Promo Europe engineered a collective year-over-year sales increase in 2024, a rise propelled in part by gains in leading national markets like the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland and Spain. The continent-wide acceleration occurred despite sales declines in certain affluent countries that are traditionally at the head of the pack for the merch business in Europe, including Germany, France and Sweden.

That’s according to ASI Research’s just-released study of the European promotional products market – the third annual incarnation of what was the first and still only comprehensive analysis of the branded merchandise industry in the key continental market.

The study analyzed distributor sales in the United Kingdom, the 27-nation supranational political and economic bloc known as the European Union, and the geographically European (but not part of the U.K. or EU) countries of Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

The top-line finding is that distributors’ promotional products sales across European countries increased 1.22% in 2024 compared to 2023, tallying more than $14.24 billion. The gain was comparable to that of the North American promo market, where distributors increased sales, on average, by 1.8% on an annual basis in 2024 to $26.6 billion, ASI Research shows. As the numbers evidence, the European promo market is about 54% of the size of the North American industry.

“2024 was as challenging in Europe as it was in North America, with the uncertain economy and, depending on the country, political climates,” says Nate Kucsma, ASI’s senior executive director of research and the leader of the study. “However, as in North America, European distributors were able to overcome many hurdles and increase sales overall.”

For sure, particulars can vary in a continent as economically and culturally diverse as Europe, but there were certain factors that helped spur the overall continental gain, executives say.

“The slight increase in promotional product sales in the U.K. and Europe in 2024 was, broadly speaking, driven by the recovery of the event and trade show industry, as well as increased marketing activity following economic stabilization,” says Vicky Kinasz, the United Kingdom-based president of Geiger International, a division of Counselor Top 40 distributor Geiger (asi/202900) that serves clients across Europe. “Many companies raised their budgets for brand visibility and customer engagement, which positively impacted demand. Additionally, the growing awareness of sustainable and Made-in-Europe products provided new momentum.”

ASI Research developed the sales estimates for each European nation studied through a combination of efforts that included intensive number-crunching and extensive first-person research conducted with leaders in the U.K./European promo market.

ASI was able to leverage those executive connections thanks to its several decades of transcontinental promo relationship-building, being a lead member/co-founder of international industry partnership organization PromoAlliance and through providing consistent media coverage of the merch market in Europe, including boots-on-the-ground reporting of major trade shows like PSI in Germany and Merchandise World in the U.K.

As for the numbers analysis, ASI Research developed an algorithm that incorporated evaluations of gross domestic product per capita, advertising spend per capita and the number of small- and medium-sized businesses in every European country assessed. Researchers used the resulting formula and insights from European industry leaders to determine total promo spend estimates for the U.K. and the various European countries, then added those up for a combined total.

Why bother? Because promo is becoming increasingly globalized, with business interaction between the European and North American merch markets increasing. Therefore, industry-wide sales estimates that provide a scope for the addressable end-markets on both continents and related analysis of trends and developments impacting business can prove valuable for business leaders, says Kucsma.

“These numbers give the industry a benchmark to consider as they evaluate their international expansion plans,” Kucsma states. “Every year we take steps to improve our estimates and methodology and this will continue in future years.”

“2024 was as challenging in Europe as it was in North America. However, as in North America, European distributors were able to overcome many hurdles and increase sales overall.” Nate Kucsma, ASI

Growth Countries

Seven of the top 10 European nations for promo sales experienced year-over-year increases in 2024. That was an important factor that lifted the collective tide of business across the continent. Notably, Spain had the highest percentage growth of the top 10 nations – 7.6%, equating to $667 million in distributor sales, making the country the sixth largest national market for promo in Europe.

Distributors in Spain generated considerable business with official organizations, town halls, labor unions, regional governments and language academies, says Emilio Estellés-Zanón, president of the Asociación Importadores y Fabricantes de Artículos Publicitarios, a Spanish promo association.

Still, the primary factor in Spain’s swag gain was the nation’s thriving tourism industry. “With 94 million tourists annually, it’s a powerful engine of the economy that generates wealth, which directly impacts the growth of the promotional products industry,” says Estellés-Zanón.

The United Kingdom, the second largest national market in terms of promo sales in Europe behind Germany, generated a 4% increase in distributor revenue in 2024, reaching $2.096 billion. Several high-profile events helped propel U.K. business, including the 2024 Paris Olympics, the only-once-every-four-years European Football Championship (a kind of continental “World Cup,” in which England finished runner-up) and the general election in Britain.

Jason Grenham, sales director at Sourcing City, an ASI partner and England-based trade service organization that provides a suite of solutions to the U.K.’s promo market, shares that some of the increase was also simply inflation-driven – such as higher product costs being passed along to end-buyers. Still, he says, distributors generally built business by providing valuable solutions that helped clients across a spectrum of industries advance their marketing and recognition efforts.

“We’re continuing to see information technology, financial markets and automotive being some of the biggest buyers of merchandise in the U.K.,” Grenham says.

Distributors in Italy, the fourth largest national market for promotional product sales in Europe, increased sales in 2024 too, with merch revenue there rising 1.8% to nearly $1.57 billion. “The reason for the increase was to be found in a renewed confidence in economic growth, which has led companies to invest in promo,” says Patrizia Merlino, president of the Italian Association of Promotional Product Manufacturers and Distributors (ASSOPROM).

Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which aims to utilize funds from the Next Generation EU program to modernize and revitalize the economy, was a notable factor in helping propel more economic surety, which was good for the merch business, according to Merlino.

Italian distributors secured sales from a broad range of end-clients, with swag solutions for events like conventions touching a range of industries helping to keep business brisk, along with investments in corporate gifts from a variety of companies, including smaller ones. “We didn’t,” says Merlino, “have just one type of flagship customer.”

Despite being geographically small and having a population just below 9 million, Switzerland ranked fifth overall in Europe in terms of distributor sales. The mountainous nation punches above its weight, so to speak, due in part to it being a top international location for banking and corporate headquarters. Given that, much swag spend passes through Swiss offices, even if the actual products are distributed outside the country. Business certainly wasn’t bad in 2024: Swiss promo sales jumped 4.4%, surpassing $1 billion for the first time since ASI Research began studying the nation.

“The slight increase in promotional product sales in the U.K. and Europe in 2024 was, broadly speaking, driven by the recovery of the event and trade show industry, as well as increased marketing activity following economic stabilization.” Vicky Kinasz, Geiger International

Other top 10 countries for European promo sales that experienced annual revenue rises included Belgium, Netherlands and Denmark, with the last of those posting an impressive 6.3% year-over-year increase. Of course, countries outside the top 10 helped catalyze the overall sales increase in Europe too, with midsized markets like Greece (+4.7%), Portugal (+4.6%) and Czech Republic (+5.3%) among those that performed well. The biggest progress-maker, though, was Poland, where 2024 sales, in percentage terms, increased more than any other European nation studied, jumping 8.2% to $254 million.

Distributors and suppliers alike in Poland grew sales domestically, but exports were an unignorable component of Polish promo’s 2024 story – and will likely continue to be, says John Lynch, the American founder of Krakow, Poland-based Lynka, one of Europe’s leading producers and suppliers of apparel and accessories, which in 2021 became part of Counselor Top 40 supplier Vantage Apparel (asi/93390).

“With its high-quality manufacturing and relatively low-cost workforce – and a prime location, right next door to Germany and a stone’s throw away from other rich markets such as Scandinavia – exports are certainly an important factor for the Polish promo industry,” says Lynch. “It was definitely a growth year for promo in Poland in 2024. The cherry on top was Polish exports by both suppliers like Lynka, and larger distributors, whose multinational clients need pan-European solutions.”

A Tougher 2024 for Germany, France & Scandinavia

Germany and France are the first and third largest national markets for distributor sales in Europe, respectively. Both saw business drop in 2024, with Germany down 1.8% and France off the prior year’s mark by 1.7%.

“The very subdued year was primarily due to the generally tense economic situation in Germany,” says Tobias Roesch, managing director/CEO of elasto GmbH & Co. KG (asi/51817), a large Germany-based supplier. “High energy and labor costs, uncertainties caused by geopolitical tensions, and the ongoing shortage of skilled workers forced many companies to cut costs – often at the expense of marketing budgets. In addition, cautious consumer sentiment led to subdued investment in promo, especially among small- and medium-sized enterprises.”

Ralf Uwe Schneider, managing director/CEO of German promo association Gesamtverband der Werbeartikel-Wirtschaft, adds that general inflation and higher interest rates depressed spend on promo in Deutschland. Mounting EU regulations have muddied the business waters, too. “More extensive and costly documentation and reporting requirements from Brussels are making the distribution of advertising materials increasingly complicated,” Schneider says.

In France, the political instability that came from the dissolution of the French government just before the Olympic Games contributed to the promo market’s downturn, say leading industry executives in the country. While the Olympics were anticipated to positively impact merch sales in France as they did in Britain, the windfall never materialized in the host country, as many companies refrained from investing significantly in promo and other advertising mediums during the Games, executives say. General economic uncertainty also made end-clients more cautious with swag spend.

“Larger clients cut budgets quicker than middle-sized companies,” affecting sales industry-wide in France, according to Derek Rohde, president of Jordenen, one of France’s biggest promo firms.

While Danish distributors authored a success story in 2024, increasing sales more than 6%, their performance was an anomaly among their Nordic neighbors. Sweden (-1.5%, $651 million), Finland (-3.1%, $355 million) and Norway (-2.7%, $318 million) all saw sales drop.

“Like in Germany and France, 2024 was marked by economic caution in Scandinavia,” says Kinasz, of Geiger International. “Inflation, geopolitical uncertainties, and rising production costs led many companies to reassess and partially reduce their promotional spending. Furthermore, these markets are already highly saturated, which limits growth potential.”

Still, sales across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden were more than $1.92 billion, meaning the northern region remains a European powerhouse for promo sales. And Germany and France were approximately $2.99 billion and $1.67 billion, respectively. The number jumble means this: Despite year-over-year drops in all these nations but Denmark, distributors were still transacting ample amounts of business.

“The strongest buyers continued to come from medium-sized industrial companies, retail and the service sector,” Roesch says. Adds Schneider: “No single sector stands out as having been particularly active. The same industries have remained our main sources of revenue: IT, mechanical engineering, banking and insurance, automotive, logistics, consumer brands and tourism.”

Evolving End-Client Demands

Undoubtedly, end-client preferences can vary by country or region across the U.K. and Europe. Even so, there are – perhaps especially across continental western and northern European countries and the U.K. – certain general commonalities when it comes to customer predilections.

These include a desire for products made in certifiably sustainable ways from eco-friendly materials, a growing penchant for locally made items and a taste shift toward superior-quality, useful promo goods, executives say.

“We are seeing more and more end-users looking for higher quality products and perhaps buying less, moving away from the big-quantity but lower-value items of the past,” says Grenham, of the U.K.’s Sourcing City. “Part of this is also due to end-users’ demand for sustainable and renewable items, which has become paramount in the past few years.”

“The origin and production of items are becoming more important – ‘Made in Germany’ or ‘climate-neutral production’ are becoming real purchasing criteria here in Germany.” Tobias Roesch, elasto GmbH & Co. KG (asi/51817)

For sure, across the board, there’s stronger demand for sustainable, ethically sourced and practical products that offer long-term value, says Luis Calado, vice president of European sales at Counselor Top 40 supplier Goldstar (asi/73295).

“Buyers are also increasingly interested in brand storytelling, choosing merch that reflects their mission, not just their logo,” says Calado, adding: “We’re noticing a shift away from volume-based orders and toward more curated, higher-quality selections. In regions like Scandinavia and Western Europe, where sustainability expectations are especially high, this often translates to longer decision-making timelines and smaller, more deliberate order sizes.”

Roesch echoes the sentiments on sustainable and high-quality products – and adds related insight. “The origin and production of items are becoming more important – ‘Made in Germany’ or ‘climate-neutral production’ are becoming real purchasing criteria here in Germany,” he says.

“We’re noticing a shift away from volume-based orders and toward more curated, higher-quality selections.” Luis Calado, Goldstar (asi/73295)

Kinasz shares that client demand was especially strong for recyclable stationery, reusable water bottles, organic cotton textiles and tech gadgets with accessories like wireless chargers or multifunctional tools. Classic items like pens, notebooks and tote bags also remained popular – though increasingly in eco-friendly versions, she says. “We also see clients trading up to ‘premium’ branded merchandise and apparel,” Kinasz states. “Although price may be higher, they are valuing the quality and longevity of these pieces.”

Certain end-clients are increasingly keen for products with interactive technology elements. “The online advertising world is seeking ways to enter the offline living environment of consumers,” Schneider says. “When companies first meet their target group in person, interactive elements, such as QR codes printed on promotional items and artificial reality-oriented giveaways, are the right tools to reach end-customers digitally.”

2025 Status & Outlook: Mixed

Generally, promo executives say industry sales across many important national economies have been flat to slightly up or slightly down so far in 2025 relative to 2024. Regional differences are in play.

“2025 has been mixed,” says Kinasz. “While some markets like Spain and Italy are showing positive development, the situation in the U.K., Germany and France remains subdued.”

It’s a pattern certain European promo leaders say could hold for the duration of 2025 across the continent – flat sales in some nations, with tepid growth or mild declines in others. Even so, some executives indicate that potentially negative economic ripple effects from factors like U.S. tariffs and global military conflicts could degrade the merch market’s sales performance more severely, depending on how things unfold. Much remains unknown.

“Ongoing inflation, geopolitical tensions and trade uncertainties continue to have a dampening effect,” Kinasz states. “Overall, however, the market is likely to stabilize, with a moderate increase compared to 2024.”

New ASI Research delivers industrywide findings on Q1 #promoproduct distributor & supplier sales, as well as questions related to Made-in-USA demand, product price increases, business outlook, top end-markets for sales & how firms of different sizes fared https://t.co/s6FUOLXl4C

— Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI) April 21, 2025

Back on this side of the Atlantic, ASI Research shows that promo distributors’ sales in North America declined in the first quarter of 2025. Sales were sluggish into May, though industry outlook was slowly rebounding.

Goldstar’s Calado predicts that sales across the U.K. and continental Europe will grow overall in 2025 compared to 2024, but he doesn’t believe a robust surge in business is coming.

“We’re seeing stable but cautious growth,” Calado says. “Buyers are being strategic – focusing on ROI, leaning on trusted partners and selecting products that deliver lasting impact. … Trends like sustainability, creative customization and a focus on quality over quantity are driving new opportunities for suppliers and distributors who can evolve with these expectations.”

Roesch believes some positive momentum is percolating in Germany.

“Political initiatives by the new federal government to ease the burden on the economy and promote investment are creating a cautious sense of optimism,” he tells ASI Media. “We expect promo market volume to remain stable overall in 2025, with hopes for slight growth opportunities if economic policy measures take effect. The decisive factor will be whether confidence in economic development returns, as promotional products are a reflection of companies’ willingness to invest.”

On Germany, Schneider says: “A very interesting assumption for the short-term outlook is a digital-budget spillover into tangible giveaways. This would help to support my expectation of a flat to low single-digit growth in 2025, rebounding from 2024’s dip but not yet reaching pre-pandemic levels.”

“We’ll have a small increase this year in Italy.” Patrizia Merlino, ASSOPROM

Sourcing City’s perspective on promo performance in the U.K. has the industry solutions provider believing sales across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will be up again a pinch, “partly due to price increases being implemented,” says Grenham. Merlino, meanwhile, believes Italian promo distributors will manage a limited gain in that nation.

“We’ll have a small increase this year in Italy,” she tells ASI Media. “The result will certainly be influenced by the percentage of (tariffs) and by wars – not wars Italy is directly involved in but rather how repercussions from the conflicts will affect” business and global supply chains.

The outlook was a bit darker in France. Industry executives there say political uncertainty and geopolitical challenges have resulted in companies being cautious about spending, leading to smaller budgets for investing in promo. “The market remains volatile and slow,” says Rohde. Still, there’s also some sense among French promo executives that 2025 could ultimately prove a transition toward a bullish cycle, which they hope would occur no later than 2027, if not in 2026.

In Spain, promo was keeping pace with 2024, though how 2025 will end in terms of distributor sales is a bit of a toss-up, according to Estellés-Zanón.

“Sales in Spain in 2025 are in line with those of 2024 overall, which is a great success considering the global geopolitical situation and the uncertainty in financial markets,” Estellés-Zanón says. “The reason, once again, is the tourism industry. I hope that we will again experience an increase in Spain but at this moment, the political situation in our country and the international conflicts will not help for growth. Still, 3% to 4% growth will not be difficult to achieve for the big players in Spain.”

While the outlook for European promo is varied in 2025, one thing remains certain: ASI Research will be there to study the market’s performance, providing insights promotional product leaders across continents can use to direct their firms to success in the complex global marketplace.