April 2004              return to newsletter contents page

AVDA Distributors Outlook Survey Upbeat for First Quarter of 2004

AVDA’s Distributor Members were recently surveyed for the first quarter ending March 31, 2004 on their outlook for the veterinary distribution industry. Thirty-two percent of distributor members responded to the survey.

In response to a question regarding whether profit margins were rising, staying the same or falling in the first quarter of 2004, 78 percent of the respondents stated profit margins were rising or staying the same and 22 percent of respondents said that they were falling. Seventy-eight percent of respondents predicted normal or above normal growth as the planning scenario for their company’s business plan over the next twelve months.

Seventy-eight percent of respondents stated that the unit volume of demand for their company’s products has been rising and 11 percent stated the unit volume of demand had been staying about the same.

On the Employment front, compared with the same quarter last year, 22 percent of distributors stated that their company’s employment had been rising. Seventy-eight percent said that their employment was staying about the same. Wages and salaries over the past three months were rising for 33 percent of the distributor respondents and 67 percent stated that they had remained the same.

This survey was conducted electronically. Future surveys will be conducted in the same fashion and will include additional questions of interest to our members. Please contact Jackie King at AVDA Headquarters at Jackie@ksgroup.org if you have other suggestions for the survey. Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.