The “Report on 2006 Sanitary Supply Distributor Sales” is here. This study is conducted every other year by Sanitary Maintenance magazine, in conjunction with ISSA.

Some highlights from this year’s study include:
• Distributor sales rose 7.4 percent from 2004 to 2006. Sales now total $24.8 billion.
• Industrial and Educational are the largest market segments by distributor sales in 2006.
• Paper and plastics once again are the leading product category by sales volume.
• Towels/facial tissue/toilet tissue continue to be the products that sold the most by dollar volume.
• Thirty-nine percent of distributors sell locally (within a 60 mile radius).


This study was designed, prepared and conducted by the Research Department of Trade Press Publishing Corp., publisher of Sanitary Maintenance magazine in conjunction with ISSA. Its primary purpose was to gather information on distributor sales of chemicals, janitorial supplies, paper/plastic products and power equipment. The data contained within this report is believed to be reflective of the janitorial supply distribution industry and does not necessarily reflect the size of each market segment or product group beyond that. Data shown in this report was derived from non-duplicated questionnaires returned by April, 2007 from a random sample of Sanitary Maintenance readers which includes ISSA members. Projected market totals were computed using weighed means. Dollar figures presented represent sales by distributors after markup. Estimates for manufacturer sales based on these figures are difficult to make since markup varies from category to category and from one distributor to another.

Survey Results