In an effort to assess the current state of distributor vacuum sales, Sanitary Maintenance recently conducted a survey of its distributor readers. Among the most significant findings, SM found that upright vacuums still lead the pack in vacuum sales, by far — a whopping 80 percent named it as their best-selling vacuum. The backpack vacuum followed with 9 percent of respondents naming it as their best seller, and 2 percent indicated canister vacuum sales.

Another important survey result relates to customer segments in vacuum sales. It’s often stated that schools make up the bulk of vacuum sales for any distributor. Survey results gave credence to that belief: Educational buildings were reported as the largest customer segment — even larger than building service contractors (BSCs).

As more facilities, like schools, turn to carpet for their interior design needs, vacuum manufacturers and distributors are noticing the increased revenue that is coming from vacuum sales.

In SM’s survey, 79 percent of respondents said they experienced growth in vacuum sales last year. Only 5 percent said their company had a decline in vacuum sales, and 16 percent reported that sales plateaued.

“We had significant growth last year, primarily because we found a vacuum manufacturer that puts together a very durable model,” says Bill Gray, vice president of Allied-Central Distributing, a Louisville, Ky.-based distributor. “The vacuum we started selling last year is designed to hold up well over time, a quality that’s sorely lacking [throughout the industry], unfortunately.”

The Durability Debate
Other distributors echoed Gray’s sentiments and joined the chorus of jan/san executives bemoaning the current state of commercial vacuum durability.

In SM’s survey, 67 percent of distributors said that vacuum quality has decreased over the past five years. Only 10 percent said they’ve seen an increase in vacuum quality, while 23 percent said quality has remained unchanged over the past five years.

Some jan/san distributors believe that in an attempt to make commercial vacuums more affordable, manufacturers have sacrificed the overall integrity of their machines.

“Just like there are disposable paper products and disposable cleaning solutions — now we have disposable vacuums,” says Joel Dreifus, president of Laymen Global, a jan/san distributor in Rahway, N.J. “Disposable vacuums are designed to last six months or maybe a year, and then they’ll break down. We recently switched a chain of hotels in our area to a more durable brand of vacuum because, in the long run, it’s much more cost effective for them.”

Like other product lines, end users often make purchasing decisions based on the up-front price. When buying a vacuum, that mentality can be especially costly for customers over the long haul, says Dreifus. “Of course, there’s always a discrepancy between the fiscal department and the people who are actually using the vacuums, but if [customers] give us a few minutes to sit down with them, they’ll often realize durability is worth the investment,” he says. “They think: ‘Why did we buy 16 vacuums this year, when we could have only bought one?’”

Unlike certain carpet extractors or other deep-cleaning carpet machines, vacuums usually take a day-to-day beating, so durability is paramount. “Vacuums can be a great source of profit, but they can also be a real source of headache,” says Gray. “The less we, as distributors, have to deal with repairs and maintenance, the more time we have selling, which is why we’re really in business.”

“It’s kind of like a car,” says Dreifus. “As cars get cheaper and cheaper, there’s no way they can last as long. Some vacuum manufacturers come out with a lot of bells and whistles — it has a new color or it’s more aerodynamic — but the guts of the machine are still what’s really important.”

Clean Carpet, Clean Air
Aside from durability, the other issue of increasing importance in vacuum sales is indoor air quality (IAQ) awareness. Vacuum manufacturers are investing heavily in the evolution of vacuum filtration systems, an advance that many industry analysts see as a significant boon to IAQ protection.

Most vacuum filters can be broken down into two categories: secondary filters and final filters. While secondary filters protect a vacuum’s motor from debris, final filters protect the internal environment of the building from any airborne dust or debris that the vacuum might displace. In SM’s survey, 30 percent of jan/san distributors claimed secondary filters were the better seller (distributors often sell filters as separate items from vacuums). Twenty percent named final filters as the better-selling line. The other 50 percent said that secondary and final filters measure about the same in overall sales.

Within the category of final filters, the variety of filtration technology is even more apparent. Final filters are commonly sold in three types: high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, micron filters and filtrete filters. HEPA filters led the pack with 57 percent of survey respondents saying it was their best-selling final filter. Micron and filtrete filters reported in at 35 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

As with any product, knowing the nuances of vacuum filtration systems will make a distributor a valuable resource to customers.

Although HEPA filters continue to gain acceptance and popularity in the commercial markets, they remain a highly misunderstood product, says Gray. “A vacuum can really only be considered a HEPA vacuum if it passes a certified smoke test. That means that the entire vacuum is secure against releasing any airborne contaminants,” he says. “Oftentimes, a vacuum has one HEPA filter, but there are other leaks throughout the vacuum, so both distributors and end users need to be discerning.”

 




POSTED ON: 4/1/2004