4imprint: North American Market Leader Hidden on the LSE

Jim and Abigail Zimmerman of Lowell Capital Management presented their thesis on 4imprint Group (UK: FOUR) at Wide-Moat Investing Summit 2026.

Thesis summary:

4imprint is the largest direct marketer and distributor of promotional products in North America. Founded in 1987 and headquartered in London, it generates roughly 98% of revenue in the US and Canada yet trades on the London Stock Exchange. It supplies customized apparel, drinkware, bags, and writing instruments to small and medium-sized businesses, holding about 5% of a fragmented $20 billion-plus industry where no competitor approaches its scale.

The model is asset-light. Under its drop-ship model, suppliers hold inventory and ship directly to customers, holding capex to 1-2% of sales and producing ROACE above 40%. Jim and Abby call FOUR the “Amazon of promotional products,” sitting between customer and supplier and selling certainty and service. Marketing is the primary growth investment: FOUR spends $150-175 million per year and earns $6-9 of revenue per marketing dollar, a budget exceeding most competitors’ revenue and funding the “4imprint for Certain” brand and flywheel.

Revenue grew from about $787 million to $1.35 billion over five years, roughly 60% since 2019, outpacing 3-5% industry growth as FOUR took and retained share. Gross margin expanded from 28% to 32% and has held through inflation and tariffs. Existing customers account for 70-75% of annual orders. The balance sheet carries no debt and $133 million of net cash, and FOUR has returned more than $100 million per year to shareholders over three years through ordinary and special dividends and buybacks.

The opportunity exists because UK small caps trade at discounts to US peers, the LSE listing limits US awareness of a North American business, and 2026 tariff-related supplier cost increases drove the shares down; management calls that impact manageable. The forward dividend is 4.8%, with special dividends lifting the loaded yield toward 7-8%.

The shares recently traded near $50, about 8.5x EBITDA and 10x cash flow. Jim and Abby model 5% revenue CAGR to more than $1.7 billion, supporting roughly $190 million of EBITDA. A re-rating to 12x EBITDA plus net cash implies equity value near $2.4 billion, or about $90 per share. They also see FOUR as a possible acquisition candidate for a strategic or financial buyer.

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About the instructors:

Jim Zimmerman is founder and portfolio manager of Lowell Capital Value Partners, LP, successor fund to Lowell Capital Fund, L.P. Jim managed Lowell Capital Fund L.P. from 2003 to 2015 employing a proprietary strategy laser-focused on smaller and/or misunderstood companies with large, sustainable free cash flow yields and “Ft. Knox” balance sheets. He generated a compound annual return significantly exceeding the HFRI Equity Hedge Index and the S&P 500 Total Return Index over this period, despite holding a significant net cash position (~30%) for most of this period and Lowell Capital Value Partners has achieved similar results with the same strategy since its founding in 2017. Jim has over 25 years of investment banking and investment management experience in a variety of industries and has been involved with several billion dollars of investments. Jim graduated with a BA with high honors in economics from Princeton University in 1980 and an MBA from Stanford Business School in 1984. He worked at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Inc., 1984 to 1990, serving in the Corporate Finance Department and multiple other investment banks from 1990 to 2003.

Abigail Zimmerman works alongside her father at Lowell Capital. Abigail earned her B.A. in Business Administration at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and has worked with Jim for the last several years. She assists in the generation of new ideas, marketing to current and new investors, research of small and medium cap companies, and detailed due diligence on current and potential investments.

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