Sales hold despite a difficult economy.
In spite of the economic woes of the past year, total revenue for the BFL&S Top 100 Distributors remained above $2 billion at $2.16 billion, which is exactly equal to last year's total.
The most likely reasons that the industry was able to hold its ground in terms of revenue were an increase in product diversification, an increase in the number of franchises held by Proforma and American Solutions for Business (formerly American Business Forms), as well as outright acquisitions by other large distributors.
Forms sales for the Top 100 decreased to $793 million from $831 million last year, accounting for 36.7 percent of total revenue, compared to 38.6 percent last year. This is the first time in recent years where both the dollar value of forms sales and the percentage of overall revenue devoted to forms decreased.
Label sales increased to $218 million from the $205 million reported last year, accounting for 10.1 percent of total sales.
Commercial printing, promotional products and direct mail all fared well for 2002. Commercial printing now accounts for 22.4 percent of Top 100 sales with $484 million, compared to sales of $481 million a year ago while promotional product sales account for 11 percent of total sales at $238 million, up $17 million from $221 million last year. Direct mail, which was $106 million last year, totaled $135 million this year—6.2 percent of total sales.
Employees and Productivity
This year's Top 100 Distributors reported 7,274 employees, a decrease of 14.5 percent from last year's 8,512 employees. However, distributor locations, increased by 5.5 percent to 1,498 offices.
Productivity as measured by sales per employee increased dramatically to $296,948 from $253,330 reported last year and sales per location reached $1.4 million this year compared to $1.5 million a year ago. The $2.16 billion in Top 100 sales was accomplished with 1,238 fewer employees working out of 79 more locations.
Share of market for the largest distributors was exactly the same as last year, with the top 20 companies accounting for 69.4 percent of total revenue ($1.5 billion). These 20 companies employ 4,820 people at 1,218 locations for $311,203 in sales per employee and $1.2 million in sales per location. Last year the top 20 companies employed 5,691 people at 1,064 locations for $259,839 in sales per employee and $1.4 million in sales per location.
The Top 10 Distributors gained in market share from 54.6 percent of total revenue, or $1.08 billion last year, to 56.9 percent of overall revenue—$1.23 billion this year. The Top 10 Distributors employed 3,850 people at 1,167 locations, accounting for $319,481 in sales per employee and $1.1 million in sales per location.
The Top 10 companies sold $449 million in forms, $127 million in labels, $163 million in promotional products, $53 million in direct mail and $278 million in commercial printing.
Outlook
Product diversification has carried forward as the percentage of sales attributed to products other than forms has increased. Consolidation is continuing as the top companies either increase their franchise base or acquire other distributors. In addition, individual owners within franchises are using the financial backing of their franchises to make acquisitions of their own. Distributors are poised to take advantage when economic news turns positive.
By Bill Drennan and Sarah Lerow
All distributor sales charts provided in this issue were produced from information voluntarily supplied by the distributors who completed a Business Forms, Labels & Systems research questionnaire, which is mailed annually.
- Companies:
- American Solutions for Business
- Proforma