Latvia's Printful buys U.S. company Snow Commerce

Printful, the on-demand printing and fulfilment company and Latvia’s first and so far only unicorn, has acquired Snow Commerce, a managed service provider that designs and runs the e-commerce presence for major media and entertainment brands including Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, and NBC Universal. The companies will merge, focusing on high quality international production and fast order fulfilment.

Together, Snow Commerce and Printful will provide a complete e-commerce solution including programme strategy, website and product creation, fan engagement, and on-demand, international production and distribution. Rick Simpson, CEO of Snow Commerce, will lead the business segment focused on enterprise clients under the Snow Commerce brand.

Large brands, especially in hit-driven industries like entertainment, face the difficult challenge of appealing to each fanbase across a wide variety of content, while also rapidly responding to spikes in interest and commercial demand, explains Alex Saltonstall, CEO of Printful.

“Traditionally, this led to missed opportunities from both under-investment and over-investment. Together, our organisations meet this challenge and help our partners fully realise the opportunity. The result is growing fandoms that engage with online experiences and purchase from a rich set of products that they love,” Saltonstall shares.

The Ohio-based Snow Commerce has partnered with many brands to build engagement and excitement in their fandoms for over 10 years, shares Simpson. The company’s expertise lies in user experience design, creative content production, merch development and digital marketing. 

“Joining forces with Printful allows us to provide a fully-integrated solution, with the highest quality on a global scale, tailored to each brand, and operated by experts in every facet of commerce. This will lead to even more engaging experiences for fans and larger and stronger fandoms for our clients,” Simpson continues.  

Major acquisition for Latvian company

Although the transaction amount has not been disclosed, Printful co-founder Dāvis Siksnāns said on Twitter that this is probably the largest ever merger by a Latvian-founded technology company in the US, adding that Snow Commerce has more than 100 employees. Raitis Puriņš, Head of Marketing at Printful, also commented on LinkedIn that this may be the largest merger ever by a Latvian company.

Working on a global scale

"We now partner with hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and emerging and established brands, with a powerful combination of technology, services, and an on-demand supply chain designed for people with infinite ideas and a planet with finite resources,” Saltonstall adds.

In a recent interview with Labs of Latvia, Kaspars Ķirsis, Head of Sales at Printful, shared that the company counts Coca-Cola, Comedy Central, and Netflix among its clients and spoke of what it takes to work with global brands of this scale.

Source: Press release (www.labsoflatvia.com)
Publicity photo: The Printful and Snow Commerce management team