Insights From Top Dealers

I’ve been back from Asia for more than a week now, just in time to help Christine Palmer clean up the last of our annual Top Dealer survey. For those laggards who have yet to respond, I’m coming after you this week!

But with most of the surveys already in, I’ll share a little of what dealers are reporting. Most of the big folks had very good years. We’ll have a new No. 1, of course, with Tri-Mark USA fully absorbing Strategic Equipment for this year’s listing. Tri-Mark reported verified total sales of $944 million for 2013, which indicates strong organic growth in addition to the bump from the acquisition. Among other big dealers already reporting, Edward Don, Wasserstrom, Singer Equipment, Bargreen Ellingson, Hockenbergs, and Mission Supply all posted healthy gains for last year.

The Internet-oriented dealerships continued to boom. Clark Associates added almost $90 million in sales in 2013 to reach nearly $327 million. KaTom Restaurant Supply and Burkett also realized strong increases.

But many mid-tier and smaller dealers also had very good years. Action Sales, Hotel & Restaurant Supply, Johnson-Lancaster (on the bid side) and Kittredge Equipment, Best Restaurant Equipment and the Sam Tell Cos, which picked up Paramount, all had very good years on the sales side.

I think we can confidently say that the state of E&S distribution in the U.S. is strong, at least from the sales perspective. As Jack Lewis of Mission Supply pointed out at the FEDA Convention—and many others have wisely said before—sales do not always translate into profits.

The full Top Dealer Report will be published in the June issue of FER. We really, really have to have your form by the end of this week if you haven’t submitted yet.

Cheers,

Robin Ashton

Publisher

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