The 2021 PAR survey has officially opened for participation. The deadline to fill out your PAR survey is April 16. Any company that fills out the survey will receive a free Industry Overview Report, valued at $499.
NAED is reminding all of its members about their opportunity with PAR—and that the deadline is coming up—by asking “Have You PAR-ed Today?”
The results of last year’s NAED PAR Report survey provided electrical distributors with updated financial performance information on operations, assets, and sales. Last year’s report revealed:
- Sales growth slowed in 2019 to 2.5%, a decrease from 5% in 2018
- Warehouse sales make up 51.3% of total sales
- Profit margin before tax was 3.6%
To learn more about the PAR program and the impact it can have on our member companies, NAED Member Engagement Manager Colin Dowd spoke with Nate Jensema, Vice President of Finance at Van Meter Inc., to discuss his company’s involvement in the NAED PAR program.
Q: What attracted you to the NAED PAR program?
A: Van Meter has been participating in PAR for many years (well before I joined Van Meter). We continue to use it because it is a confidential, industry benchmark that allows us to understand how we are performing in a variety of ways compared to our peers.
Q: Do you feel that you continue to get new and valuable information each year? And if so, why?
A: The information isn’t necessarily new, but it continues to be relevant.
Q: How do you feel the PAR program has impacted your business?
A: It has allowed us to measure ourselves against our peers and point out to leaders throughout the business those areas where we can improve. There is also an element where being different from others in the industry is a reflection that we are different companies and not necessarily something that requires improvement.
Q: Having participated in the PAR program for many years, what keeps you coming back to complete it?
A: We leverage the information and there aren’t that many other options in the industry.
Q: Is there anything that you would like to tell someone interested in starting the PAR program at their organization?
A: It does take some time to put it together and there are limitations in the survey, but it does provide meaningful results that allow you to measure yourself against peers.
Jensema is not alone in his support of the PAR program. Each year NAED continues to see unprecedented growth and response as more and more companies participate in the survey, providing them with unique access into the industry.
New this year: NAED is piloting a new Warehouse Operations survey that launched in February. Exclusively available to PAR survey participants, it provides important benchmarks to distributors on a range of areas including order completions, safety, delivery, and mileage information.
After the crazy year that was 2020, the PAR program can provide member companies the information needed to recover and keep moving forward.
For more information on NAED’s PAR program, reach out to NAED's Member Engagement Team at memberengagement@naed.org, call 888.791.2512, or utilize NAED's Live Chat option.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTORS