This year’s Survey had the second highest number of responses in the history of the Survey, 401, with 375 representing the Big Six manufacturers—Canon, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Ricoh, Sharp, and Toshiba. The largest number of dealers were aligned with Ricoh (93) and Sharp (88), followed by Toshiba (64). Canon had the fewest number of dealers participating (39).
The percentage of dedicated dealers grew from 37.5% to 40% in this year’s Survey.
Sharp continues to hold the top spot with 55% of its dealers dedicated, the same percentage as last year.
The average number of A3 lines per dealer was 2.0.
The average number of A4 lines per dealer was 2.2, identical to last year.
Kyocera continues as the leading A4 supplier (32%) among respondents, followed by HP (28%), Sharp (27%), and Ricoh (26%).
The average number of printer lines dealers carry is 1.9, down from 2.0 a year ago.
Kyocera (35%) is the leading printer line carried by dealers, followed by HP (32%) and Brother (24%), which passed Lexmark (23%) into third place.
The average yearly revenue reported by all dealers participating in our Survey was $23.5 million, a significant increase from the $17.2 million reported in our previous Survey.
Sixteen dealers were responsible for 51% of all dealer revenues.
Most dealers participating in our Survey reported that revenues were up by 65%, down from 73% a year ago, while 26% noted that revenues were the same. Only 9% reported revenue declines.
The average revenue increase among dealers representing the Big Six was 14.2%, with Toshiba dealers reporting the most significant increase (16.7%).
Kyocera, Sharp, and Toshiba dealers reported the most significant average revenue percentage decreases at 19.3%, 13.1%, and 12.6%, respectively. The Big Six average was 12.2%, up from 11.7% in last year’s Survey.
Fifty-four percent of dealers reported that their MPS revenues were up, 37% noted their revenues were the same, and 9% reported that MPS revenues were down.
Most dealers participating in the Survey (66%) reported that their managed IT revenues were up last year, while 8% reported that they were down.
The average percentage of yearly revenue attributed to managed IT was 15.5%, virtually identical to last year (15.4%).
The most popular way for dealers to build a managed IT business is still building their own (72%), while the least popular strategy is through acquisition (21%).
Forty-five percent of dealers offer production print, with 44% reporting that their production print revenues were up over the previous year.
The number of dealers acquiring grew from 45 to 46 this year.
The number of acquired companies declined from 107 last year to 56 this year.
The percentage of Survey respondents who reported planned acquisitions for the upcoming year and beyond was 46%, a 5% decrease from the previous year.
The five most popular diversification opportunities identified by dealers are MPS (65%), managed IT (58%), production print (51%), document management/ECM (39%), and telephony/VoIP (27%).
