How does a company specializing in memorabilia commemorate its 40th anniversary?
In the case of MBI Inc., it has no shortage of options with more than 500 new products introduced annually, from die-cast models to medals.
MBI marks its 40th anniversary this year, having grown into a $400 million company that employs hundreds of people at its Norwalk headquarters and a Shelton facility, while maintaining a mailing list numbering more than 10 million customers.
The company”™s first product was a set of medals commemorating the 1969 Apollo moon landing, and MBI remains opportunistic to historic moments to this day ”“ to mark President Obama”™s inauguration, the company cranked out medals, prints, plates and throws emblazoned with his likeness.
Founder Ted Stanley first envisioned MBI as a standalone business in 1969 while working for Glendinning Cos., and the latter company formally incorporated MBI in 1973 as an independent entity.
Relocating its headquarters in 1977 from Westport, the company vies with spirits purveyor Diageo plc as the largest corporate employer in Norwalk, and keeps up a steady pipeline of young talent by conducting interviews at Yale University, Harvard University and other elite schools.
What”™s the draw for Ivy Leaguers choosing to peddle kitschy Princess Diana plates over financial derivatives or pharmaceuticals?
Vini Azevedo credits a meeting with the company”™s CEO in part for helping him choose MBI over other companies recruiting at New York University in 2005. From day one, he said, he was thrown into the trenches rather than into a formal training program, giving him the opportunity to learn the business from the ground up.
MBI prides itself on its ability to recruit talent from elite universities, profiling several like Azevedo who passed up opportunities in New York City and elsewhere to join the company.
MBI affords outsiders a glimpse into the minds of its young talent on its recruiting page, profiling Azevedo and several others who joined the company this decade. Harvard graduate and soccer star Katie Hodel indicates she was swayed toward MBI due in part to the cordiality of her interview compared to other recruiters, and the promise of assuming substantial managerial responsibility upon her arrival. Assigned to the Easton Press, she manages book marketing programs, coming up with the idea for “The First Ladies Fact Book” and another (with colleague Cam Lay) featuring a New York police officer”™s photographs at Ground Zero following the 2001 terrorist attacks. Hodel subsequently enrolled in an MBI “exchange program” for a rotation in MBI”™s office in the United Kingdom.
Not that the company enjoys picture perfect relations with its employees ”“ police recently charged fired MBI employee Keith Johnson of Bridgeport with stealing $20,000 in 19th century stamps, including some printed by the Confederacy. Johnson has denied involvement, according to the Stamford Advocate, while asking a judge to allow him to enter an “accelerated rehabilitation” program that would allow him to clear his record of larceny.
MBI”™s divisions today include the Danbury Mint, which licenses products sporting logos from the NFL, Major League Baseball and Walt Disney Co., among others, operating a shipping center in Torrington; the Easton Press, which publishes leather-bound books, operating a location in Shelton; and PCS Stamps & Coins, which MBI bills as the largest philatelic organization in the world.
