Industry veteran and longtime sales leader Kim Cobb has retired from Wright Creative Branding & Labels after 35 years of service.
Spanning her decades-long career at the family-owned Thomasville, North Carolina-based company, Cobb helped hundreds of customers launch thousands of brands and products while continually innovating on behalf of the company and its clients, company officials said. In addition to her position as vice president of international sales, Cobb has held various other roles during her tenure at Wright, including vice president of sales and vice president of new business development.
“Passion, creativity, integrity, boundless energy, and true dedication to the success of the company and her teammates best describe Kim” said Don Wright, company CEO. “To say that Kim will be missed is the understatement of the century. She leaves a remarkable legacy and an indelible imprint on our hearts and minds.”
Among her accomplishments is the creation of the Wright Exchange program, which allowed customers to submit a report of their excess product back to Wright Creative Branding & Labels. When other plants needed that label, the client with the excess would ship from their inventory. This program helped various manufacturing plants reduce excess inventory and delivered savings for Wright’s customers.
After creating Wright Exchange and seeing the benefit of that program for customers, Cobb developed another program called Wright Onsite, which allowed customers to print model names on pre-purchased backgrounds at their own facility using a standard laser desktop printer. The print-on-demand capabilities meant no minimum orders and cost savings for clients. Fifteen years later, this program is still widely used across the bedding industry, according to a news release.
One of Cobb’s proudest professional accomplishments includes partnering with a co-worker to create a design for top-of-bed products, which Wright then patented.
“My 35 years at Wright have been the most rewarding times in my life both professionally and personally,” Cobb said. “When you work in an environment that fosters collaboration, creativity, and ingenuity, you’re sure to be successful. I appreciate the freedom that Wright gave me to explore, learn and seek new opportunities that would bring business to the company. My mantra has always been that I do my job well because I love what I do. And the team at Wright made that possible.”
In her retirement Cobb looks forward to completing her degree in Viticulture & EnoIogy, enjoying more recreational time at her lake home and visiting her seven grandchildren in three different states.
