Sydney, October 30, 2012: STW, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications services group, continues to expand its retail service footprint, today announcing an investment in marketing logistics and fulfilment company Markitforce.

The deal sees STW take a majority share in the national business, which was founded in 2001 by CEO Alan Higgins and has had outstanding year-on-year growth. Markitforce has a presence in five Australian states, plus Auckland NZ, with a total staff of 100.

“Markitforce is a leader in promotional campaign execution for local and global clients, and brings entirely new capabilities around retail services to the group,” explained STW’s CEO, Michael Connaghan.

“It is a business that will complement our existing retail and ‘Path to Purchase’ offer, and we see future opportunities across the sector. Markitforce is a great cultural fit for STW, has a strong leadership team, a broad client base and growing client demand within the shopper marketing segment. I have known Alan and been speaking with him for a while now. He is a quality bloke and built an amazing business. Markitforce is world class and a welcome addition to the STW stable.”

Markitforce CEO and founder Alan Higgins said the two companies were “an excellent strategic fit”. “As an entrepreneur within a fast growth business, you come to a point where you need external investment to continue growing,” Higgins explained. “But as with any partnership, it is crucial that there is a good cultural fit and strong business synergies. Markitforce and STW have similar clients, a commitment to growth and a solid business foundation built on entrepreneurialism and innovation. I can see fantastic future opportunities for both organisations.”

Markitforce provides a range of Marketing Logistics services specialising in Point of Sale management and product fulfilment (guaranteed to deliver in full on time), warehousing and distribution, third party logistics, Pick & Pack and Kitting services, consumer redemptions, climate control storage and value adds such as TGA warehousing for pharmaceutical samples and a bonded storage area. It operates in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland, and has clients across the FMCG, Entertainment, Automotive and Pharmaceutical industries. Higgins will remain at the helm of Markitforce.

It was an early start on a chilly (very uncharacteristic of Melbourne!) spring Sunday morning. A team of 7 eager Markitforce race entrants (with ranging levels of fitness) arrived at the foot of the Eureka to commence Australia’s biggest vertical race!

The Eureka Climb is in the top 10 stair climbs in the world, and looking up at the challenge ahead seemed rather daunting for the Markitforce crew!

In true Markitforce fashion, with nothing but determination, persistence, hard work and smiling enthusiasm, all 7 race entrants finished the climb and managed to deliver some happiness in unlikely and very topical places!

Well done to all those who took part and raised money for a very worthy cause – namely Whitelion. Markitforce donated $0.10 to each stair climbed. With 7 finishers climbing 1,642 stairs each, a total of $1,149.50 was raised.

“Whitelion is a non-profit community organisation that provides youth-focused gender and culturally specific services in several areas which include; mentoring, employment, role modeling, specialist outreach support and education based prevention programs.”