Emeralds Holding, Inc., the owner and organizer of NY NOW®, the wholesale market for retail where brands, buyers, and designers gather to connect and discover, recently announced the acquisition of Bulletin Inc., a wholesale marketplace connecting over 3,000 independent brands with over 26,000-plus retailers.
All Bulletin employees will join Emerald as part of the acquisition, including co-founders Alana Branston and Ali Kriegsman. The co-founders will remain committed to and lead the future growth and success of both Bulletin and NY NOW, with Branston moving into an expanded role of Group Vice President, Gift & Home and Kriegsman moving into the role of Vice President, Strategy, Gift & Home.
The acquisition of Bulletin will elevate the experience for wholesale buyers to discover a broader array of innovative brands and makers via a fusion of in-person and e-commerce offerings, creating a 24/7 platform for brands and retailers to connect and transact with each other. Further, the merger will infuse the iconic NY NOW Gift and Home Show with Bulletin’s entrepreneurial spirit, industry expertise and extensive customer base of brands and retailers. The union of these two platforms will provide small businesses access to a solution that allows them to fuel innovation and design and provide buyers with year-round inspiration and discovery.
“NY NOW is experiencing a period of transformation and revival,” said Karalynn Sprouse, EVP, Emerald. “The combination of Bulletin and NY NOW not only provides us with a dynamic platform that delivers year-round discovery and engagement, but Alana, Ali, and the Bulletin team’s thought leadership, forward-looking perspectives, and extensive network of makers, designers, influencers, and media will serve as new pathways of expression and creativity. In addition, this union reconfirms our unwavering commitment to NY NOW, especially as our 100th anniversary of being the preeminent resource for the Gift and Home industry grows near.”
“We see a massive opportunity to combine the efficiencies of our leading digital platform with the pure magic of an iconic in-person event,” said Alana Branston, Bulletin’s CEO and Co-founder. “During the pandemic, our industry lost a lot of its humanity despite the explosion of wholesale e-commerce and became very transaction-driven and impersonal. Because of this, it’s grown harder for brands and buyers to broker real, enduring relationships. So, we’re excited to rethink and revamp NY NOW’s format, programming, and positioning to guarantee an in-person show that puts those relationships front-and-center, underpinned by transactions and commerce at the event and year-round. It’s exactly what our customers have been asking for.”
