Wellington Sells to Augeo | O'Keeffe & O'Malley | M&A

Wellington Sells to Augeo

Feb 01, 2021

Augeo, a leader in loyalty and engagement platform solutions, announced it has acquired Wellington, based in Overland Park, KS. The acquisition, effective February 1, 2021, complements Augeo's growing live and virtual meetings, events, community building and incentives business. For over two decades, Wellington has delivered signature experiences focused on stakeholder engagement, to help companies strengthen relationships with employees, customers, communities or members. The combination of the two companies creates a powerhouse organization that supports the full experience engagement lifecycle.

"We are experiencing impressive growth in our meetings and experiences business," explained Joseph Keller, President of Augeo's Enterprise Engagement business. "Expanding rapidly into virtual and hybrid experiences has enabled us to capture new opportunities. Augeo has partnered with Wellington over the past several months on a variety of programs and that success has resulted in us coming together. The strategic expertise and operational experience of the Wellington team means that Augeo will be able grow even faster and most importantly, provide greater value to our clients," Keller added.

Since 1994, Wellington's "human-first" approach to developing signature experiences has helped clients expand their revenue, advance mission-centered work, attract and retain new talent, fundraise and engage their most important constituencies. The company features expertise in designing experiences in live, virtual or hybrid events and strategic gifting, promotion and community building.

"We worked collaboratively on a few large-scale projects the past few months and saw how the offerings of each company were complementary. Wellington experienced double-digit sales growth in 2020 because our strategic partnership approach ensured we pivoted and provided responsive solutions to meet our clients' shifting objectives. Combining forces with Augeo will enable us to expand our capabilities and reach new markets. The world of consumer loyalty, community platforms, member benefits and employee engagement is a natural growth area for our signature experiences and community building capabilities," explained Joan Wells, Wellington CEO. Wells will join the Augeo leadership team guiding this high-growth area of the business.

"As we prepare for a year of continued growth, the Wellington team brings valuable experience to Augeo," said Joseph Keller. Wellington has worked with leading companies across the country to seamlessly blend strategy, content, logistics and technology into end-to-end experiences that foster engagement and build communities. "We are very bullish on live experiences as we move out of the pandemic and anticipate resurgent demand for these solutions as well," Keller added.

For over two decades, Augeo has consistently grown organically and through acquisition. This acquisition marks the third in the last nine months for Augeo. In April 2020, Augeo acquired Empyr, a leading fintech provider of card-linked loyalty solutions, to form Figg. One month ago, Augeo acquired Deluxe Rewards to advance the company's consumer loyalty capabilities.

"Our hallmark has always been delivering innovative, operationally excellent solutions. Wellington's history of success, creativity and entrepreneurial culture are perfect complements to our business," explained David Kristal, Augeo CEO. "This acquisition enables us to offer our clients the talent, technology and expertise that keeps us at the forefront of the loyalty and engagement industry and positions us as a world-wide leader in live and virtual experiences. The pandemic caused many firms to pause. We found ways to accelerate and plan to continue looking for opportunities to fuel rapid growth."

Wellington will continue to be based in Overland Park, KS.

About Augeo

Augeo is a global leader in enterprise engagement and loyalty platforms, delivering compelling experiences and fostering meaningful connections with employees, customers, members and sales channel partners across many industries. We help clients build value by strengthening relationships through our consumer loyalty, employee recognition, sales incentives, virtual and live meetings, or insurance and benefits solutions to help organizations elevate engagement and accelerate success. With more than 40 years of experience, Augeo serves hundreds of clients including 52 of the top Fortune 500 companies, representing millions of end users on our proprietary platform technology.

For more information, visit www.augeomarketing.com.

About Wellington

For more than two decades, Wellington has been creating signature experiences, incentives, gift programs, strategic meetings, marketing campaigns, building communities and providing association management that lead with brand and push beyond boundaries. With a strategy first approach, we amplify our clients' brands, and strengthen their communities creating collaborative experiences and, meaningful connections that drive real change.

For more information, visit www.wellingtonexperience.com.