“We sit at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds,” said Chris Riegel, Stratacache’s chief executive.
Stratacache’s Managed Retail Media Network business, which helps retailers gain insight on shoppers and better serve them while in the store, “really accelerated in 2014,” Riegel said.
The company’s software and technologies allow retailers to deliver targeted messages to customers to increase sales and enhance the shopping experience. That’s particularly effective for reaching Millennial consumers, born between the early 1980s and early 2000s, who are “digital natives,” he said.
Previously, “digital” for retailers meant having a good online shopping website, but that’s no longer the case.
“You have to have that digital in-store experience, as well, to ensure that that Millennial consumer can engage with you in the way that they wish to engage,” Riegel said.
That may involve checking a website, watching a demonstration video or interacting with a piece of technology using their mobile phone while in the store, he explained.
In 2014, Stratacache helped three of its Fortune 50 customers grow “significantly,” while also adding several large international clients, Riegel said. He declined to name those clients for competitive reasons.
The $400 million in new contracts signed last year were for three- to five-year term agreements, he said.
Stratacache serves seven markets that include retail, quick-service restaurants, consumer packaged goods, retail finance, stadiums, gaming and corporate communications.
This year, the company also plans to expand into transportation, including “smart” digital signage systems for airports, railways and highways.
“That can be everything from the smart sign that you see coming down Interstate 75 that tells you traffic ahead, to customers in the rail sector where we are giving information on upcoming weather or maintenance status for trains that are moving across the country consistently,” Riegel said.
In 2013, Stratacache acquired Optika Display, an LCD enhancement company, and Carmanah Signs, a Canadian lottery and casino gaming signage firm.
Currently, Stratacache is pursuing two new acquisitions, both outside the U.S.
“We see a lot of opportunities both in Europe and Asia to acquire companies that we can then turn toward our method of business. So there is a lot of opportunity to grow internationally and we’re doing a lot of that through acquisition,” Riegel said.
Headquartered at 2 Riverplace, just north of downtown Dayton, Stratacache employs 142 workers globally, including 86 in Dayton. The company plans to add more than 15 additional workers in Dayton in the coming months, primarily systems engineers, support engineers and vertical market sales positions.
Stratacache has a total of eight facilities in the region, including its headquarters and data center in Dayton; support and operations services facilities in Vandalia; Optika Display and a warehouse facility in Huber Heights; and a 102,000-square-foot warehouse and logistics facility in Moraine.
The company also has offices in New York City, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Luxembourg and Adelaide, Australia, serving 28 countries.
Riegel declined to disclose the privately held company’s annual revenues. However, this year Stratacache will be nearly one-third of the way to reaching $1 billion in annual sales, he said.
“The goal is to hit $1 billion by 2020 and we think that is achievable,” Riegel said.
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