Some pretty spectacular facts emerged in a recent report distributed by the National Association of Wholesalers (NAW). I’ll reference facts contained in the report throughout this article, and use it as a basis of tying in wholesale tile distribution with the distribution business as a whole.
There are more that 300,000 wholesale distributors in the United States. These distributors account for annual revenues in excess of $2.5 trillion. This represents approximately 16% of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Furthermore, wholesale distribution is growing — not shrinking. Sales through distribution channels have been expanding annually at about 1.4 times the rate of overall GDP growth. This means that, as an industry, wholesale distribution is huge and growing.