The U.S. wholesale distribution industry should fare well in 2018 as soaring consumption and investment counter the strong dollar and proposed changes to trade policy, according to the newly released 2018 Competitive Landscape for Wholesale Distribution.
MDM Analytics forecasts overall industry revenues to increase 3.9 percent in 2018. Any growth is welcome for distribution, which saw 2016 revenues decline 0.4 percent from 2015 while growth and declines across sectors were inconsistent.
The top performing sectors were Commercial Equipment and Supplies, which grew 9 percent, followed by Building Material and Construction and Pharmaceutical. Metal Service Centers saw a 10.3 percent percent decrease, with Oil and Gas Products and Agricultural Products also reporting significant declines.
In 2016, the overall U.S. economy exhibited its weakest growth since 2011, improving just 1.6 percent despite moderate employment growth, low levels of unemployment, record household wealth and positive indicators from both consumers and industry. Total revenues in the wholesale distribution industry grew by 2.2 percent in 2016 after adjusting for inflation and deflation.
The MDM Competitive Landscape for Wholesale Distribution provides a comparative view of key financial and economic sector benchmarks, as well as emerging trends impacting specific sectors. It includes a competitive market share analysis of the top five Market Leaders by product category, where available, and a more comprehensive listing of the largest distributors by specialized product segments.
Fourteen of the industry's 19 sectors are broken out to provide more detail, including key trends and a market share estimate for the distributors in each (except for building materials/construction due to unavailability of data).
Distribution executives, channel managers, and financial analysts and service providers use the report for sector-specific financial benchmarks, key trends, market share of the top distributors and multisector competitive analysis and differentials.
Order the 2018 Competitive Landscape for Wholesale Distribution – the full report or one of our 14 sector reports – by clicking here.
