Top Manufacturers

What's Going On?

Manufacturers find a strong economy reflected in their bottom lines

By Laura D'Alessandro

While they may not be setting records, total sales for this year's Business Forms, Labels & Systems Top 100 independent manufacturers are heading in the right direction.

According to the figures provided by the manufacturers, total sales for this year's Top 100 amounted to $2.6 billion, compared to total 1997 sales of $2.4 billion. This represents an 8 percent increase in total sales for the forms manufacturers and label suppliers that chose to participate in this year's listing.

These figures are based on the sales totals provided by the manufacturers for their most recent completed fiscal year. For clarity, BFL&S has chosen to list these totals as 1998 and 1997 sales. All figures used for this analysis are based on the sales figures provided by the manufacturers listed on our Top 100 chart.

In order to provide a more accurate representation of the industry today, the BFL&S editors made a concerted effort to list forms manufacturers and label suppliers in one all-encompassing Top 100 chart (see page 38). In addition, the top label suppliers chart, beginning on page 58, is comprised of those companies or divisions whose main product is labels.

All of the manufacturers listed have told BFL&S that they sell a significant portion of their products through the distributor channel.

According to the figures provided by the manufacturers, a total of 18,502 employees operated out of 274 locations. Average sales per employee came to $139,627 and average sales per location reached $9.4 million.

The Top 20 manufacturers continue to dominate the market. Total sales for the Top 20 reached $1.4 billion, or 56 percent of the total for the Top 100. In addition, the Top 20 employed nearly half of all employees for the Top 100 with 9,179 employees, or 49.6 percent.