Superior Group of Companies, Inc., which operates in the promotional products market through distributors BAMKO (PPAI 242148, D11), Tangerine Promotions, Ltd. (PPAI 439779, D1) and Public Identity, Inc. (PPAI 230372, D1), ended its second quarter on June 30, 2021, with net sales down by almost 18 percent at $130.8 million, compared to second-quarter 2020 net sales of $159.4 million. However, BAMKO finished its third-consecutive quarter of record quarterly sales of core promotional products—up 85.2 percent, excluding PPE sales—and reports the largest backlog of sales in its history comprised of 99.6 percent of core promotional products.

SGC CEO Michael Benstock says, “We are extremely excited by the exceptional momentum of our core businesses which face the most attractive outlook in our company’s history. We are now at a stage where we believe that sales of any significant amount of crisis personal protective equipment (PPE) are behind us, and we are laser-focused on our core products and services. Excluding the impact of PPE sales, we saw tremendous growth in our promotional products segment and our remote staffing solutions segment. We are well positioned with strong tailwinds in all of our core businesses, and expect to continue to report strong sales and earnings for the balance of 2021.”

Additionally, Benstock says net sales for 2021 are projected to approach $525 million. For perspective, the full year 2020 included total PPE sales of $131.1 million, and the full year 2021 sales of PPE are expected to be less than $45 million.

BAMKO President Jake Himelstein further explains the quarterly report. “Our extraordinary PPE sales of Q2 2020 did not recur in Q2 2021; that did not come as a surprise. However, we are thrilled to report that our core promotional product business has experienced a resurgence in sales, and we expect that to continue throughout the rest of the year. Overall, BAMKO ended the second quarter of 2021 with revenue of $48.7 million, gross profit of $16 million and operating income of $5 million.

“While these figures represent year-over-year decreases from our extraordinary PPE-driven Q2 of 2020, when you consider the anomalous nature of our PPE sales a year ago, this quarter’s results were phenomenal,” he continues. “I’m particularly happy to report that this quarter's promotional product revenue was at an all-time high at $47.7 million. Promotional product revenue made up over 98 percent of total quarterly revenue. Perhaps most impressively, this is an 85-percent increase over the same period last year. This now marks the third-consecutive quarter that our division has set a new all-time high watermark from promotional product revenue in the quarter. This is our core business. This has come back with a flourish and it’s exciting that we continue to trend upwards to even greater heights.”