December 2003              return to newsletter contents page

Distributors Outlook Survey for Third Quarter 2003

AVDA’s Distributor Members were recently surveyed for the third quarter ending September 30, 2003 on their outlook for the veterinary distribution industry. Thirty 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 third quarter of 2003, 87% of the respondents stated profit margins were rising or staying the same and 13% of respondents said that they were falling. Seventy-one percent of respondents predicted normal or above normal growth as the planning scenario for their company’s business plan over the next twelve months.

Twenty-five percent of respondents stated that the unit volume of demand for their company’s products has been rising and 63% stated the unit volume of demand had been staying about the same.

On the Employment front, compared with the same quarter last year, 14% of distributors stated that their company’s employment had been rising. Eighty-six percent said that their employment was staying about the same. Compared with the previous quarter, all of the respondents said that employment had remained the same. Wages and salaries over the past three months were rising for 25% of the distributor respondents and 75% 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.