The latest reading Indian River Consulting Group's Distributor Pandemic Revenue Index (PRI) showed solid acceleration for the week of Jan. 25-29 and has now been in growth territory for 11 straight weeks.
The PRI — aimed to provide a weekly snapshot of how industrial distributors' sales have fared during the pandemic compared to a year earlier — had a mark of +6.4 last week, meaning that for 13 distributors surveyed, their sales for the week of Jan. 25-29 were up 6.4 percent year-over-year. It followed readings of +3.9 and +4.6 percent in the previous two weeks.
The weeks of Dec. 21-25, Dec. 28-Jan. 1 and Jan. 4-8 showed significant gains of +18.2, +21.3 and +18.4, respectively. But evidenced by the three subsequent weeks, those major gains were largely due to timing across the holidays.
Of the newest PRI's 13 distributors surveyed, nine reported increases, ranging from 1 to 35 percent. For the four firms that reported declines, their range was from -3 to -24 percent.
"As one contributor to the index pointed out, commodity prices have been on a strong upswing over the last few months, which has provided some inflationary lift. This is likely influencing the PRI," noted Mike Emerson, IRCG partner.
IRCG would like to increase the sample size for the PRI, so if you would like to include your company, reach out to Emerson at [email protected].
The chart below shows the weekly percent change in year-over-year sales, unadjusted for holiday impacts:
