Valpak, a Largo, Fla.–based company that specializes in direct mailing of local print and digital coupons to consumers, recently announced it is targeting the Syracuse area as one of 18 areas to add franchise territories this year. Valpak is the doing-business-as name (or dba) of Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, Inc., according to its website. The […]
Valpak, a Largo, Fla.–based company that specializes in direct mailing of local print and digital coupons to consumers, recently announced it is targeting the Syracuse area as one of 18 areas to add franchise territories this year.
Valpak is the doing-business-as name (or dba) of Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, Inc., according to its website.
The company said the other areas it’s targeting include Miami, Fla., San Diego, Calif., New Orleans, La., and Corpus Christi, Texas.
The Syracuse–area territory will include four counties — Onondaga, Oswego, Cayuga, and Madison, says Greg Courchane, Valpak’s new director of franchise sales
“The potential is for about 220,000 households. The opportunity would probably start with 30[,000] or 40,000 and then grow,” Courchane says.
For the size of the franchise market, Valpak is seeking one person to hold the territorial sales rights and wants to award the franchise this year.
“We’re hoping as soon as we can find a candidate that’s interested in doing this type of a business,” Courchane says.
Valpak’s primary product is a blue-colored envelope full of offers from local and national merchants that is mailed to households in a given franchise market. The products could include everything from pizza to automotive accessories to home improvement, he says.
“The franchise owner would be working with small and medium [-sized] businesses in the greater Syracuse area soliciting their advertising dollars,” Courchane says.
Valpak sells advertising for both print and digital media.
At the start, the franchise owner will work as a sales representative for Valpak, while the parent company helps with printing and mailing the envelopes, according to Courchane.
Initially, the individual will work from his or her home to avoid the expense of maintaining an office, he says.
Ideal candidates for Valpak-franchise ownership should have the desire to work within a franchise system, develop relationships with local businesses, and have a comfort level with selling new, digital technologies, Courchane says. Franchisees should also possess a minimum liquidity of $75,000, and a minimum net worth of $150,000, he adds.
Valpak also waives start-up fees for returning military veterans, and making it easier for them to go into business for themselves.
Valpak’s offering is part of “Operation Enduring Opportunity,” a program developed by the International Franchise Association with the goal to hire and recruit 75,000 veterans as franchise business owners by 2014.
Interested candidates can visit the company’s website, www.valpakfranchising.com
Valpak closed out 2013 with the signing of 13 franchise agreements, which increased household circulation by two million additional homes, the company said.
Those markets included San Francisco; Coastal Carolina; Florida’s Atlantic Coast; Lake Charles, La., Eastern Suffolk County, N.Y.; Kent & Sussex County, Del.; Grand Rapids, Mich., and Rockford, Ill.
Markets, including those in New York, Louisiana and Delaware, are new territories for Valpak and residents in these areas will receive the company’s blue envelope for the very first time, the company said.
About the company
Specializing in cooperative direct mail, Valpak mails more than 20 billion coupons to over 40 million demographically targeted households per month in more than 100 markets in 45 states and four Canadian provinces, according to a Valpak news release.
In addition to its blue envelope, the brand offers its business customers a portfolio of digital-advertising products including smartphone apps, which are also integrated into the Samsung Wallet, iOS Passbook, Google wallet and Windows phone wallet, along with and online coupons to reach consumers at home and elsewhere.
Launched in Clearwater, Fla. in 1968, Valpak operates a 470,000-square-foot manufacturing center in St. Petersburg, Fla., enabling the company to mail material to more than 500 million homes in North America, the firm said.
Cox Target Media, Inc. owns and operates Valpak with nearly 170 franchises across the U.S. and Canada that delivers coupons to nearly 40 million households each month, according to the website of Cox Target Media.
Annually, Valpak will distribute some 20 billion offers inserted in more than 500 million envelopes, the website says.
Cox Target Media is a subsidiary of Atlanta–based Cox Media Group, which is owned by Cox Enterprises, Inc., one of the largest media companies in the U.S. with holdings in newspaper, television, radio, cable and Internet/interactive industries.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com