Blue Ribbon Trophies and Awards was started by Patricia Gannon in 1986. The original business location was an office in Plano, Texas. She and her husband Bill quickly expanded the business to a nearby strip center in order to create a retail storefront. The retail location was 1250 sq ft. Operating with a single rotary engraving machine, they soon added their first Epilog laser engraver. As the business grew, they expanded the retail store to 2750 sq ft and added another Epilog laser engraver. In 2005, after 20 years in the trophies and awards business, Patricia and Bill started looking forward to retirement.

Around this same time, Bill and Brenda Weyrens were raising 3 boys while working in their individual career fields. Bill had been working for Frito-lay going on 20 years after being recruited out of the University of Texas at Austin with a BA degree in Engineering Management. He met Brenda in college while she was pursuing her dream of being a pharmacist which she achieved. They married in 1987. For the next 18 years, they started a family and worked in their career jobs. However, they both had a passion for crafting. Bill enjoyed woodworking. Brenda enjoyed creating various craft projects.

In late 2005, Bill was notified of an impending downsizing with Frito-Lay. This provided Bill and Brenda with an opportunity to start working for themselves. After carefully narrowing the options by looking for businesses with specific attributes, the awards industry presented itself. In late 2005, Bill walked into Blue Ribbon Trophies and Awards. Bill was quickly asked if there was anything he was particularly interested in purchasing. Bill said yes, he was interested to know if the business was for sale. He sat down with Patricia and Bill Gannon only to discover they were contemplating retirement. The two sides came to an agreement for the sale of Blue Ribbon Trophies and Awards. The sale was completed on February 14, 2006.

Blue Ribbon Trophies and Awards didn’t miss a beat with the ownership change. New engergetic owners were soaking in all of the advice and knowledge of 20 year veterans of the awards industry. Bill and Brenda, with their big business operations experience, now looked to apply all of that knowledge to their small business. It was a small business with only one full-time employee along with Bill and Brenda. When you start working for yourself, you quickly learn that every order is a big order. We still get the same question many years later – What is the minimum order quantity? The answer is always the same. ONE. One is the minimum quantity. No order is too small. No order is too big. Every customer matters.

Over the years, the business plan has focused on staying up-to-date with new products, new equipment and technology, better operational practices, and improved sales tools to maintain our high level of customer satisfaction. We rely heavily on repeat business and word of mouth advertising to attract new customers. The name was changed from “Blue Ribbon Trophies and Awards” to “Blue Ribbon Awards”. We are much more than your traditional trophy store. We offer a full line of awards, trophies, and personalized gifts. Since every order, no matter the size, truly matters, we strive to keep the order process as easy as possible. This is now our third generation e-commerce website. We keep it easy with simple pricing, easy ordering, and fast production. Free engraving on all products except for medals. We don’t charge by the letter like it was done for years in your “traditional” trophy shops. We encourage you to say what you want to say to make that moment special. We realize that you have a choice of where to shop. We want to earn your repeat business with each order.