MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT has learned that Grafton, VT-based business-to-business cataloger CIC, the owners of b-to-b titles National AV Supply and AV Discount Depot, was acquired by South Hackensack, NJ-based VCOM International Multimedia Corp. Terms of the deal, which was completed in June, were not disclosed.
Both companies sell a similar mix of products: tools for professionals who teach, train, educate, or present. The 212-page National AV Supply catalog targets education, business and government markets and is positioned as value-added sourcebook. The 100-page AV Discount Depot catalog is aimed at price-focused customers in the same markets. VCOM manufactures, imports, and distributes audio-visual products sold primarily to the K-12 education markets under several brands, including Comprehensive Video, Buhl Industries, Procon Digital Systems, and Hamilton Electronics.
According to CIC’s president Scott Heller, the company will become a division of VCOM and the catalogs and e-commerce Websites will continue to operate as they have. Heller says that VCOM will gain from CIC’s direct marketing expertise while CIC will benefit from VCOM’s product development capabilities.
The two companies are certainly no strangers. According to Heller, CIC recently became a master distributor for VCOM’s products lines. And ironically, VCOM was originally founded by Heller’s father, Joe, in 1961.