recalls. “Most didn’t materialize into a whole lot, but the ones that did are still to this day vendors that I use here and for different companies I’ve worked for in the industry.”
After Amsterdam, Miller worked for St. Petersburg, Florida-based supplier Hit Promotional Products (UPIC: HITP0001) before moving on to work in marketing for Hagaman, New York-based distributor Union Pen—which did a lot of work in direct mail.
“In the midst of 2001, with the anthrax scare … the direct-mail industry was hit with a major setback, so our business model was significantly impacted by those events,” Miller explains. “There were large mail campaigns sent out that were never responded to—they were either quarantined at a holding area by the post office or just not delivered.”
The financial impact was devastating, so the owner of Union Pen began looking for a buyer, and Taylor Corp., Miller’s past employer, scooped it up.
Miller, however, opted to not to stay on and instead went to work for Tampa, Florida-based supplier BIC Graphic USA (UPIC: BIC). The job had him working in a senior-level marketing role, with launching a new product line as one of his first projects. Miller’s work on the Solis By BIC line, among other things, earned him a spot as the company’s marketing manager for North America. Before long he was overseeing marketing worldwide for the company and working on major BIC acquisitions such as Atchison Products, Norwood and Antalis (Europe).
“The sourcing aspect wasn’t new at that point; it was understanding the BIC philosophy and culture,” Miller says. “BIC was a great company to work for. They had a lot of resources and surrounded themselves with really good people.”
After eight years at BIC, Miller picked up and moved down the street to Corvest. “It was a pretty low-risk decision for me to leave. I didn’t need to relocate my family anywhere; it was literally down the street from BIC.”
As it turns out, the move to Corvest wasn’t entirely easy, Miller says, due to fewer resources under Siglo Holdings than Miller expected, but it paid off in the acquisition of seven major lines and the partnership with Camsing Global.
“We have a few other strategic partnerships and acquisitions that we’re continuing to look at, so by no stretch are we finished,” Miller says. “Our intention when we put this together was to be one of the largest, easiest to do business with suppliers in the industry.”
Get To Know Jason Miller
His Favorite Non-Work Activity
Karaoke. “My wife’s humiliated by it, I’m humiliated by it. It’s not good. I think I’m back on the wagon with that. I try to tailor it now, or pick random-enough cities where I know no one will know me. I wish I were kidding.”
His Secret To Success
“I don’t know. I’ve been so entrenched in everything I’ve done that I’ve never looked at it as being successful. You need to enjoy what you do. If you don’t it becomes a job, and that’s not fun.”
His Biggest Regret
“My biggest regret is probably giving up on my professional baseball career before it gave up on me. But I’ve got two small boys and a daughter now, and I can live vicariously through their sports and activities.”
Tama Underwood
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