BAMKO is back in growth mode.

The Los Angeles-headquartered Top 40 promotional products distributor reported Wednesday, Nov. 3, that its total global third-quarter 2021 sales increased 2.4% year over year to about $45.24 million.

The topline numbers don’t tell the full story, though.

Executives said what’s especially encouraging is that BAMKO’s (asi/131431) core promo products sales were up almost 79% year over year.

Michael Benstock is CEO of Superior Group of Companies, BAMKO’s parent firm.

In Q3 2020, $19.4 million in personal protective equipment (PPE) sales bolstered BAMKO’s revenue as the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected sales of traditional promo. In the third quarter of 2021, PPE sales were only $917,000, with the rest of the more than $45 million coming in the form of promo business. That’s a great sign of BAMKO’s current health and long-term prospects, executives said.

“We are encouraged by the momentum of our core businesses and believe we are well positioned to take market share across our portfolio of core products and services,” said Michael Benstock, CEO of Superior Group of Companies, BAMKO’s parent firm.

Benstock continued: “We continue to see increasing opportunities for growth as business activity normalizes. We are well positioned with strong tailwinds in all of our core businesses and expect to continue to report strong sales and earnings for the balance of 2021.”

BAMKO’s quarterly growth was indicative of the sales momentum distributors throughout the promo industry drove in Q3.

The just-released ASI Distributor Quarterly Sales Survey showed that promo distributors increased sales, on average, by 18.4% in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same three-month span in 2020. Nearly seven in 10 distributors achieved quarterly sales gains.

Going up! Despite supply chain challenges, #promoproducts distributors increased sales 18% in Q3 2021 & revenue levels are approaching 2019's highs. https://t.co/akrbKgXueZ @Tim_Andrews_ASI @ASI_MBell @asicentral @TheresaHegel

— Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI) November 1, 2021

Back at BAMKO, a precipitous drop in demand for PPE led the firm’s total second-quarter 2021 sales to drop 35% compared to the same three-month period the prior year.

Still, the number belied the fact that BAMKO’s sales of traditional promotional products in that quarter skyrocketed 85%.

The second quarter slip hasn’t derailed BAMKO from potentially posting another full-year annual rise. Total global sales for the first nine months of 2021 are up 4.8% to $152.79 million.

In 2020, BAMKO’s full-year North American promotional product sales were $193.9 million, good enough to rank the firm 11th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the promo industry. BAMKO’s 2020 sales rise of 78.5% over 2019 was the largest annual percentage gain of any Top 40 distributor.

Phil Koosed, BAMKO’s founder and long-time president, ranked first on Counselor’s Power 50 list of promo’s most influential people. In July, Koosed was promoted to the role of chief strategy officer with parent company Superior. Jake Himelstein, formerly BAMKO’s CFO and COO, rose to the role of BAMKO president.

For the third quarter of 2021, Superior Group of Companies’ total global net sales decreased 3.5% year over year to $123.3 million. Net income was $8.2 million, or $0.51 per diluted share, compared to $9.9 million, or $0.63 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2020. Again, the decline in demand for PPE was a key factor in the sales and earnings retreat. “Excluding the impact of PPE sales, we saw remarkable growth,” said Benstock.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Superior Group’s sales have increased about 3.6% year over year to $394.96 million.