SL's Gillham Advertising sold to Ogden native for undisclosed sum

Abstract

Salt Lake's Gillham Advertising Inc., 102 W. 500 So., has been sold to local businessman Tom Owens, a native of Ogden who holds an equity position in local Broadway Productions, 10 W. Broadway a firm which produces videos, commercials and training and marketing films. Finalization of Owens' purchase of the 11-employee business from Lon Richardson hinged on the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development's approval of Owens as owners of Gillham. That approval was just recently received, after months of waiting. (excerpt)

Salt Lake's Gillham Advertising Inc., 102 W. 500 So., has been sold to local businessman Tom Owens, a native of Ogden who holds an equity position in local Broadway Productions, 10 W. Broadway a firm which produces videos, commercials and training and marketing films.

Finalization of Owens' purchase of the 11-employee business from Lon Richardson hinged on the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development's approval of Owens as owners of Gillham. That approval was just recently received, after months of waiting.

Gillham landed a sizable contract with HUD last July to conduct all marketing efforts involving HUD homes in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and North and South Dakota, Owens explained.

Richardson, whom Owens said sold the business in anticipation of retirement, is remaining at Gillham "sort of as a consultant" and is overseeing a handful of accounts, Owens said.

Long-time account executives Roger Brown and Ron Griffith are remaining with the firm a vice presidents, Owens said, noting Brown will act as "point man" in the operation of key agency, and will to act as an account executive and creative director. Griffith continue to act as a senior account executive, he said.

According to Owens, Brown and Griffith reached an agreement with Richardson to purchase Gillham, should the agency win the HUD contact, last year. Once the pact was secured, they sought out Owens as an investor.

Owens' said he was particularly attracted to Gillham to his admiration for the late Marion Nelson, who was a co-owner of the agency "back in Gillham's glory days." Nelson left the agency in the late 1970s and passed away not long thereafter, he said.

Gillham traces its roots back to 1911, when the agency was formed to market Studebaker Wagon automobiles. Although a great deal of time has since passed, Gillham remains active in the auto marketing industry, counting among its clients the likes of Intermountain GMC truck dealers, Wasatch Front Pontiac dealers, and GMC and Pontiac dealers in Montana and Wyoming, Owens said.

Other current clients include Young Electric Sign Co. and Everest National Financial, Owens said. Past customers include "just about ever major client in the area," including First Security Bank, Utah Power & Light, Mountain Fuel Supply an Union Pacific Railroad, he added.

Owens said while he is now busy in advertising and video/film work, his business background is varied. Owens worked for TRW as an engineer working on the Apollo moon landing project in the late 1960s, then worked for RKO in Los Angeles producing local television shows. He returned to Utah five years ago.

Owens said he was also attracted to Gillham because it has the ability to take advantage of business opportunities in Japan, when Owens said he has built a number of contacts over the years, partly as a result of being an investor in Broadway Productions, several of whose employees speak fluent Japanese. Much of Broadway's business involves Japanese clients, he added.

"We hope to capitalize on some of that. Japan is where the money is," he said.

While Owens said Gillham's staff of 11 is "pretty steady right now, we do have higher aspirations."