Emerald Holding Inc., the trade show and marketing services company, has announced it has completed the acquisition of PlumRiver LLC. PlumRiver is a leading international provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology through its Elastic Suite solution. Elastic Suite’s platform streamlines the wholesale buying process for both brands and retail buyers, creating a digital year-round transactional platform for use by Emerald’s customers.
According to Emerald, the acquisition will accelerate its strategy to provide 365-day-per-year engagement for its customer base regardless of location by significantly expanding its digital commerce capabilities and providing its customers with robust transactional functionality, including deep enterprise-level integration to brands’ ERP (Enterprise resource planning) systems, allowing customers to manage orders, real-time inventory and product merchandising.
PlumRiver, which was founded in 2002, is integrated with preeminent manufacturers and retailers across numerous industries, most notably in the outdoor, surf, cycling, footwear and sporting goods verticals, and will complement Emerald’s portfolio of leading show brands including Outdoor Retailer and Surf Expo, among others.
PlumRiver’s Elastic B2B platform bridges the gap between sellers’ order processing systems and allows brands to sell directly to their buyers using print-free digital product catalogs and merchandising technology. This enables clients to increase their efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and profitability. Key client brands include: Patagonia, The North Face, Burton, Shimano, Scott Sports, Rip Curl, Boardriders, Volcom, Timberland, New Balance, Vans, Orvis and Puma
“Over the course of 2020, we launched many digital product offerings focused on customer engagement, new customer acquisition and delivering high-value customer solutions. From our customers’ feedback, the highest value of these needs is clearly centered on the transaction between buyer and seller,” Brian Field, Emerald chief operating officer, says. “Through our acquisition of PlumRiver and the Elastic platform, we now have the capability to offer a full spectrum of bundled solutions to our customers—from product discovery, lead-generation, to transaction—across both in-person, face-to-face events as well as year-round, digital opportunities.”
Hervé Sedky, Emerald’s president and CEO, says, “The acquisition of PlumRiver is a natural extension of our live events business; we can now offer a complementary, year-round interaction and transaction platform. The Elastic B2B eCommerce SaaS solution is expected to strengthen our existing live events, expanding both their relevance and growth profile, while also bringing an additive subscription-based revenue stream to Emerald.”
“I couldn’t be more encouraged by the opportunity to establish Elastic as the standard B2B ecommerce solution across even more verticals as we expand our business through our combination with Emerald,” Josh Reddin, CEO of PlumRiver, says, “Their portfolio of industry-leading events provides significant growth opportunities for our solutions.”
John Marchione, Co-Founder of PlumRiver, says, “We are thrilled to join Emerald to bring our innovative, market-driven solutions and efficiencies to thousands of brands and retailers across the globe in a rapidly expanding B2B digital economy. We are equally excited for the many new opportunities for our team members.”
