Distributors in the North American promotional products industry achieved a new annual sales record in 2024, ASI Research shows.

It turns out their counterparts in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland did, too.

A just-released analysis from Sourcing City shows that distributors in the U.K. and Republic of Ireland collectively increased annual sales by 4.2% in 2024 compared to 2023, with overall industry revenue accelerating to £1.232 billion (about $1.525 billion).

The U.K. carried the gain, as sales in the Republic of Ireland in particular declined about 2%.

Sourcing City, an ASI partner and England-based trade service organization that provides a suite of solutions to the U.K.’s promotional products market, noted that promo’s rate of annual increase in 2024 was essentially identical to the 4.19% rise in 2023, showing a consistency of growth.

According to Sourcing City, this was the second year in a row that promo in the U.K. and Ireland achieved a new annual record, as 2023’s total (£1.182 billion) had topped 2019 (£1.168 billion), the last full pre-COVID year and previously the sector’s revenue high-water mark.

“Once again, the leaders in our industry have demonstrated their entrepreneurial spirit to find opportunities and customer growth from wherever they could. The market value is also the highest it has ever been,” says David Long, founder and chairman of Sourcing City, which is part of Promo Alliance, an expanded collaborative effort with U.S.-based ASI and Germany-headquartered PSI that provides promotional products companies an array of benefits to better understand international markets and serve intercontinental clients.

Last year, an ASI Research study of promo distributor sales performance in the European Union; U.K.; and geographically European countries of Norway, Iceland and Switzerland found that U.K. distributor sales in 2023 were about $2.02 billion. ASI Research’s 2024 number is due out later this year. A reason for the difference between the ASI study and the Sourcing City figures is that ASI’s study analyzed branded apparel and hard goods.

The Sourcing City research noted that clothing is significantly underreported in its study because the report doesn’t account for sales of apparel by textile printers, specialist clothing resellers, distributors who buy directly from clothing suppliers and suppliers that sell direct to end-users.

Growth Factors

Despite the sales acceleration, U.K. promo executives said 2024 presented a plethora of challenges, many of them spawning from broader economic and societal issues.

Similar to North America, factors like inflation, a cost-of-living crisis and generalized uncertainty among business leaders about the direction of their companies and the economy presented sales impediments for merch sellers. Conditions for swag sales seemed to deteriorate for some as the year wore on, though not every distributor experienced the pattern, with some telling ASI Media that the fourth quarter was stronger than the rest.

“The promotional merchandise marketplace effectively had two key phases during 2024: starting the year with positive growth and ending in concern after the October Budget,” Long notes.

For all that, though, distributors still managed to collectively engineer growth over 4%. Long says several high-profile events helped, including the 2024 Paris Olympics, the only-once-every-four-years European Football Championship (a kind of continental “World Cup”) and the General Election in Britain.

“The General Election, Olympics and the Euros all falling in 2024 was good news for the requirement of promotional merchandise,” Long explains.

More broadly, distributors spurred sales success by providing valuable solutions that helped clients across a spectrum of industries advance their marketing and recognition efforts. End-markets where distributors executed consistent sales included professional services, hospitality and events, food and beverage, financial organizations, healthcare, and nonprofit entities.

“In a challenging economic landscape, our industry performed well, which is an indication that we remain a valued and effective tool within the overall marketing mix,” says Phil Goodman, CEO of the British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA), a professional trade body serving the U.K. promo products industry.

“Whilst the overall outlook for 2025 appears bleak for the U.K. economy, we remain optimistic that our industry will once again prove that it can grow in difficult times, just as it did in 2024.” David Long, Sourcing City

Geiger International, the division of Lewiston, ME-based Counselor Top 40 distributor Geiger (asi/202900) that focuses on global business, drove business forward by selling to clients across a broad range of markets.

“Sectors in which we had success included banking and financial institutions, travel and entertainment, industrial, and automotive,” Vicky Kinasz, the U.K.-based president of Geiger International, tells ASI Media. “The common theme was clients wanting to consolidate their spending and control the way their brand is managed across the U.K. and other international territories.”

A positive-for-business trend that, perhaps ironically, had its roots in the pandemic also helped continue to propel sales in 2024. “We continue to do a lot of kitting projects,” Kinasz shares. “They have continued to be a popular initiative for brand launches and new starters.”

Ireland Slips

The Sourcing City study analyzed the four U.K. countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as the neighboring Republic of Ireland. According to the study, promo distributor sales in the Republic dropped by about 2% in 2024 compared to 2023, falling to £64.4 million.

Similarly, average annual sales per distributor in Ireland dipped too, retreating from £460,000 (about €550,000 and $570,000) to £432,000 (about €516,000 and $532,000), though this can partially be explained by the fact that the number of distributors grew by six in 2024 – from 143 to 149, Long notes.

Still, there were positives to report. “Looking back to pre-COVID in 2019, the overall Republic of Ireland market size is up by £4.6 million and is serviced by an additional 32 distributor companies,” Long shares.

He also notes another dynamic in play in Ireland that could be affecting sales reporting.

“Since Brexit,” says Long, referring to the U.K.’s economic decoupling from the European Union, “a few large U.K. distributors have opened regional offices in the Republic of Ireland [which is part of the EU], mainly to enable them to trade within the European Union. As a result, their local representation will be achieving sales that will be reported through their U.K. headquarters.”

Sustainability, Rising Enquiries, Popular Products & Top Suppliers

Sourcing City’s solutions include a searchable database of products from suppliers throughout the U.K./Ireland promo industry. The company measures “click-through enquiries,” which are generated when a supplier is informed that a Sourcing City distributor has taken full details of an individual product. Each supplier receives an automatic report when a “CT Enquiry” occurs.

In line with the overall industry sales increase, CT Enquiries increased by 5% year over year in 2024 to about 623,000. The top 10 products for which distributors searched most frequently were, in order: bag, pen, travel mug, sports drink bottle, jotter, keyring, mug, charger, note pad and seeds.

Sourcing City also tracks “themed” enquiries. Given the huge emphasis end-buyers in the U.K. and Europe more generally place on sustainability, it’s perhaps no surprise that the top themed search term was “eco-friendly ideas.”

“There continues to be an insatiable demand for sustainable products,” Long shares. “Most new products coming to market have a sustainability claim. The challenge for distributors is being sure that the products are truly eco-friendly and filtering out any that may simply be ‘greenwashing.’ Rising certification in this area provides both confidence and complexity.”

Goodman offers additional insights on the sustainability topic. “Certification bodies will continue to pressure our sector for total chain of custody compliance,” he tells ASI Media. “We are no longer at the beginning of our sustainability journey, so...we [must]seek to establish our credentials as an industry that takes sustainable practice as a priority.”

Rounding out the top 10 themed enquiries were exhibition giveaways, desk gifts, drink related, travel related, concerts and festivals, pocket gifts, children’s gifts, Olympics, and Beach BBQ and picnic.

Overall, the number of suppliers in the U.K. and Ireland increased by 2.2% year over year in 2024 and now stands at 2,217, according to Sourcing City. Sadly, though, those ranks no longer include Listawood – a long-standing Norfolk, England-based drinkware supplier that shuttered last April amid sales challenges that resulted, in part, from Brexit.

The suppliers that garnered the most CT Enquiries were, in top 10 order, Solo midocean, PF Concept UK Ltd., European Solutions, Impression Europe, Clipper Interall, XD Connects, Your Promo, Pinpoint Badges, Preseli Ltd. and Snap Products.

U.K. Distributor Profile

Sourcing City has been conducting its annual report on the U.K.’s promo market since 2007. In that time, the number of distributors operating in the sector has increased by 50%, Long says. The tally hit an all-time high last year.

“In 2024, a further 136 new distributors were identified, taking the number of distributors up to 2,873 – the greatest number of distributors recorded,” Long shares.

Of the total, just 172 distributors generate annual sales above £1 million, but this select group accounts for about 60% of total promo market spend. The industry’s largest firms appear to have captured a greater percentage of market share in the 18 years that Sourcing City has been studying the market. “In 2007, £1 million distributors accounted for only 43% of the entire market spend,” Long says.

Brand Addition (asi/202515), a Manchester, U.K.-headquartered firm that operates globally, is the market’s largest distributor, according to Sourcing City. The firm hasn’t released full financials for 2024 yet, but its total global sales – not just the U.K. – during the first six months of 2024 were £52 million. Brand Addition’s total global revenue in 2023 was £106.3 million.

Geiger and Counselor Top 40 distributor BDA (asi/137616) are among the North American-headquartered distributors that have a strong presence in the U.K. market.

Meanwhile, distributors that do under £500,000 in annual sales in the U.K. make up 85% of the total number of distributors in the geographic market, accounting for 26% of total promo spend.

“Whilst individually their turnover may not be as high as others, they often have one or more valuable key accounts,” says Long. “They also tend to be well placed to deal with smaller local businesses.”

Outlook 2025

The U.K. economy and thus the promo industry are facing headwinds in 2025, including the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, inflation, rising government borrowing costs, possible future tax rises, some turmoil in financial markets and job vacancies falling to a five-year low, suggesting that hiring could be muted this year, according to Sourcing City.

The complex and challenging economic landscape figures to again present challenges for promo distributors, but industry executives still see paths to growth.

“We hope that whilst there continues to be global and local economic and political issues, we will as an industry still find opportunities and remain resilient.” Vicky Kinasz, Geiger International

“Promotional products are expected to continue to play an important role in the marketing budgets of end-customers but it’s hard to predict any material change in market size in 2025, either way,” says Chris Lee, CEO of Brand Addition and a member of Counselor’s Power 50 list of promo’s most influential people. “Therefore, a heightened focus on differentiating from the competition and attracting new business to gain market share is how the best companies will continue to grow.”

Kinasz says that Geiger had a strong Q4 and is feeling positive about the year ahead.

“We hope that whilst there continues to be global and local economic and political issues, we will as an industry still find opportunities and remain resilient,” she tells ASI Media. “Geiger is still planning for growth. We remain focused on sales-generating activities both in the U.K. and internationally. Our growing footprint in Europe and beyond opens up exciting new ways to provide solutions to our clients, and we are exploring those as we continue to integrate with our new partners.”

Long shares an encouraging word.

“Whilst the overall outlook for 2025 appears bleak for the U.K. economy, the U.K. promotional merchandise market is full of entrepreneurs who move quickly to identify threats and take advantage of new opportunities,” he says. “We remain optimistic that our industry will once again prove that it can grow in difficult times, just as it did in 2024.”

Goodman believes those that operate with creativity, looking to innovate, stand to thrive.

“The challenge is to keep on innovating to keep our industry at the forefront of brands as they consider how best to engage their customers in an increasingly digital world,” Goodman says. “We know that the modern consumer considers use and function above most. We are well placed for brands to deliver against that.”