Office Products International (OPI) surveyed 180 office products (OP) executives from around the world on business confidence, finding a decline in optimism.
The survey by OPI titled “OP Business Confidence Q3 2013” revealed that more respondents expected sales to be worse than the same quarter in 2012 compared to the results of the previous quarter’s survey, with 35 percent expecting sales to decline in the third quarter compared to just 19 percent in the second quarter.
There were also fewer respondents expecting a year-on-year improvement in sales – 41 percent compared to 46 percent in the second quarter. This percentage has declined “drastically” since OPI’s first survey in Q4 2012, when just under 60 percent of respondents expected a year-on-year improvement in sales.
In terms of regional variation, in past surveys North American respondents were found to be more optimistic than those from Europe, but the percentage of North Americans expecting better year-on-year sales fell below 50 percent for the first time this quarter, while 64 percent expected sales to be either the same or worse compared to last year.
European respondents were found to be “even more pessimistic” than in previous surveys, with 43 percent predicting worse sales than last year compared to 38 percent predicting better sales. According to OPI, the figure for European respondents has never exceeded 46 percent since the survey began.
The trend of resellers being generally more confident than manufacturers continued in this quarter’s survey, with 46 percent expecting higher sales compared to 39 percent of manufacturers. However, more resellers indicated an expectation for worse sales than last year at 36 percent compared to 17 percent.
Growth-wise, the percentage of respondents predicting no growth increased from eight percent in the first OP Business Confidence Survey last year to 20 percent this quarter. Gaining market share remains the most popular driver of growth, with the introduction of new services also being cited more often, overtaking the introduction of new products as a driver of growth this quarter.
In the survey, OPI states that “sequestration in the US, lack of growth in the euro zone and a mining industry downturn in Australia” may have been factors influencing the decline in optimism revealed in this quarter’s findings.