Leading Christian poster maker curtails aggressive growth strategy to focus on adding more designs to current lines

Slingshot Publishing has seen a change in ownership, effective Sept. 20. Founded by Mike Clark in 2004, the Ontario, Canada-based supplier of posters, magnets, T-shirts, laptop skins and more saw its business grow “from nothing into the largest Christian poster designer in North America,” new owner Adam Brodrecht said.

The company changed hands with Brodrecht and another investor who already was involved with the company assuming ownership. A company of “about 10,” Slingshot has been restructured and uses “a whole bunch of contractors,” he said.

“Slingshot was doing some really aggressive growth strategy and invested a lot of money into new products,” Brodrecht explained. “Essentially what’s happened is there were a lot of profitability concerns. However, there were some really great foundations laid. The sales strategy didn’t pan out the way that they anticipated it would. … Really, we’re here to take what has been laid as a great foundation and take it to the next level.”

As for what the future might hold for the company, Brodrecht expects “profitability.”

“Moving forward in the near future with the amount of firepower we have in the design side, with four designers and two artists that are just really capable, part of the future is going to be a lot of new designs are going to hit the catalog and hit the supplement catalogs continuing in 2014 and 2015,” Brodrecht said.

The Slingshot team has a faith-based mission motivation.

“Each one of these people that are involved in this process, we all have a real heart for creating influence in the marketplace and having a message of grace and of passion and of love hit the posters, and so it’s almost that desire to influence a generation is driving us more than the desire to actually design,” he said. “One’s the vehicle to changing lives and one is the actual motivation to get in the vehicle and drive.”

Aiming to “promote the gospel through great design,” the company is mainly working toward new designs in its current lines, but did recently start making plaques using its poster designs. 

Retailing for $25 each, the plaques are “better for the home décor than a 2 foot-by-3 foot poster for a lot of families,” Brodrecht said.

The plaques were developed in early 2013, but didn’t hit the retail market until mid-to-late 2013.

The company is also beefing up its online presence to capture sales online.

“We really like to start hitting the more mobile and cross-device platforms,” he said.

Brodrecht, however, emphasized that retail is “the core of our business.” The company will continue using Dicksons as its distributor, a partnership that has paid off well in growing the company.