ASA’s Annual Operating Performance Report Enables Distributors to Spot Trends and to Make Actionable Data Driven Decisions

For more than four decades, ASA’s annual Operating Performance Report (OPR) has helped distributors in both the plumbing and industrial/mechanical PVF markets benchmark their company performance against their historical performance as well as against their competitors. 

The information contained in this nearly 100-page report is designed to provide easy-to-understand guidelines for identifying business performance improvement opportunities. 

ASA’s OPR, regarded as the gold standard for company benchmarking tools in the PHCP-PVF industry, is prepared by Columbus, Ohio-based Industry Insights, which works closely with ASA staff. The information in the confidential report represents one of the largest databases of respondents among any wholesale/distribution industry.

Core to the report are the comparative financial ratios and statistics by type of firm, sales volume size and high-profit firms. In addition, building upon the historical information that has resulted from past ASA OPR surveys, this year's study contains various 20-year industry trend data, along with appropriate analysis. Such information is important for identifying shifts occurring within the industry that may be representative of future conditions.

The ASA OPR, which tracks 130 financial datapoints, is broken down into five key categories:
- Debt
- Assets
- People
- Growth
- Profits

This unique approach helps to simplify the benchmarking process by focusing your attention on the highest-impact business areas.

“We suggest looking at how your performance aligns with the best-in-class by evaluating the summarized set of KPIs within each segment,” Industry Insights Senior Project Director Matt Chaffin says. “If you are noticing unusual discrepancies between your results and the industry’s benchmarks, additional investigation may be needed to uncover potentially valuable new opportunities. We like to emphasize that even a simple and quick analysis of your business can offer game-changing results.”

Chaffin adds that if an ASA-member distributor had to choose one ratio to regularly monitor, Return on Assets (ROA) “would be at the top of our list,” he says. “ROA blends the income statement and balance sheet to help companies understand what percentage of every invested dollar is being returned to the business in the form of profits. This ratio is best applied as a management tool for understanding overall financial performance.”

Company Performance Report

Probably the most valuable feature of the ASA’s OPR is that all firms participating in the survey automatically receive a confidential Company Performance Report, which presents a company's own ratios and data computed in a manner consistent with those appearing in the industry report and displayed alongside the appropriate industry comparatives.

This confidential report is again being distributed totally electronically (as a PDF document) so that survey participants can print multiple copies. In addition, the confidential Company Performance Report is also being made available as an Excel file, for your analysis.

This confidential report is being made available to survey participants through Industry Insights’ secure online portal. As shown on any given line of the Company Performance Report, a firm's own data is included along with industry averages for firms of a comparative sales volume and type of business, enabling individual owners/managers invaluable information without having to spend time and effort to make the calculations manually.

In addition, for any firm that participated in more than one consecutive ASA OPR study in recent years, the Company Performance Report includes multiple-year trend data in graphical and tabular form. Also, once again, these highly confidential reports contain a computer-generated qualitative assessment of a company's situation, including some possible alternative courses of action.

Having the ability to make “what-if” scenarios with the data, helps distributors to analyze how they can improve on their firm’s future performance is also a highly regarded feature each participant receives on a strictly confidential basis, pre-loaded with their own results along with industry norms. Through a unique interactive process, and given various assumptions, the profitability impact of improvements to accounts receivable, inventory turnover, fixed expenses, gross margin, and sales can be easily determined, including individual changes as well as simultaneous improvements.

Data Submission Deadline
The early-bird deadline to submit your company’s data for the 2023 ASA OPR is March 31. All companies that submit data by the early-bird deadline will receive a quick-turnaround report that allows you to compare your results against the preliminary benchmarks.

What is the cost?
Members of the AD, IMARK and The Commonwealth Group buying groups pay $269 for the report if your firm puts data into the study. You can still purchase the report without submitting data, but the cost is much higher ($849).

How do I submit data?
https://secureii.com/ASA/account/login.aspx

The final deadline for submission is April 14 and the report will be available to participants in May.

For more information on participating in the 2023 OPR survey, email ASA Manager of Data/Market Intelligence Bri Baresel at bbaresel@asa.net.