Bender Group PR: Firm Profile

Bender Group PR is a Montclair, New Jersey boutique communications firm founded in 1995 by Stacey Bender, specializing in consumer food and beverage, lifestyle, technology, healthcare, and hospitality brands. Capped at 20 active accounts by design, the firm has built a client roster spanning French's, Frank's RedHot, Manischewitz, Duncan Hines, and Jarlsberg, with media placements in the New York Times, USA Today, People, Good Morning America, and the Food Network.

Who Founded Bender Group PR?

Stacey Bender launched the firm in 1995 after the birth of her fourth child, following more than a decade already working in public relations and marketing. The agency originally operated as Bender-Hammerling Group, with her then-husband handling the financial side of the business, before rebranding to Bender Group PR in 2013. Bender holds a public relations degree from the University of South Florida and pursued graduate studies at The New School in New York City. She was named to NJBIZ's Leading Women in Business list in 2024 and received the Woman of the Year honor from the Publicity Club of New Jersey.

Who Runs Bender Group Today?

The agency has stayed family-led through its three decades. Stacey Bender's brother, Barry Bender, a CPA, serves as CFO. Her daughter, Hayden Hammerling, holds the President role, continuing a pattern where several of Bender's children worked at the firm at points in their careers before pursuing their own paths. A small supporting team of PR professionals rounds out the Montclair office.

What Does Bender Group Specialize In?

The firm's core strength is consumer food and beverage, alongside lifestyle, technology, healthcare, and hospitality accounts. Clients have included major packaged-food names like French's, Frank's RedHot, Manischewitz, Duncan Hines, and Jarlsberg, as well as smaller regional businesses such as Abeles & Heymann, a family-run deli in the Bronx, for whom the agency organized a widely covered hot dog trimming contest at a kosher food trade show. That range, from a national condiment brand to a neighborhood deli, reflects the firm's boutique positioning: a deliberate cap of 20 active accounts rather than a growth-at-all-costs model.

What Kind of Media Coverage Has Bender Group Secured?

The agency's placements span top-tier consumer and lifestyle outlets, including the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Better Homes & Gardens, People, Good Morning America, HuffPost, the Food Network, the Cooking Channel, Rachel Ray Every Day, Women's Health, Epicurious, and the Kelly Clarkson Show. That breadth across print, broadcast, and digital is consistent with a firm built around food and lifestyle brands that need both trade credibility and mainstream consumer reach.

How Does a Capped-Roster Firm Compete With Larger Food PR Shops?

Most food and beverage PR work in the U.S. runs through larger generalist agencies or holding-company networks with hundreds of accounts across many categories. Bender Group's model runs the opposite direction: a hard cap of 20 active clients means every account gets direct access to the agency's senior team rather than being routed to junior staff as the firm scales. For a food or beverage brand choosing between a boutique and a larger shop, that tradeoff, breadth of resources versus depth of attention, is often the deciding factor, and it is the same tradeoff that keeps firms like Bender Group competitive against agencies many times their size.

Where Is Bender Group Headquartered?

The firm is based at 546 Valley Road, Suite 1, Montclair, New Jersey, placing it inside the dense New Jersey PR corridor alongside other boutique and mid-size agencies serving the state's consumer brand and pharma economy. For the broader competitive set, see Best PR Firms in New Jersey.

Part of EPR's PR Firms directory. Related: Communications Agencies & Firms Directory, Food and Beverage PR Category Map, and Best PR Firms in New Jersey.