Each year, Promo Marketing’s Supplier Excellence Awards allow our readers to pick the suppliers they believe have the best products, customer service and production time. In our May issue, we presented you with a list of finalists determined by some of the industry’s top distributors and urged you to log on to www.promomarketing.com to vote for your favorite in each category. You more than did your part as thousands of you signed on and cast ballots for the best of the best. 2012’s awards cover 43 categories, ranging from corporate apparel and electronics to greeting cards and spirit items. The gold, silver and bronze winners are listed here, while the full list of finalists is avaiable here.
Along with the Supplier Excellence Award winners, we have listed the top 50 promotional products suppliers here. The list is based on 2011 revenue. As you can see by the increase in numbers from 2010 to 2011, the end of the recession has benefitted the promotional products industry. Last year, there was an overall $500 million increase in what suppliers made from 2009. 2011 showed another large surplus in funds with suppliers bringing in roughly $450 million more in 2011 than they did in 2010. These revenue increases have led to new product releases and additions to current product lines. Now is the time to be a promotional products salesperson because as the U.S. economy improves, so does the industry. So keep selling, selling and selling. Clearly, it is working.