Stampede Reports Core Category Unit Count Growth of 76% At 2012 Vendor Summit!

Set against a backdrop of a slowly improving economy that is beginning to present many more opportunities than challenges, Stampede Presentation Products, Inc. last week convened its fourth annual Vendor Summit with more than 100 manufacturers present for the two-day retreat, review, and planning session.  Most of the manufacturers in attendance already knew what Stampede President & COO Kevin Kelly made official in his welcoming address — 2012 is turning out to be another record-shattering year for North America’s largest value-added distributor of ProAV solutions.  In fact, according to Kelly, the company’s gross profit is up 25% and its core category unit count growth is up a staggering 76% over 2011, which was up an equally impressive 51% over 2012.

“Any way you want to look at it, Stampede continues to grow at an unprecedented rate in 2012, a year in which we continue to celebrate our 15^th anniversary of serving the ProAV community,” Kelly said today.  “Through the worst economic challenges of our time, we have succeeded in helping our dealers to spec, finance, and install more ProAV installations than any other distributor in business today.  And with the economy slowly, but inexorably improving by the day, we expect to accelerate our rate of growth in 2013.”

“When you add value to a system installation, you add margin,” Kelly told attendees.  “And, thus far in 2012, Stampede is adding value at an unprecedented level that cannot be matched by any other distributor in the business today.  We can add this value on a consistent basis because we are focused exclusively on meeting the needs of the ProAV dealer community.  We are not distracted by other industries and market segments.  We can and do devote 100% of our time and considerable resources on helping dealers to grow their business. 

“This is why Stampede continues to strengthen its position as the oldest, largest, and deepest specialist distributor in the ProAV space with more than 11,000 dealers in our network and more than 125 manufacturers as our partners. ”

According to Kelly, year-to-date projector dollar sales are up 16% and the average wholesale selling price has increased nearly 30% in two years.  In the category of 3500+ lumens, year-to-date projector sales in dollars are up 21.8% and the average wholesale price has increased 15% in the last year.  “These sales figures are a perfect example of what can be achieved with a mature product category when the dealer adds value to the system design and installation,” Kelly emphasized.

Sales of displays are also up solidly this year, according to Kelly.  “Dollar sales are up 39% and unit sales are up a staggering 127%.”  All is not roses, however, as Kelly revealed that the average unit sale price of displays is declining because of the encroachment by consumer displays into the ProAV market.  “This is a trend that we are watching carefully and taking steps to help our dealers counter.”

Overall, Kelly said that the future for ProAV system installation was brightening considerably and would likely accelerate in 2013 regardless of the outcome of the U.S. Presidential Election — a sentiment shared by the dealers participating in the Summit’s Panel Discussion.  Demand for conference rooms, group video conferencing, and the still being defined market for “unified communications” are driving sales.  “As one of our speakers, Ira Weinstein of Wainhouse Research, pointed out at the Summit, more than 90% of all conference rooms today are not video enabled.  This presents us, and our manufacturing partners, with a huge opportunity for continued growth — with the right configurations that can meet the needs of the emerging ‘Digital Native’ working professional.”

Meeting the demands of growth, however, requires an expanding commitment to maintain face-to-face training, online learning, and readily available credit facilities to qualified dealers — “all of which Stampede is committed to providing.  In fact, in 2012 alone, we have increased our credit line to $60-million, enabling us to serve as a bank to our dealer partners.”

About Stampede

Known for its value-added distribution, Amherst, NY-based Stampede is the leading distributor of presentation equipment including LCD/DLP projectors and flat panel displays. Stampede provides a complete range of brand name presentation equipment to a variety of audio/video, computer, and home theater resellers and integrators in the United States, Canada and Latin America. These resellers rely on Stampede for value-added services in distribution, marketing and solution- based sales. Stampede annually produces the “Big Book of AV,” an 816-page catalog and companion website (www.BigBookofAV.com) providing hundreds of sales, installation and spec tips for Stampede’s dealers in addition to product details on more than 5,000 SKUs. For more information on Stampede, log onto www.stampedeglobal.com.