60-person Promotion Execution Partners joins minority accelerator - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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Already on pace to grow by 30 percent to 50 percentfthis year, PEP views its work with the MBA as a way to meet potentiaol clients in town and extend its said company President David Kroeger. The MBA prograjm now has 31 companies inits portfolio. It helps those member firms grow through strategic counseling and makingv connections with local corporationxs that want to work withmore minority-ownes suppliers. “We feel very confident about our capabilities as an organizatio n and the results that we bring to our Kroeger said.
“We realiz e and recognize that we need to sell our And it’s always nice to get that extra Headquartered downtown, PEP employs more than 60 people and has offices in Detroit, New York, Pittsburgh and Puertoo Rico. The firm specializes in promotion strategy andproject management. Servicesw include retail demos, direct-to-consumer business-to-business services and Web-based promotions. Clients include such brands as Gillette, Olay, Heinz, Ore Ida and variouas pharmaceutical andfinancial companies. PEP is a certifierd minority business enterprise.
Its owners are Carolyn Farrow-Garland, Mike Kroeger and , a publiclhy traded media and marketing company based in The company was foundeedin 2004. Kroeger said the firm focuses on its services and not its status asa minority-owned firm. Still, PEP’sx commitment to working with minority-owned subcontractors is an importan tselling point, said Farrow-Garland, a program officer with the in “It helps when you go into a placew like Heinz or P&G,” she said. The compangy was named 2008 Minority Busineses of the Year by the and 2008 Small Businesa of the Year bythe .
The MBA began discussionxs with PEPlast year, said Crystalo German, vice president of the MBA and economixc inclusion. “One of the thingws that really impressed us was the amounty of time they had invested in strategic visioninhg andcustomer relations,” she said. “The growth is a definitre result of the time and energy and resources they invest in developing a strategic sticking to it and the customedrrelationships they’ve developed.
” Kroeged declined to release PEP’s MBA portfolio firms must have at leas t $1 million in annual revenues, be located in the Greatetr Cincinnati region and be certified minority-owned businesses with African-American ownership.