Woman-owned company in Woburn is largest of its kind on the East Coast

It can be hard to change directions in business or even give up the name of your company that you started from scratch and ran for decades.

However, it can also be exciting, according to the president of the largest certified woman-owned (WBENC) branded merchandise agency on the East Coast, which is based in Massachusetts.

“When a company changes a name that they’ve had for 40-plus years, if the decision isn’t taken lightly, you have to make sure that the timing is correct,” said Charleen Smotrycz, whose company Consolidated Marketing Services recently changed names to Dryvve. “That is something that I thought long and hard about, and I thought this is the time to take the company to the next level and to move forward and embrace this change.”

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With 40 years of experience in the promotional products industry, Smotrycz has been running Consolidated Marketing Services in Woburn since she started her company in 1987. The 64-year-old started the business because she wanted all the coordination involved with promotional marketing to be in one place.

“I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be great if I could start a company that did everything all under one roof? One point of contact, sole source of supply,’” she told MassLive in a phone interview. “That was really the genesis behind how I got into the promotional marketing area.”

The entrepreneur achieved success on her own, but when Smotrycz was given the chance to join forces with another woman-owned company, she said it was a no-brainer.

“It wasn’t a hard decision,” Smotrycz said. “It was really time to really have a fresh approach that really embodied energy and movement and really motion on helping our clients achieve their marketing success.”

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Consolidated Marketing Services acquired New Jersey-based Progressive Promotions in January of 2021, according to a press release.

The two companies combined to form a new entity called Dryvve, which will still be based in Woburn. Smotrycz said the name came from the direction in which she sees the company going.

“We felt that name really embodied the merger between two really great women-owned businesses with award-winning qualities and really helping to take that to market to our clients,” she said. “It gave us, I think, a whole new way to look at how we are, what our differentiator is from our competitors in the industry, and it was time.”

Smotrycz added that the decision to rebrand has empowered her team “and given everybody a new perspective on how we’re going to market and all of the fun things that we can do with Dryvve.”

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Consolidated Marketing Services and Progressive Promotions had worked together for about three years before the merger and rebranding, which officially happened this past January.

“It took three years to kind of understand their business and how they came to market and how we can improve their services and really leverage a lot of the business details,” Smotrycz said about why the merger did not happen right away. “When we were ready to go to market with a new name, which was January, that’s when we did it.”

Dryvve is also one of the largest certified women-owned branded merchandise agencies in the United States. The company provides custom and e-commerce-based merchandise for businesses from Fortune 500 companies to non-profit organizations.

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The gear is manufactured in-house and developed by Dryvve’s team of merchandisers. Their ultimate goal is to help amplify a client’s brand by making it recognizable and memorable. The company also sets out to foster more inclusivity in the business world by empowering other women-owned businesses.

“I think women really collaborate really well. They are incredibly team oriented,” which Smotrycz said gives women in business an advantage. “I think women can bring a lot of gifts to the creative aspects of the industry.”

Smotrycz added that Dryvve is a reflection of her “continued dedication” of delivering outstanding results to clients. More information about Dryvve and the company’s story can be found on its website.