Executive Data Control buys Memphis company

First came embroidery in 2011. Now, following the Dec. 17 close on the purchase of a Memphis, Tenn.-based company, Springfield-based printing and supply-chain management firm Executive Data Control Inc. has added screen-printing services.

Following three years of incremental revenue growth, EDC owner Stephen Visio made the move after his chance meeting at an October screen-printing conference in Las Vegas with former Evangel University football standout John Wachob.

EDC specializes in working directly with businesses to establish product-purchasing systems and drive down supply-chain costs, as well as produce business cards and marketing materials, Visio said.

Wachob, a Memphis, Tenn., native, owned and operated Sundial Shirt Co., which pulled in $1.2 million revenues in 2012 working with a handful of national clients, including Springfield-based Convoy of Hope. A 1997 Evangel graduate, he owned Sundial for 10 years before moving to Nixa in July. Wachob said he and his wife met at Evangel, and they decided to raise their 7-year-old son in the Springfield area. He said he left the company in the capable hands of a manager last summer, not knowing exactly what opportunities would present themselves in the Ozarks.

“I was going back every week or two to check in, and with phone and emails, I would stay in touch. That’s when I met Steve,” Wachob said.

When he attended the conference in October, Wachob was considering selling screen-printing equipment for a living. Visio was hoping to learn more about the equipment. After they met in Las Vegas, a brief courtship followed and the sale closed within two months. Visio said Wachob began moving equipment into the 5,000-square-foot leased space across the street from EDC’s 4331 W. Calhoun St. office the day after Christmas. In all, the move cost $12,000 and the site setup cost $35,000.

Terms of the asset-purchase of Sundial included $600,000 cash and a long-term employment agreement for Wachob, as well as a 6 percent share of EDC each year for five years until Wachob owns 30 percent of the business.

Funding support for the deal came from a $450,000 low-interest loan through the state treasurer’s Missouri Linked Deposit Program and underwritten by OakStar Bank. On Feb. 22, Missouri Treasurer Clint Zweifel visited the EDC office and touted the program.

Five employees have been added to the EDC staff of 16 with the buyout. The company plans to hire at least five more workers and invest $100,000 in a new screen-printing machine.

“He had 10 people doing the work they had in Memphis on two machines. We’re going to have three machines,” Visio said. “There’s a good chance we’ll end up with 15 people.”

EDC, which was founded in 1967 by Visio’s uncle, has a history of selling computer forms for printing – which still accounts for roughly 60 percent of its annual revenues – but has evolved into a supply-chain management firm focused on reducing business costs and creating promotional products. Its client list includes O’Reilly Automotive Inc., Oxford HealthCare and Ferrell-Duncan Clinic. Visio said Bass Pro Shops has been a client since the 1970s and today accounts for 30 percent of EDC’s annual revenues.

In September 2011, EDC purchased the assets of Nixa-based Marketing Partners Inc., which did business as Embroidery House. The move, according to Visio, gave the company new expertise in corporate apparel and promotional products, which fit like a glove with EDC’s focus on supply-chain management.

After missing out on a big contract with an Indianapolis-based firm last year, Visio said he knew adding screen-printing capabilities would strengthen the company’s service options and make EDC more attractive to clients seeking to reduce costs.

EDC sales were $4.2 million in 2008 before the recession hit and revenues dropped to $2.6 million in 2009. That’s when Visio got busy forming a strategy for long-term viability.

“If your sales are going down or flat, your strategy is off and you’ve got to change,” Visio said.

EDC slowly climbed back to $3.4 million in sales last year, and Visio said he expects to generate $4.5 million in 2013.

“We’re in growth mode,” he said. “We are profitable, we are well-capitalized, and we are on to something.”

Three years ago, Visio said he went to Indianapolis and earned a $500,000 business-stationary contract. Last year, after the purchase of Embroidery House, he bid on a $4 million apparel contract.

“We made it to third place,” Visio said, declining to name the company. “We won the business stationary contract again – they expanded it to $700,000 – but we missed the apparel contract, and that’s what this is about. We are going to be able to take that kind of contract on.

“I want to be able to go after that as a $5 million company (saying), ‘Look at my capabilities, now,’” Visio said.

Beyond being close to his new home, the acquisition is beneficial for Wachob because it allows him to focus his energies on screen printing. He said Sundial’s operations can take advantage of EDC’s existing accounting, customer service, and shipping and receiving departments, as well as its management team.

“At Sundial, it was two or three people wearing all of those hats,” Wachob said. “We weren’t good at payroll, accounting, insurance, taxes – they are good at all of that.”[[In-content Ad]]