Proforma (asi/300094) had record-high sales last year.

Promo’s fourth-largest distributor by revenue reported that it reached $600 million in sales by the end of 2022, attributing the growth to investments made in its marketing, technology and sales teams.

In particular, the company says its focus on e-commerce, with initiatives like a certification program and the development of automated workflow, contributed to overall operational efficiency. More than 1 million orders were processed through ProVision, Proforma’s proprietary business management platform, and Proforma distributors were able to serve almost 60,000 customers in 2022, with deliveries in more than 100 countries.

Brian Carothers, chief technology officer for Proforma, said “$600 million is a titanic figure within the industry.” He added: “I am incredibly proud of our distributors, their teams and our support center staff for working together to achieve this milestone, and I am convinced that the best is yet to come.”

In addition to investing in technology, Proforma says it has developed a more robust marketing department and expanded its coaching programs to help pave the way for greater success.

“Our marketing team has accomplished more in the last year than ever before,” said Patrick Magyar, vice president of marketing. “With our focus on data analytics to improve end-user satisfaction, we have driven the return on our campaigns to reach record-breaking numbers. We’re looking forward to increasing our results much further in 2023 as we eye an even higher level of success.”

Proforma’s 2022 sales are roughly 11% higher than its reported 2021 North American promotional products revenue of $540.8 million – which made it the fourth-largest distributor in the branded merch industry, according to Counselor’s Top 40 list of distributors.

Many distributors have been reporting strong 2022 sales. Top 40 distributors 4imprint (asi/197045) and HALO Branded Solutions (asi/356000) both announced recently that their sales had reached more than $1 billion last year. And a flash poll at ASI Fort Worth found that 97% of distributors reported either a sales increase or steady sales for 2022. Industry wide, distributors collectively generated year-over-year quarterly sales increases of 5.4% in Q1 2022, 13.5% in Q2 and 12.4% in Q3, according to the Distributor Quarterly Sales Survey from ASI Research. Final numbers for Q4 and the full year are forthcoming.