Defined.
True Innovation – is coming up with a product that the customer didn’t even know they needed.
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We live in a visual society.
A family-owned business with origins in architecture and a legacy of high quality, very visible products designed to enhance the human experience. 32 years of ideas, design, creativity, adaptation, innovation and entrepreneurialspirit have kept this company in a worldclass legion, capable of seizing opportunity and succesfully building equity.
Consort Brands: Kalamazoo Banner Works® KBW Bannerflex Brackets® FlagTrax® Abstracta® Display One® Dori Pole® Podia® Kalamazoo WaterJet
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Today – the challenge is in standing out, being noticed. Our products are seen by millions of people every day. Clients depend on our products for visual impact, functionality, adaptability and durability.
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Our products are made to be seen...
Ideas
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Mya • Personal Table by Abstracta
...and, to be there when you need them.
Core Focus
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Enhancing the world around us + Solving challenges with unique products.
• Innovation • Adaptation • Entrepreneurial Spirit KBW Bannerflex® Bracket (Pantented)
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Core Intellectual Capital Cutting edge technology.
Inspiration – 1983 Kalamazoo, MI By 1994: 50 states 1,900 U.S. Cities Canada (all 5 provinces) Mexico United Kingdom BannerFlex®
LunchNotes®
New Facility
Kalamazoo Banner Works
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1983
What sparked the founding of this business?
1984
1985
1986
Roger M. Lepley (Lepley/Yurk Architects) created Kalamazoo Banner Works, (today Consort Display Group}, based on a request from the City of Kalamazoo for vertical street pole banners. The new company was the first to market this new product, both nationally and internationally – and to manufacture (patented) banner brackets, designed to spill wind and reduce wind force on the banner and light pole. In 1985 Roger introduced a specialty gift item (LunchNotes®), designed by KBW’s first employee Edward Tereshinski.
Perfomance Plus IDEAS
INNOVATION INGENUITY
Inc. 500!
1989
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Display One
1992
The vast popularity of LunchNotes (as seen on the Johnny Carson and Today shows), helped sell millions of foam sandwiches – enabling Roger to direct profits back, into the fledgling banner company. Production of LunchNotes also provided jobs for McKercher Rehabilitation Center. Forty employees of the local nonprofit assembled, packaged and prepared the gift item for shipping. 1989 – Inc. Magazine named KBW as one of the nation’s fastest growing 500 private companies.
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Abstracta /Mya
1998
2003 2004 2006 2007 2014
Podia® BannerFlex Airow® Dori Pole® WaterJet Services FlagTrax®
Challenges – Peak Perfomance
Roger M. Lepley, President Consort Display Group
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What challenges did the founder and his team overcome to build the business?
The primary goal was to alleviate a long-standing problem associated with attaching banners to exterior street poles – excessive wind loading. Roger and the KBW team designed the highly innovative BannerFlexŽ bracket which evolved into state-of-the-art hardware used on virtually every street pole banner in the world. By 1998, the KBW bracket received a U.S. patent and was recognized for its unique ability to mount to any pole configuration without custom tools or adapting plates.
Pioneer Thinking – Innovative Produc
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What made + makes this business stand out?
Consort Display Group has always been recognized as being “unique within the visual display industry.” It’s a very diverse company that offers creative ideas and a strong focus on design, as well as innovative and diverse product lines. These products had no other model and are unique both within their industry and that they are sold globally. Roger has consistently created innovative products that fill customer needs – for which there are no similar products available on the market. Consort (from its inception as KBW) bootstraps new ideas to life and subsequently supports their growth through acquisition of subcontractors and new product lines.
ct Lines FlagTrax • New! Street Pole Display
The company has grown from a single productinnovation (street pole banners) to a full-service, design and innovation-oriented manufacturer of seven distinctive, visual display product lines – growing into a multi-million dollar firm.
Podia
TableTop Display
Select examples of intellectual capital: ® KBW BannerFlex bracket – designed, tested, improved and patented.
Abstracta® Modular Display System – acquired, brought to Kalamazoo, MI and further developed into unique new products (i.e. Mya®) using the highly recognized and sophisticated Abstracta technology.
Abstracta Retail Display
Accomplishments – Roger Lepley - Marketer of the Year KBW - 14th Fastest Growing Private Company in MI (Michigan Business Magazine)
1989/May
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What has this business achieved? Where is it now?
Consort Display Group/Roger M. Lepley Current interests and affiliations Membership in the American Institute of Architects, AIA
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Members of: Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts Kalamazoo County Chamber of Commerce the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Specialty Graphics Imaging Association (among other associations). Advisory Board for Education for Employment, Kalamazoo Public Schools. Guest speaker on “Entrepreneurship” for KRESA.
Roger Lepley - Governor’s Award for Excellence in Design 1977 (by Design Michigan through the Michigan Council for the Arts - for Flying Colors)
KBW Patents -
(United States Patent & Trademark Office) No. 4880195 KBW BannerFlex hardware No. 7930847 Podia Tabletop Display
Roger Lepley - Honor Award (AIA - Western MI Chapter)
1978
(for the Lepley residence & residential/commercial property in downtown Kalamazoo, MI)
system
1989 Consort - Finalist for “Innovation Michigan 2008” (Business Review Magazine)
2008
Roger Lepley - Honor Award (AIA - Western MI & Grand Valley Chapters)
1982
(for the Haymarket building - with Gordon Rogers Associates - a 7 level commercial rehab in downtown Kalamazoo, MI)
Consort/Abstracta - Finalist/GlobalShop Competition (for Herman Miller Corporation)
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Roger Lepley - Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation - “Adaptive Reuse” 1988 (AIA - Western MI & Grand Valley Chapters)
2015
(for the Haymarket building - with Gordon Rogers Associates - a 7 level commercial rehab in downtown Kalamazoo, MI)
Our Greatest Reward...
...customer loyalty and recognition – as one of the most recommended display products companies in America. “The reasons we’ve stayed with Consort all these years are the consistent, superior quality of their products and their excellent customer service. They meet every one of my requests and they do it with creativity, good humor and speed.” Steven Lazaroff, Director of Events Programming Hartford Downtown Council (Connecticut)
Vision –
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What’s next? What keeps customers involved?
Going forward, Consort Display Group will continually build upon our foundation of innovative products, excellent reputation, competent and friendly staff, stateof-the-art manufacturing capabilities and marketing technology – to make major sales and profit gains far into the future. We will go forward together, living the values we set forth for this company, for ourselves – and, we will respect each other, our customers and our vendors, to be the best we can possibly be.
Podia
Abstracta
Dori Pole
“With his first city outfitted with banners, Lepley is preparing the marketing strategy he hopes will take his business nationwide.”
Ingenious.
Janet Hastings Kalamazoo Gazette 1984
Roger Lepley “Unbreakable! See?”
Consort Display Group 2129 Portage Street • Kalamazoo, MI 49001 (800) 525.6424 • (269) 388.4532 www.consort.com