Ascendant

We had spoken to them about potential options and what that could look like.

They'd spoken to who ultimately acquired us Ascendant.

They'd spoken to David because David did some, you know, they do commercial due diligence and they get an understanding of the people.

You know, the people, to Ascendant, the people are very important and what drives the team and where their strengths are is very important to understand.

So there was, you know, there was some commercial due diligence on them.

I think that's a really important point, right? It's like you're not just being acquired by anybody, right? There has to be real alignment.

There has to be real fit, you know? And I think it's, you know, I've spoken quite a lot on my short 10-minute podcast about relationships and how so much has to fit in terms of core values and trust.

Was that part of the process as well for you? Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I think it's also, you know, I was at Ascendant and I watched Cole presenting what Luma is doing with Walgreens.

And I think that there was another use case there, understanding of what do you do with an end cap? People have glossed over.

It's like, oh, yeah, we're going to have media on the end cap.

what was it? P&G had a series about tacos, I think, appearing in a grocery store.

Yeah.

So Brian Monahan talked about this at Ascendant in full detail because it was launched at Cannes, but this was the first time I got to hear about it in total.

And Rico's Tacos, fun concept, sort of TikTok native or Instagram reels native, where you have a family that's making tacos and it's sort of shorts where they are, you know, have difficult customers and those customers sort of show off in kind of stereotypical ways, like their understanding of Mexican food and things like that.

Had an opportunity to join the Quill Division of Staples in 2000.

And from there went to United Stationers, Ascendant, left Ascendant after the Sycamore purchase, went into an adjacent industry in the print finishing industry for five years.

Also was a Pinnacle dealer in that time, which was fun to be on that side of the business.

And then here I am.

Imperial Day, Brady Plus, Imperial Brady, or WB Mason and Miller's, et cetera, et cetera.

So we've got a lot of coming together.

But then we have the situation with Ascendant and things coming apart.

And it causes disruption in the marketplace, but that creates opportunity.

Now, so for RNDC, you know, they pulled out of California, they sold some markets that, you know, they just sort of shrink their way out of business.

Ascendant, they were very, as you know, they were really dependent on office supply stores right up to the point where they said, we don't serve that market at all anymore, stationers and office supply stores.

And that business just went away.

I mean, Staples, I think at their peak, they were $24 billion, right? And then like six years later, they were $18 billion.

And lastly, more large wholesalers will wind down in 2027 than in 2026.

Depends on how you define large, but yes, generally speaking, I think that's right.

I think, especially if you're a master distributor like Ascendant is, and there's those multi-step channels, some of them still work great, some of them don't.

In that case, it just didn't work anymore.