News November 04, 2019
4imprint Forecasts 16% Sales Rise For 2019
Annual revenue for promo’s biggest distributor would be north of $856 million if the estimate holds true.
The largest distributor in the promotional products industry said Monday that it’s on track to increase its global sales by double digits in 2019.
In a trading update, 4imprint (asi/197045) said that revenue will likely have increased 16% over 2018 by the time 2019 ends. Last year, 4imprint generated global sales of $738.42 million. A 16% rise in 2019 would put 4imprint’s worldwide revenue at about $856.6 million. The annual growth rate would be a couple percentage points down from 2018’s 18% rise over 2017 sales.
In July, 4imprint announced that global sales for the half-year of 2019 ended June 29th were $405 million, up 16% over the same six-month period in 2018. Profit for the half-year was $15.36 million, up 22%.
“Demand activity in the second half has remained robust, with growth in both new and existing customer orders consistent with that seen in the first half,” 4imprint said in a statement, noting that an intensified marketing/advertising push has helped drive the sales acceleration.
In its Monday announcement, the distributorship also noted that it has completed a $5 million expansion of its Oshkosh, WI distribution center, which became fully operational in September.
4imprint didn’t say how much revenue it expects to produce from the North American market in particular this year. While headquartered in London, U.K., 4imprint’s main operations are in Oshkosh. The firm generates the vast majority of its sales on the American side of the Atlantic Ocean. In 2018, 4imprint’s North American promotional products sales were $714.6 million – good enough to rank the ecommerce-driven distributorship first on Counselor’s latest list of the largest distributors in the North American ad specialty market.
Profits on 2018 global sales of $738.42 million were $35.1 million. 4imprint didn’t indicate Monday what it expects 2019 profit to be. The firm has said that it remains ahead of schedule to achieve its goal of becoming a $1 billion distributorship by 2022.
4imprint’s sales success comes as CEO Kevin Lyons-Tarr and Suzanne Worwood, SVP of Merchandising and Supply Chain, were announced as jointly taking first place on Counselor’s 2019 Power 50, a definitive ranking of the most influential people in the promo products industry.