SUPPLY AND DEMAND: Manufacturers, suppliers and dealers rush

Why would promotional products distributors want to go into the uniform business? And, why would uniform dealers want to sell promotional products?

Simple. There is business to be had.

Talk to just about any supplier or manufacturer serving the uniform industry these days and they will tell you that a percentage of their business now comes from promotional products distributors.

There is definately a gray area now between the two industries, says John Gunzler from Edwards Garment, a company that has successfully been serving both uniform dealers and promotional products distributors. Edwards is very involved with this business. We think there are an awful lot of live wires out there.

Business is tough and only getting tougher for manufacturers (and everyone else for that matter). Suppliers face stiff competition these days. So when an opportunity to open dozensperhaps even hundredsof new distributorships comes along, it is hard to overlook such an opportunity.

The proof of this industrys potential is best seen by attending a trade show for the promotional products trade. Manufacturers report they scan 1,500 to 1,800 new prospects at some of these shows. Even if only 10% of these leads turn out to be more than catalog collectors, it may represent a significant uptick in sales.

If you want to play the percentages game, and many sales manager do, then little is left to the imagination. Plus, the ad specialty distributor is eager and enthusiastic about the productsalways on the prowl for new items to bring to their customers. Apparel has represented a major chunk of the ad specialty industry in the form of hats and T-shirts, and now they crave more. The distributors customers are asking them for more specialized apparel.

The good news for uniform dealers is the street runs two-ways. Many traditional uniform dealers have discovered the potential for additional sales and opened up ad specialty divisions.

The reality is that the public safety apparel market is, in many regions, a finite number or experiencing a slowdown in growth. Everyone is basically already in a uniform (police, fire, EMS, etc.), so what is left for many suppliers and dealers is to beat each other up for another 1% of the existing business. For now, the core parts of a uniform dealers sales (public safety, military, industrial and postal) has little threat from the promotional products distributors. But, that may just a question of time.

The beachhead has been firmly established on the career apparel, school and hospitality fronts. There is corporate identity apparel of all sorts being sold equally by the uniform dealer and the promotional products distributor. Plus, the hospitality category appears to be growing at a healthy pace. Selling apparel to hotels, restaurants and corporate accounts has become big business to the promotional product distributor.

Uniform manufacturers already serving the ad specialty market are pleasantly surprised by the types of garments being sold by promotional product distributors. The expectation was that the basic camp and polo shirts would be the big movers but as the promotional products distributors become more sophisticated themselves, they are going after more complex uniform programs, which is, of course, where there is a challenge to the traditional uniform dealers.

Harold Greenberg, from Snap N Wear supplies both industries and says, The promotional products distributors order, for example, our bright colored jackets. They sell them to schools, fire departments and others. The promotional products distributor also tends to place large orders, likely because they dont want to set up machinery for just five jackets.

The high-visibility market is certainly not lost on the ad specialty distributor. High visibility products are huge in the promotional products market, says Laurie Anne Perez from Caplee Corporation, makers of safety vests and other apparel. It makes sense because they are already selling schools [for safety patrols] and restaurants [for valet service]. But, it cant be just about adding a strip to a T-shirt like some think. Its up to the manufacturer. They have to consider what class of standard they should be in.

One analogy to the growing interest in uniforms by the promotional products distributor is the migration of the industrial laundries, who dominated the uniform business for a long time, into the direct sale side of the business. Launderers, in the past, did not want to sell direct because they made more money on the rentals. Then all of a sudden, 10 years ago or so, they realized they were losing a lot of business and decided a direct sale perhaps is better than not having any. (See Made To Measures Decision 2001: Rent, Buy Or Lease in archives on our Web site.)

Some might say that uniform dealers are in a similar position today. They do well at what they dobidding and servicing municipal and private uniform contracts. In the meantime, a market is growing elsewhere, like a bulge, that a lot of them are not going after.

In all fairness though, it is safe to say that most everyone offering uniforms these days is either doing or at least thinking about the ad specialty business.

Uniform giants such as Wearguard now include promotional products in their sales approach. The industrial laundry leader Cintas has a catalog devoted to the sale of ad specialty items. And countless savvy outside sales representatives for regional uniform dealers include ad specialty programs in their offerings to accounts.

Why not? For the most part, selling is selling. Put a logo on a shirt or place it on a mug, as long as you buy it from my company we dont care. This is the attitude of many sales organizations.

Is it really that easy?

For certain accounts, it is exactly that simple. For other uniform and ad specialty programs, the specifications get far more complicated. There is, of course, a significant learning curve to starting or entering any new business. But it is not hard to find the people who can teach you what you need to know. Manufacturers are making it easier all the time to learn about their products and sell their in-stock programs.

The uniform business is like anything else. If it was that easy, everyone would be in it already. The same goes for the promotional products industry. A company has to have dedication and often times it takes years to become successful. But since the types of end-users are so similar (See Top 30 Buyers chart, page 106) and the products are identical in some cases, the learning time becomes so short that sales ramp up relatively quicklyoften within six months.

But new vendors going after the uniform business or the promotional products market should expect it to take some time before they meet with success. It is similar to fashion retailers and manufacturers entering the uniform marketjust because they have been selling the consumer apparel market successfully doesnt mean they will meet with good fortune in the uniform market. So it goes with the uniform and ad specialty marketsyou have to show some commitment.

The uniform business is a trade where 99% performance is not acceptable. Somebody at your customers business is waiting for that 100th shirt. Compare that to selling a regular retail store, where they buy 100 shirts and the manufacturer, for whatever reason, only ships 88. That amount might very well be acceptable because it is just a guess as to how many they will actually need during a selling season. The product hasnt been presold, but that is not the case in the uniform business.

The promotional products business almost never buys on speculation. In this regard, the promotional products distributor is used to monitoring very specific, accurate counts for ordering and delivery. Even more than the uniform industry, virtually all the product is presold. And many orders are drop-shipped from the manufacturer directly to the end-usereliminating the need for the promotional products distributor to maintain significant brick and mortar to their operation.

Many uniform stores consider themselves to have an advantage in this area. The fact that they have a physical store means they can handle the measuring, alteration and customer returns. But more and more, the promotional products distributor has found uniform sales niches where measuring is not required.

For either type of sales approach, embellishment is almost always required. This means many promotional products distributors maintain embroidery and screenprinting facilities, another commonality with uniform stores.