Chicago—The 2017 NAFCD Quarterly Sales Trends Report, a benchmarking and forecasting tool based on member data submission, provides NAFCD members with invaluable data and insights on near term and regional demand trends, sales forecasts and business management. Highlights from the report showed Q1 2017 sales growth was up for both distributors and manufacturers, 2% and 3%, respectively.
Distributors performance versus forecast varied considerably, with only 34% of distributors surpassing the forecast. The Midwest region saw the strongest growth trends at up 5% and online business is now 3% of the sales mix, with online penetration expected to increase four times over the next five years.
Manufacturers saw demand trends decelerated through the month. The Q2 forecast indicates 4% growth and raw materials cost inflation is now forecasted up 2.7%.
Learn more about all NAFCD member benefits including other reports and research at nafcd.org.