PPB June 2020

Gregg Emmer Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer Kaeser & Blair Batavia, Ohio How have your sales and business been affected by the pandemic? Sales in Q1 were on track with 2019. Q2 has seen a substantial slump but still steady business. We have also seen a good increase in order count the past two weeks. When do you foresee your sales returning to pre-lockdown levels? That is a tough question. We have seen some very large orders for PPE, which have kept sales volume stronger. As the health emergence subsides so will the feeding frenzy for PPE, so hopefully normal business will be replacing it as we move forward. Basically, I think we have lost a year at minimum in three months. All the growth of 2019 and a good part of 2018 have been lost. What shape of recovery do you think this will be—U, V, W, some combination or other—and why? There are many factors to consider. Large, well-capitalized businesses continued to advertise and market through all this. They will adjust their message to appreciate from the economic reality of the marketplace. Small and under-capitalized businesses will either close or limit all that they consider non- essential spending. Most will make the mistake of considering marketing non-essential. A very real impediment to recovery is that office sales calls may not return as a standard selling method. If that is, in fact, what happens, online sales will increase, and recovery of our traditional industry will be very slow. Finally, there is growing resistance to goods from China. With so much of what we sell being from China, this further complicates any recovery. I think the overall economy will snap back faster than the promotional products industry. What actions are you taking now to restart your business? We never shut down. Our headquarters had to close to meet state orders, but our entire staff has been working remotely and not a single employee was laid off or had any hours cut. We are beginning a slow return to our headquarters that will take about a month so as to keep the facility sanitized and people at a distance for a while. We have managed our business and not missed a beat. In general terms, what are your revenue expectations for year-end? My feeling is a 10- to 15-percent decline from 2019. This is based only on my personal feeling and not on any data. Our CFO might not agree. Gerry Barker President Barker Specialty Co. Cheshire, Connecticut How have your sales and business been affected by the pandemic? Sales have certainly been negatively impacted by the pandemic— all the cancellations of trade shows, sporting events and special meetings have certainly hurt business. While we have tried to retain some of the business, for example, offering to ship the awards for recognition dinners to all the attendees, there is no way to make up for the overall revenue loss. We did begin selling PPE quickly and sold millions of items, but we don’t believe that PPE is a sustainable business and we also don’t want to risk ruining our credibility in the current environment of very high pricing, questionable product quality and unreliable delivery. When do you foresee your sales returning to pre-lockdown levels? We don’t think the world will revert to the “way things were.” The While we have tried to retain some of the business, for example, offering to ship the awards for recognition dinners to all the attendees, there is no way to make up for the overall revenue loss. A Snapshot Of Distributor Activity | FEATURE | JUNE 2020 | 53