Powered by sales of promotional products and personal protective equipment (PPE), Top 40 promo distributor BAMKO (asi/131431) increased sales 67% year over year in the third quarter of 2020, while fellow Top 40 firms Gildan and Cimpress (asi/162149) reported revenue declines for the same period.

That’s the snapshot from earnings reports released Thursday, Oct. 29 from some of the promotional products industry’s largest publicly traded companies.

Los Angeles-headquartered BAMKO reported total Q3 sales of $44.17 million, up from $26.46 million in the prior year’s third quarter. Of this year’s total, nearly $24.77 million came from promo products sales, with PPE revenue adding $19.41 million. BAMKO’s parent company, Superior Group of Companies, had a robust quarter overall, reporting a global net sales increase of 43% to $127.8 million. Net income rose to $10 million, or $0.63 per diluted share, compared to $3.9 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, the prior year.

“Both our uniform and promotional products segments have strong opportunity pipelines and backlogs,” said Superior CEO Michael Benstock. “Our pre-existing strategy of selling to a diverse range of customers remains in place and bodes well for our future, especially as we continue to provide products and services to many essential businesses.”

A 25% year-on-year drop doesn't sound great, but it's a marked improvement over the previous quarter's performance from #promoproducts distributors.https://t.co/jWsvnppmMZ

— Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI) October 22, 2020

Dundalk, Ireland-headquartered Cimpress, parent company of Vistaprint and former Top 40 distributor National Pen, reported that company-wide global sales dropped about 7.5% year on year to $586.5 million in its fiscal 2021 first quarter, which corresponds to the business calendar year’s third quarter of 2020. The firm posted a net loss of $10.75 million, or -$0.41 per share, compared to a $20 million profit ($0.67) in fiscal Q1 2020.

Vistaprint, an e-commerce-driven online retailer of printed marketing materials and promo products, saw total sales decline 4% in fiscal Q1 2021 to just under $329.3 million. Meanwhile, National Pen’s revenue for the period slipped 3.6% to $67.6 million.

Despite the pandemic-fueled struggles, Cimpress CEO Robert Keane noted a number of positives for the quarter. They included the acquisition of 99designs, a global network of freelance graphic designers, as well as underlying indicators of financial strength.

“Operating income and adjusted EBITDA (were) up 42% and 11% year over year, respectively, as a result of continued efficiency improvements and recent cost reductions,” Keane said. “Cash flow from operations and adjusted free cash flow were up 68% and 128% year over year, respectively, and we repaid $84 million of debt.”

Montreal-headquartered Gildan reported that its total global Q3 revenue dropped 18.6% compared to the prior year, registering in at $602.3 million. Net earnings were $56.4 million, down about 46%. For the first three quarters of the year, Gildan’s sales were down 40% compared to the same period in 2019, while it’s running at a net loss of $292.6 million. The coronavirus pandemic has driven the declines, but executives noted that Q3 represented improvement.

“We were pleased with the recovery of our sales and earnings during the third quarter,” said CEO/President Glenn Chamandy. “While the lack of large events continues to impact imprintable channels, we are nonetheless seeing areas of opportunity.”

ASI’s recently released Distributor Quarterly Sales Survey showed that North American promotional products distributors sales declined, on average, by 24.8% in Q3 2020.