Distributor Benchmarking The State of Growth 2025 | Must Read PPAI • JULY 2025 • 37 TABLE 1: Revenue Change Since 2021 Distributors $100M+ 34% Distributors $25M-$100M 43% Distributors $10M-$25M 33% Distributors $3M-$10M 34% Distributors Under $3M 17% Similar to suppliers’ significant revenue change since 2021, it’s no surprise that distributor respondents across the board have reported a revenue increase since the pandemic. Wisconsin-based distributor Magellan Promotions, which sits in the under $10M range, has seen tremendous growth over the past three years, according to founder Michael Wolaver. “I’m not surprised to see that the biggest revenue increases have come from the distributors over $3 million in sales,” Wolaver says. “With how this industry is evolving, you can start to scale your business when you’re able to add a strong team to push the organization forward. It’s just hard to do that when your revenues are under $3 million.” TABLE 2: Revenue From New Clients Distributors $100M+ 11% Distributors $25M-$100M 14% Distributors $10M-$25M 15% Distributors $3M-$10M 21% Distributors Under $3M 31% Promo pros may have expected to see higher percentages across the board for revenue from new clients, but it’s important to remember that the industry experienced only modest growth last year as it continued to navigate macroeconomic headwinds, such as supply chain disruptions and high interest rates. U.S. distributor sales reached $26.8 billion last year, according to PPAI’s 2024 U.S. Distributor Sales Volume Estimate. While the 2.63% growth rate was slightly higher than 2023’s rate of 2.24%, it still failed to outpace 2024’s annual inflation rate of 2.9%. TABLE 3: Gross Profit Margin Distributors $100M+ 33% Distributors $25M-$100M 34% Distributors $10M-$25M 37% Distributors $3M-$10M 39% Distributors Under $3M 34% Distributors in the $3M-$10M range having greater profit margins than their larger counterparts indicates that they really focus on partnerships and agency-style selling solutions. Because of that, they’re most likely able to charge a higher amount. TABLE 4: Average Order Size Distributors $100M+ 2,088 Distributors $25M-$100M 2,957 Distributors $10M-$25M 3,653 Distributors $3M-$10M 2,287 Distributors Under $3M 1,906 Wolaver finds it interesting that distributors in the $10M-$100M range had significantly larger average order sizes. “My assumption here is that these companies are agency focused, working on larger, more strategic projects for clients rather than basic product fulfillment,” Wolaver says.
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