MINNEAPOLIS & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Three longtime, highly successful companies and two prominent business leaders working with tier-one retailers are joining forces as CITIES Market Studios (www.citiesms.com) to deliver a new, collaborative vision they call Creative Commerce to help retailers and manufacturers achieve their objectives and grow their businesses in new and inventive ways.
The new consolidated enterprise includes: Established Brands of Minnetonka, Minn., a 30-year-old retail services and product company; Griffin International of Minneapolis, a 19-year-old retail services and category management company; and the 10-year-old Minneapolis- and London-based U&I Entertainment, a retail and digital video game content and category aggregator.
The terms of the Griffin acquisition were not disclosed. But the new alignment of three distinctive retail service product and specialty companies now with 75 total employees will make CITIES Market Studios one of the largest business development, program management, and product development companies inside North American retail. And it will readily deepen the global reach of the new entity. Marty Hawk, the former CEO of the Established Brands and U&I Entertainment will become the CEO of the new company. Bob Griffin, the CEO and Founder of Griffin International, will remain with CITIES Market Studios as its Chief Business Officer in charge of business development.
"CITIES Market Studios will offer retailers, manufacturers and start-ups a strategic, one-stop platform of essential services -- and new, Creative Commerce solutions -- in an exciting yet daunting retail era where super connectivity and mountains of data and information are overwhelming traditional sales and marketing models," Hawk says. "We will also add to our vibrant eco-system of services in the future, including other creative and philanthropic activities designed to lead the dialogue about market conditions unique to this time in history."
"Given all the retail changes in the past year alone, Marty and I both believe that our role at CITIES is to innovate and inspire new conversations, to field a company that has meaningful scale and adaptability,” Griffin explains. “Collectively CITIES will streamline processes and develop inventive ways to ensure a product's success and to grow vital retail businesses in both new and existing markets that anticipate and influence consumer trends.”
"Established Brands and Griffin International are completely complementary companies, although separate, that are both well established and highly respected in the retail industry throughout North America," Hawk adds. "Griffin is known for execution and analytics, including business development, and market and category management, while Established Brands has a rich legacy in creative merchandising and consumer retail programs. U&I Entertainment offers a value-added supply chain, program management and systems that link to Europe, Asia and the Mideast. Now the new CITIES business model will become even more responsive to the needs and future of retailing across the globe."
For more information about CITIES Market Studios, please contact Martin Keller, Media Savant Communications, 612-729-8585, mkeller@mediasavantcom.com
About the Company Formerly Known as Established Brands
Established Brands was focused on bringing exciting, innovative, merchandising strategies, ideas, brands and products to its retail and manufacturing partners that included Target, Best Buy, Walmart, GameStop, Amazon, and others. The company worked collaboratively with retail and manufacturing partners on category and product invention and reinvention initiatives across North American retail channels and around the world.
About the Company Formerly Known as Griffin International
Griffin International was comprised of retail experts with experience in all aspects of sales and sales support, market development, merchandising, marketing, multi-channel strategy, pricing and brand growth. Its dedicated team has placed premium branded products in over 10,000 retail store locations of the top national retailers and has created billions in product sales.
About U&I Entertainment
U&I Entertainment provided a global network of independent entertainment partners that delivered new release content and products through a cost-effective, turn-key approach to retail. Its teams provided tailored strategies for each domestic and global market including pricing strategy (Sterling, Euro's, etc.), distribution and logistics, with market strategy at all the major retailers and distributors.
