4imprint (PPAI 107200, D15) expects to pass $1 billion in revenue in its 2022 financial year. The Oshkosh, Wisconsin-based distributor cites climbing order counts and values, and new customer acquisition, for the milestone.

Background: In March, 4imprint released its final results for the fiscal year that ended January 1, 2022. The company reported $787.32 million in revenues for the year, up 41% from the previous year. At the time of the announcement, March 16, it noted that trading performance for the first few weeks of 2022 had been encouraging, and in 4imprint’s latest release, it says it has continued to see excellent demand activity, resulting in a very strong financial performance in the first four months of the year.

Big Picture: Such growth would potentially establish 4Imprint as the largest distributor in the promotional products industry. Sterling, Illinois-based HALO (PPAI 106462, D15) is estimated to be on pace for roughly $850 million in 2022 revenue.

The Financials: From January to April, total order counts in 4Imprint’s primary North American business were 11% above 2019—the most recent “normal” year—and average order values were 14% above 2019, resulting in overall demand revenue 27% above that year. The company is also encouraged by new customer acquisition and retention.

“This building momentum in trading means we are now on track in the 2022 financial year to achieve our long-held target of $1 billion in Group revenue,” says David Seekings, chief financial officer. “This places our revenue expectations for the year above the upper limit of the range of analysts’ forecasts, and well above analysts’ consensus.”

4imprint management’s expectation for full year 2022 operating profit is above the highest analyst forecast in the market. These expectations stem from:

  • the revenue volume gains
  • the productivity of the reconfigured marketing portfolio
  • relatively stable gross margins
  • operational gearing relating to semi-variable and fixed costs in the business

Due Caution: In announcing that it was set to generate a billion dollars in revenue this year, 4imprint acknowledged that only four months of the year have elapsed and that current geo-political and broad economic factors may well affect its performance as 2022 progresses. However, the company’s financial expectations take into account numerous potentially detrimental factors. These include:

  • further COVID variants
  • supply chain disruption
  • inventory availability
  • increasing cost of product, availability and cost of labor
  • the effect of inflation on customers’ budgets
  • the threat of economic recession