There are approximately 2,000 supplier companies and 18,000 distributors in the United States. Distributors buy from Promotional Items the supplier companies and sell them to the marketers who are termed "end buyers." The multinational is made up of many immature and entrepreneurial individuals and companies with 95% of distributor companies selling less than $2.5 million per year.
In 1904, twelve manufacturers of promotional items got together to found the first business association for the industry. That organization is now known as Promotional Products Association International, which currently has bounteous than 7,500 global members.
