PPB June 2020

I n the years leading up to 2019, there was a lot of speculation about a pending recession. The stock market has its ebbs and flows, and 2019 was expected, by some, to be one of those years of contraction. Still, that scenario was hard to imagine as the U.S. was experiencing its lowest unemployment in 50 years along with strong GDP growth, but by mid-2019, the country was inevitably at the tail-end of an unusually long economic expansion. Promotional products industry sales, which had been trending upward for the past decade, began to weaken (see The Tipping Point Realized on page 44) along with declining home sales, the latter a common indicator of the onset of a recession. History has taught us that what goes up must come down. Still, January 2020, the dawn of a new year and a new decade, was bright with promise. No one expected that a virus would cause the economy to nose-dive just two months later. The coronavirus recession, also known as the Great Lockdown or Great Shutdown, has upended entire industries and shaken most businesses to their core. To survive, many promo distributors refocused their sales efforts from products that promote companies to products (personal protective equipment—PPE) that safeguard them and their workers. PPB spoke with the principals of 12 industry distributors to find out how their businesses have been affected by this Great Lockdown, what they are doing to restart their companies as states allow businesses to reopen and what effect this pandemic and its aftermath will have on their business. Where Do We Go From Here? A look at how a sample of industry distributors are faring after the COVID-19 economic fallout and what they are expecting and planning for around the next turn. by Tina Berres Filipski A Snapshot Of Distributor Activity | FEATURE | JUNE 2020 | 49