C&S Sales Promotions Means Business

In the mid-1970s, Savio Viglielmo was working for a packaging company selling point-of-purchase displays when a customer asked him a question that set him on a slightly different path.

“I did a job for a person who said, ‘I’m looking for T-shirts. Where can I get 500 T-shirts?’" Viglielmo said. "That kind of started it, where I found a source for T-shirts and had them done. It was just ancillary stuff on the side to help this person out.”

Viglielmo continued his regular job while doing more and more work on the side to help people find the promotional products they wanted. In 1987, he and his wife, Charlene – the ‘C’ in the company name – officially incorporated this business as C & S Sales Promotions. By 1991, he was ready to try it full time.

“I just reached the point where I didn’t really like working for people,” he explained. “You have no control of your own destiny. And this way, if I make it, good! And if not, I tried. It’s up to me.”

Viglielmo’s first customers were people for whom he’d previously worked. And his business grew through networking and word of mouth.

“I’m involved with the (Darien) Chamber (of Commerce) and the Exceptional Services Network locally,” he said. “I am a member of the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI). At my fingertips, I have over 750,000 items.”

Those items include imprinted Christmas cards, calendars, pens and backpacks, as well as corporate gifts. He supplies screen-printed T-shirts and embroidered golf shirts. He also handles “green” items, like tote bags made of recycled water bottles and products made of bamboo.

“We are local, and we can be full service to people for any types of promotional items,” he said.

Viglielmo, who's a member of the Darien Lions Club, doesn’t just work with corporations. For Math Week at , he provided six-inch rulers that asked, “How do we measure up?” on Pi Day. He’s supplied T-shirts for the band road trips. And the principal at finds gifts for some of the staff through Viglielmo’s business. is another regular customer.

In 2001, Viglielmo purchased a small company that had been started by a friend who passed away. This company makes business-card sculptures. The Golfer is one of his best sellers, as is the Scales-of-Justice sculpture attorneys favor.

He also made a one-of-a-kind sculpture for McDonald's founder Ray Kroc. It was a red-and-white McDonald’s, complete with arches.

Technology has simplified some aspects of Viglielmo’s job. “With the Internet, it’s fantastic compared to when I first started this," he said. "Now it’s on email, I can forward it, I can generate purchase orders, fax it...  It’s just so much easier electronically nowadays than it was 15-20 years ago.”

He also enjoys the benefits of working from home. “If someone calls, I don’t have to worry about going into an office. I can say, ‘I’ll get back to you in 15 minutes,’ and go check out the status of something,” he explained.

Sitting at his kitchen table reviewing his products, Savio Viglielmo is at home, in more ways than one.

Contact C&S Sales Promotions, Inc., at 630-964-8128 or SavioCSsales@aol.com. To see samples of the business card sculptures, go to www.BusinessCardSculptures.com.