Nearly a year after the pandemic first came to its shores, Canada continues to see rising coronavirus cases across the provinces, posing a challenging comeback for the promo industry there.

News hit wires on Tuesday, Jan. 19, that Ontario, the province where cases are second-highest just behind Quebec, will receive no shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine during the last week of the month, due to production issues in Belgium and delivery delays.

The same day, Ontario Premier Doug Ford pleaded with incoming U.S. President Joe Biden to help the province, one of the U.S.’s largest trading partners, to source additional doses, citing Pfizer’s location in nearby Kalamazoo, MI.

“You have a hundred million down there,” he said during a press conference. “Give your great neighbor, that stands shoulder to shoulder with you, a million vaccines to keep us going. Get us over the hump.”

It continues to be a challenging time for promo firms contending with ongoing supply chain disruption, shutdowns and suppressed business opportunities, compounded by vaccine uncertainty, which people are hoping will be a saving grace, and a new variant of the virus found in Canada at the end of December.

In Quebec, which has the most COVID cases in Canada, it’s been a tough year for Christine Courtemanche, vice president of Lineaire Infographie Inc. (asi/253727) in Laval, QC, and a 2019 Advantages salesperson finalist. She said with many customers closed or running at lower levels, sales continue to be suppressed, though she has done bags, drinkware and PPE.

“We lost a few orders due to suppliers’ slow response,” she said. “We’re all just focused on surviving until the situation gets better. We hope things will improve in Q2, but we can’t tell if it will. The current situation is unpredictable. The government keeps making changes to the restrictions.”

Steve Levschuk, president and CEO of Talbot Promo (asi/341500) in London, ON, said Ontario and Quebec have issued strict stay-at-home orders that have closed all but essential companies, which puts additional pressure on businesses to try to survive, even with government assistance.

“Incoming orders are soft,” he said. “We saw a significant amount of PPE business in March 2020 which won’t repeat this year. Because of lockdowns, we could be down more than 10% year over year.” Talbot continues to do business in reusable masks and kitting, since clients still want to maintain connections with their workforces and customers, but supply chain disruption continues to pose obstacles.

“Canadian distributors had a strong Q4, but finding inventory was a huge challenge and tied up a great deal of our staff’s time as we tried to save orders from being canceled,” said Levschuk. “Q1 has the same challenges, but we believe momentum will build. We expect increased order activity in Q2 coupled with growing supplier inventories, which will alleviate some of the pressure to find substitutes or cancel orders.”

Ann Baiden, CEO and founder of Innovatex Solutions Inc. (asi/231194) in Richmond Hill, ON, said her team continues to dropship the majority of customers’ orders. Virtual conference kits with drinkware, notebooks, pens and food gifts continue to sell. Customers are also looking for masks, stress toys and fitness gear, while the vast majority of apparel orders are for loungewear.

“Finding stock has been a challenge, and reduced staff at suppliers means longer processing time for orders,” Baiden said. “We’re also seeing production and delivery delays.”

Among Canadians’ myriad concerns, she said, are health and safety, including mental health, supporting Canadian-made companies and small businesses, and the country’s relationship with the U.S. moving forward as Joe Biden comes into power.

“We’re optimistic,” she said. “We’re seeing a continuation of December’s momentum this month. We expect fulfillment to continue to be key and for sales to remain steady.”

Moving west to Saskatchewan, where COVID cases are fewer, it remains a slow quarter for promo sales as officials continue to encourage residents to stay home and have canceled most events and athletic tournaments.

“Staying home is detrimental to all businesses’ success, and they’re cutting promo budgets first,” said Mike Yager, president of Spotlight Sport & Corporate Wear (asi/332753) in Humboldt. PPE sales have slowed up, he said, though they continue to sell fleece, T-shirts and headwear. Unfortunately, lack of inventory has caused significant delays; Yager said they’re still waiting on apparel replenishments to complete orders from early December.

“Warehouse staff restrictions caused a five-day delay in picking our orders last month,” he said. “Transport delays also added stress.”

“We don’t anticipate business to really start coming back to normal levels until Q3 or Q4, once vaccines are administered and provinces lift restrictions for in-person school, and sports and business events.” - Mike Yager, Spotlight Sport & Corporate Wear

In the natural energy-dependent Canadian Prairies, Yager said people are concerned about Biden’s campaign promise to cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline expansion, which would have connected terminals of the U.S.-Canada Keystone Pipeline between Alberta and Nebraska. Further development would have led to additional jobs in the area, and reports suggest it may signal a shaky relationship between Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau moving forward.

“All we ask at this point is that President-elect Biden show Canada the respect to actually sit down and hear our case about how we can be partners in prosperity, partners in combating climate change and partners in energy security,” said Alberta Premier Jason Kenney this week, ahead of the inauguration. “Surely, the relationship between Canada and the United States is worth at least having that discussion.”

In addition, said Yager, Canadians are concerned with the continuing decline of small- and medium-sized businesses (a local movie theater Yager owns saw an 80% drop in revenue from March through December), along with stress on the healthcare system.

“Most folks want the vaccine rolled out more quickly so they can get back to a normal life and travel again,” he said. “We don’t anticipate business to really start coming back to normal levels until Q3 or Q4, once vaccines are administered and provinces lift restrictions for in-person school, and sports and business events.”

In British Columbia, Sharon Griffith, vice president of sales and marketing at Soft Stuff Promotions (asi/88121) in Surrey BC, and Blaine, WA, said clients who had canceled orders in 2020 have recently ordered again, which was a promising step forward. Customers are still ordering plush toys, many of which have mini-face masks. But sales for golf head covers are slow because of the lack of tournaments.

While ongoing lockdowns have put a damper on Q1 sales, lead times are also posing an obstacle; custom orders from China normally require three to four months for production, said Griffith, which meant that orders slated for Q1 of 2021 needed to be placed in October at the latest. Because of ongoing uncertainty, they weren’t.

“End customers’ expectations remain unrealistic,” Griffith said. “They’re completely unaware of production time, a month-long closure for Chinese New Year and the difficulties in shipping out of China at the moment.”

Griffith said shipments leaving China need to be pre-booked to reserve space in shipping containers, but many aren’t leaving Chinese shores in a timely manner. When they do leave, they often make stops at different ports to maximize capacity, further delaying arrival time in Canada. At the Port of Vancouver, congestion due to containers not returning to China means less room for those arriving to dock and unload.

“Shipments are taking longer, adding to an already fairly long lead time with no alternative production areas for our products,” Griffith said. “Some of our customers are looking at air freight, but that’s limited and very expensive, at least double what it was pre-COVID.”

Port congestion and complicated logistics are also posing a challenge for Vancouver, BC-based Bishop Custom Clothing (asi/40585), owned by Top 40 supplier Edwards Garment (asi/51752). However, Michael Snyder, vice president of sales and marketing at Bishop, said sales are strong and the company finished out 2020 at 30% above the previous year.

“During these uncertain and chaotic times, we’ve seen a noticeable trend in companies paying far more attention to a well-crafted uniform program,” he said. “It’s never been more important for a business or organization to project stability, cohesiveness, confidence and clarity. We anticipate strong activity to continue, and that should only increase in the months to follow as the vaccine rollout accelerates.”