Today’s Answers for Tomorrow’s Questions

What are the issues that keep business products (BP) industry CEOs awake at night? 

It is that question which originally inspired OPI and Martin Wilde Associates (MWA) to launch "The State of the BP Industry”, its annual research study back in 2014. 

As the years go by, those issues change. So, planning the twelfth edition of this study, we canvassed key CEOs to find out exactly what is claiming their attention in the early hours. What we found was that, at present, many BP sector leaders were focussing on the following questions: 

• Inflation: how is this impacting pricing strategies? 
• Innovation: what are the greatest barriers to innovation and what share of BP companies’ sales will be from new products in 2026? 
• Prospecting: which products are currently being used to attract prospect customers? 
• Online marketplaces/platforms: what share do these now have of the core BP market and who are the key and emerging players? 
• US wholesaling: what has been the impact of Essendant’s decision to withdraw from supplying the US independent dealer community, and how will that gap in the market be filled? 
• AI: in which areas is AI being leveraged in BP industry companies? 
• Cyber attack: how vulnerable are businesses to this threat? 
• Recruitment: where are the skill gaps and what are the biggest challenges in attracting and retaining talent? 
• Gender equality: how well represented are women employees in our industry's senior management teams? 
• Wellbeing: how important is this in strategic planning?  

"The State of the BP Industry 2025-2026", aims to provide reliable answers to these vital questions, based on c45 in-depth and online interviews with some of the best minds in the industry – the senior executives of key BP companies in Australia, Benelux, Canada, France, Germany, the UK and the USA.
As usual, the survey will also focus on benchmarking other crucial KPIs for the BP industry, including: 

• What are the core market value growth trends in 2025 and 2026 and what has caused them? 
• Which product categories are growing or declining overall in 2025 and 2026? 
• Which new products and services areas have emerged as opportunities in 2025, and what will be the rising stars in 2026? 
• What are respondents’ overall revenue and margin trends in 2025 and 2026? 
• What share of distributors’ sales are accounted for by janitorial/cleaning supplies, breakroom/catering supplies, workwear & safety supplies, industrial supplies/MRO products, print, promotional products, IT & technology products and managed services in 2025 and 2026? 
• What are resellers’ average order values in 2024, 2025 and 2026? 
• Which distribution channels won or lost market share in 2025 and 2026? 
• Which new channels/distributors emerged as opportunities or threats in 2025? 
• Will respondents acquire another business in 2026? If so, what kind of company are they targeting? 

Once again, the report will also detail the 2025 financial performance of the key 15 BP distributors in the US, Europe and Australia. 

As the BP industry continues to ask new questions, CEOs need reliable answers. "The State of the BP Industry 2025-2026" provides informed input from peers and competitors. 

The report is available for £1,025.