Two veteran independent manufacturer’s sales representative firms based in the southeast have joined forces. Elrep Sales and Creative Marketing Associates, Inc. are creating a joint venture, binding their respective brands and personnel together to better serve consumer, custom install, and pro-AV customers across the southeast.
Both companies have built longstanding relationships with key integrators, retailers, and distributors throughout the area, and believe the merger of these firms will enhance their ability to provide best-in-class service and support to their southeast regional marketplace.
“We are quite pleased to be joining forces with the Creative Marketing team,” said Ben Van De Kreke, co-founder of Elrep Sales, one of the most respected and tenured members of the consumer electronics industry. “The addition of Liz and Jim Kershaw and their staff, along with our newly combined stable of brands, has resulted in an impressive mix of solutions-oriented people and products that our current and prospective accounts will certainly embrace.”
“Strength in numbers will allow us meet the demands of our factory partners, and enables us to provide much better coverage to our dealer base across the South,” said Jim Kershaw, a partner in Creative Marketing. “We have been looking for an opportunity such as this for some time, but finding the right partner was proving difficult. In conversations with Ben, Honey and Steve Van de Kreke, we not only found many similarities in our overall view of the marketplace, but also total synergy in our philosophies, personalities, skill sets, and brand mix.”
The new company will be doing business as MarketMakers, Inc., and corporate offices will be maintained both in Nashville, TN and Tucker, GA. Personnel will be strategically located throughout the territory in order to provide the best possible service. More announcements will be made as the two entities work through the details.
