Eveready Express Client Spotlight: Peerless Umbrella
Recently, Eveready Express celebrated an anniversary with a longtime client known as the Peerless Umbrella Company. Decades ago, the two businesses started a relationship during Jersey’s Wintertime working months. However, when asked about the time spent collaborating together, Peerless CEO, Gene Moscowitz couldn’t quite put a finger on it…
“To be honest, I think we’ve been doing business with Keith [Eveready’s CEO] for 20 years or more,” recalled Moscowitz. “I don’t remember how we started—considering I don’t remember what I had for dinner last night… But we started many years ago.”
Peerless Umbrella is a third generation, family-owned business out of Newark, NJ. For two-thirds of their time in business, Peerless has relied on Eveready Express courier service to make deliveries in the metro NY and NJ area. The resulting business relationship speaks to the customer service guarantee that CEO, Keith Kirk and the Eveready team have worked so hard to foster and maintain.
Delivering what, you ask? In the early years, Moscowitz and his team started out printing their clients’ logos on (you guessed it) a variety of umbrellas. Peerless first implemented Eveready’s services to get their products to clients for resale or to be used as marketing collateral at trade shows.
“When I started, there were three employees at Peerless Umbrella. And now we have over 140,” said Moscowitz. “We’ve used Eveready throughout this growth period. And we continue to grow and expand.”
Snapshot today: Moscowitz has amassed a large team that delivers a variety of higher-end, custom-labeled products locally as well as across the 50 states and up to Canada. Many of Peerless’ customers are big names in the Food and Beverage industry—a factor that has shaped the evolution of Peerless products.
“We’ve gotten into digital printing on a lot of our outdoor products and umbrellas. And we just continue to add more items,” explained Moscowitz. “We’ve added wooden Adirondack chairs and a big, rolling cooler. We’ve expanded our menu boards. We’ve added director chairs. Next year we’re going into outdoor games—little basketball courts and things of that nature. We’ve tripled our bag business—so these are backpacks, computer bags, cooler bags, etc… Everything has one of our client’s logos on it.”
While their products and service areas have changed and grown—Peerless has kept their word and family promise with each of their clients. What’s more, partnering with companies like Eveready has helped them achieve this level of reliability.
“How Peerless goes to market is that we’re not the least expensive, but our word is our bond. And if we tell you we’re going to get it there—we’re going to get it there one way or the other…” said Moscowitz. “We deal with big clients that we cannot afford to let down. In one instance, we ordered one van [from Eveready]. When we realized that we would need two vans for delivery that day, Eveready sent an additional van, picked up the order, and both deliveries were made on time.”
Keeping promises and raising the level of customer service is a top priority for both Eveready and Peerless (a large reason the companies are flourishing). Whether doing business for 20 (and some odd) years or for their first job with a new client—Eveready and Peerless Umbrella are two businesses that do the job right no matter what the situation.
“We’re proud of the clients we serve and proud to do them justice. We realize how important just one order or one job can be,” said Keith Kirk. “And we’re out to make sure everything is done right until that package is in the customer’s hands.”