(Australia-NewsWire.Com, May 02, 2013 ) San Francisco, CA -- Along with blinking lights, swaying displays, and latex balloons, local promotional products companies are now stating that companies are once again spending.
"When the recession hit, the first thing to go were promotional products. Instead of $2 pens, people were buying 50-cent pens," said Jim Clegg, the Ohio-based regional sales manager for CleggPromo Inc.
"But now what we're seeing is that companies are willing to spend a little more money to get lights, sound, motion and video into their products," he said, showing off a display case that included LED-lighted buttons, light-up message fans and flashing strobe lights.
Glagg, along with others, state that sales of all promotional products are reliable indicators of how healthy an economy is. While marketing budgets can be the first to find themselves slashed during rough economic times, companies that are turning profit are likely to turn to promotional products as one of the first moves with profit.
"What we've noticed is that the bigger orders -- for 5,000 to 10,000 items for $20,000 to $30,000 -- have come back," Clegg said. "Year over year, we expect to be up 30 percent over last year, and our 2012 was up 20 percent over 2011."
Ohio is considered by many to be the birthplace of the now $16.5 billion promotional product industry, according to the Ohio Promotional Products Association. Ohio also is home to more than a fair share of promotional products companies.
The largest single category of promotional items is still the apparel sector; however, there is a surging demand for office products, electronics, food products, and even dishware, says president of The Image Group, Jon Levine.
Danielle Augustine of the BroderBros company, stated that while the start of 2013 was expected to be its usual slowed pace, it turned out to be stronger than many predicted. Business was up nearly 16% , with Ohio orders making up 12%. Companies that held off getting uniforms and so forth last year are likely part of the reason for the stronger start of the new year.
"Business is definitely booming, because golf is growing, and more and more companies are having golf outings again," said Michael Pollock, sales representative for Par One Inc. Golf Specialties in Cleveland. Par One, which sells imprinted Titleist and other brands of golf balls, tees and golf accessories solely to distributors, churns out 1,000 to 2,000 dozen balls a day from its Cleveland factory.
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