A bit hidden in a letter today from S&S CEO Frank Myers to customers was this tidbit, “Following a thoughtful evaluation, we have determined that we will gradually exit the apparel decorating business (an alphabroder offering), with the expectation that this will be completed by the end of March 2025. ”

A big fear in this world where anti-trust laws have been weakened or ignored,  harkening back to the evils of the US a hundred years, this is a startling development. We are down to two big distributors, SanMar and S&S/Alphabroder and thereby leaving printers without a lot of options. The big fear was that the opposite of this would happen, that now with the merger with Alphabroder who offered decorating,  S&S would also offer decorating.

Many of us felt that buying from a company that was competing with us and competing with unfair advantage (they buy shirts for less than we do…) was not something we were happy about. This then is good news indeed.