Home | Subscribe | Contact Us | Advertise

Distributors Get Their Due

Here’s the argument for our segment of the industry in a nutshell: Two salespeople meet with the marketing director of a mid-size company with multiple locations. One is employed by a local, direct-selling commercial printing plant. It specializes in marketing collateral, including brochures, postcards and letterhead. The other is a distributor who owns his own company. He partners not only with commercial printing plants throughout the country, but he also can provide promotional products, packaging and fulfillment services. He offers forms, warehousing and e-commerce capabilities—anything the end user needs to operate and grow the business. Not every sale goes to a distributor, but it’s obvious from this example that distributors have powerful competitive advantages to start.

Distributors’ competitive advantages can be summed up in a single word: freedom. Our readers are free to sell what their clients and prospects need. They’re free to pair projects with the best manufacturers for the job. The result: flexibility and efficiency.
Aspects of the industry may be changing, but the logic of the distribution model has not. Partnerships between distributors and manufacturers allow both entities to focus on their strengths. Last month, we focused on manufacturers and their role in our segment. This issue, we turn our attention to the distributors. We begin with our annual top distributor rankings on page 46. Congratulations to Proforma, Cleveland, for reaching No. 1 this year.

This issue also addresses a challenge that many distributors face—growing their businesses and taking them to the next level. Assistant Editor Rebecca Trela profiles Owner Tim McClellan’s quest to transform Strategic Print Solutions, a Fairfax, Va.-based distributorship. Experts from inside and outside the industry offer their advice concerning McClellan’s short- and long-term goals. The story starts on page 26, but we’ll keep tabs on McClellan’s progress in future issues. Meanwhile, you can share your own thoughts about McClellan’s venture at www.printsolutionsmag.com/issues/june07/page26.cfm.

We also focus on the good that distributors and manufacturers do for their communities in “A Smart Way to Give” (page 68). We learned that generosity is good not only for the soul—it’s also good business.

Andy Brown
Managing Editor
abrown@PSDA.org