Arrowhead Promotion & Fulfillment Co.
Headquarters: Grand Rapids
Inception: 1983
Family names: Arnold, Prokop
What the company does: Loyalty programs, sales incentives, fulfillment
Type of ownership: S corp.
Principal owner: Katie Prokop
Employees: 200
Family members in the business: 3
Family members on the board: No board
“We’re as big as we’ve ever been, and we’re growing faster than we’ve ever grown before.”
<—Luke Prokop, executive vice president, Arrowhead
Grand Rapids-based Arrowhead Promotion & Fulfillment Co. is celebrating its 40th year in business. Twenty years ago, it almost looked as though the company wouldn’t see that anniversary. In 2003, the founding family faced its biggest challenge when Gary Prokop, who had led the company nearly from the beginning, suddenly passed away.
“There was a gaping hole that got ripped in the family,” recalls Luke Prokop, executive vice president of business development and finance, of his father’s death. “It was very difficult for us to pick up the pieces as a family and as the Arrowhead family as well. There were a lot of things he did on a day-in and day-out basis that a lot of people knew about.”
Gary’s wife was thrown into the leadership position. Until then, Katie Arnold Prokop had worked for Arrowhead Promotion only sporadically while raising five children and teaching at the local public university. What got her through? “I was surrounded by really good, smart people who understood the mission of Arrowhead,” says Katie, CEO. “The whole team really stepped up. We supported each other and got through it.”
Twenty years later, Luke projects the company will grow 20% in 2023. “We’re as big as we’ve ever been, and we’re growing faster than we’ve ever grown before.”
Arrowhead’s promotions and fulfillment services include loyalty programs, coupon and contest fulfillment, contact center services, and sales incentive platforms. It has attracted business from large enterprises such as General Mills, Campbell Soup, and global consumer health care company Haleon. And Arrowhead does it all in northern Minnesota.
Why there? When the St. Paul promotions company that Katie’s father, Keith Arnold, worked for was acquired by a larger business, he took that as a cue to start his own company in the same industry. “He always wanted to get up to what he called God’s country and start his own business,” Katie says. “He loved northern Minnesota, and that was where he wanted to be.”
In 1983, Keith Arnold moved to Grand Rapids and started Arrowhead Promotion. Three years later, Katie and husband Gary moved north, and Gary went to work for his father-in-law. Now, Luke’s brother, Matt, also works for the business as its vice president of operations.
According to Luke, there are several advantages to running a national promotions company in their neck of the woods. For one thing, Arrowhead has been able to build strong small-town relationships with the Postal Service, FedEx, and UPS. “We get some pretty preferential rates,” Luke says.
As for the high-profile customers, “a lot of that has to do with the feet on the street that we have,” he adds. Many of the company’s employees travel frequently, which helps them meet potential clients. There’s another factor Luke cites, though with some regret. “I hate saying this, but it’s true, unfortunately: Covid helped us out a lot,” he says. “Zoom and Teams are very well accepted by pretty much by everybody.” The company recently earned significant business from a large U.S. brewing company “without setting foot in their headquarters,” he adds.
His mother has a slightly different take on the company’s success garnering larger clients. She credits word-of-mouth referrals and relationship building. “Also, we do what we say we’re going to do,” she notes.
Arrowhead Promotion prides itself on a flat organization and a familial culture where “everyone rolls up their sleeves and gets things done,” Luke says.
An example: This past summer, Arrowhead was helping produce a book for an energy company. This company suddenly changed the number of books it wanted shipped from 200 to 1,200, without changing the deadline. “There were some folks in our production area who were having a difficult time keeping up,” Luke says. “So a number of account managers and account coordinators went down there to make the thing work and get all the books out the door.”
Another of Arrowhead Promotion’s big-name clients is U.K.-headquartered Haleon, whose numerous brands include Sensodyne, Advil, and Centrum. For the past 17 years, Arrowhead has been fulfilling online orders for Haleon’s Nicorette and Nicoderm smoking cessation products.
“They’re on the cutting edge when it comes to promotion and website fulfillment—anything on the web, they’re really good,” says Michael Conahan, New Jersey-based national account manager for Haleon. He notes that Arrowhead Promotion went through a “grueling” two-year process to earn common security framework (CSF) certification, “the gold standard” in health care-related cybersecurity.
“They’re more than just a vendor to us,” says Conahan, who travels to Grand Rapids at least once a year for a business review. “They’re all family—they care. They’re just great people.”
