“Fifty percent of consumers have made an impulse purchase after receiving a coupon in their mailbox. Eighty-three percent use coupons at least once a month or more, and forty-nine percent of consumers would gladly switch brands if they had a coupon to use. We drive people to transact,” said Chris Cate, President, and CEO of Valpak Direct Marketing.
In business for 50+ years, Valpak was founded by Terry Loebel in 1968 out of his garage, using a $500 loan to mail coupons to households in Clearwater. Today, Valpak has grown to 140 local offices in 43 states, mailing more than 41 million envelopes each month. “Valpak is now a household name with over 97% brand awareness and an open rate of our Valpak envelope of over 91% of consumers,” said Cate.
Valpak’s monthly blue envelopes are mailed across the country, filled with coupons to various local and non-local businesses. Valpak uses more than 500 million data points to identify and target ideal audience segments. Enclosed coupons range from offers at grocery stores to the local meat market just around the corner to non-local businesses like Hello Fresh. In the home improvement sector, Valpak includes hardware store coupons like Ace and Lowe’s. Daily essentials are covered too with coupons to stores like Walmart and target. Whatever the need, Valpak has been saving customers money for more than 50 years.
According to Cate, the key to their growth over the years is their “innovative, tech mindset, not being afraid of challenging the status quo of the company and looking forward, always looking forward. What’s next? What do our customers need? And how we can do that better?” This innovative tech mindset is perfectly encapsulated in Valpak’s state of the art automated facility in St. Petersburg. With robots that both move and produce the mail, the facility produces 41 million envelopes a month that are mailed all over the country right to your mailbox. That’s where you become “the first human hands to touch those coupons when you open the envelope and pull them out,” Cate explained.
With their portfolio evolving far beyond their recognizable blue envelopes, they now do postcards, digital products and services, and even data. Valpak is a “100% turnkey advertising solution for our customers,” Cate said, helping “thousands of local businesses connect with their best customers.” At a time when every dollar needs to preform, Valpak’s mission is to “help consumers save, help businesses grow, and neighborhoods to thrive.” For the last 50+ years, that’s exactly what they’ve been doing.
Members of the chamber since August of 2022, “being a member at the chamber has enabled Valpak to really connect and further engage with local business leaders,” Cate said. “It’s all about building a stronger Tampa Bay business community, and we really believe that we work and live in this community, and we want to make that a better community as well.”
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