BAMKO got the better of 2020.
With COVID-19 making last year the most challenging the promotional products industry has ever faced, the Los Angeles-based distributor increased year-over-year total global annual sales to about $202.2 million, according to financial data released Monday, March 1, by parent firm Superior Group of Companies. Of that total, BAMKO generated $193.9 million in revenue in North America, a 78% increase over reported 2019 North American promo revenue of $108.6 million.Industry-wide, promo distributors sales decreased, on average, by 19.8% in 2020.
BAMKO propelled the strong performance, in significant part, through an early and successful pivot to selling personal protective equipment (PPE).
“Our culture of entrepreneurship helped us see the opportunity for PPE in front of us and made it clear that we had to capitalize on it,” Jake Himelstein, BAMKO’s chief financial officer/chief operating officer, told ASI recently. “Having our own sourcing operation with boots on the ground across Asia, Central America and South America afforded us access to direct production sources and allowed us to pivot out of China as soon as PPE sourcing there ran into regulatory hurdles in the second quarter.”
BAMKO’s 2020 was about more than PPE sales. Superior Group CEO Michael Benstock noted that BAMKO achieved organic net sales growth in 2020, exclusive of PPE business.
