CHICAGO — Roughly half of the distributors polled in the 2025 American Coin-Op Distributor Survey say 2024 was a year they performed at or near their prior year’s numbers. Meanwhile, 30.4% saw their 2024 total business sales — including sales of newly constructed vended laundries and replacement business — grow from the previous year.
That’s the lowest share of positive performances since 2020 — the year the coronavirus pandemic struck the States — when the number was 45.5%. Since that time, the share of distributors seeing positive overall performances had been between 57% and 60% annually.
Roughly 22% of distributors reported their 2024 sales performance was lower than their 2023 efforts, while the remaining 47.8% said theirs was the same or similar year-over-year.
As for how distributors expect their 2025 overall sales will compare to those of 2024’s, 40% of those polled are predicting brighter things this year.
American Coin-Op invited distributors listed in the previous edition of its Distributors Directory to participate in this year’s unscientific survey, which charts 2024 business and makes comparisons to previous years. Participants identified themselves but will remain anonymous for purposes of this report.
Take note that in this summary, percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
TOTAL YEARLY SALES FOR 2024
This year, just 30.4% of distributors who were polled said their yearly sales were better in 2024 than 2023. In comparison to recent years, 60% of distributors said 2023 business was better than 2022’s, 57% said 2022 business was better than 2021’s, and 60% of distributors said 2021 business was better than 2020’s.
The shares of distributors reporting better overall business performance in prior annual surveys was 45.5% for 2020, 67.7% for 2019, 56.3% for 2018, and 53.1% for 2017.
The poll asked what factors — positive or negative — influenced their 2024 performance. Those that could be seen as positive were:
- Manufacturer incentives on equipment
- Increased interest in passive revenue streams
- Added second value-priced line to be more price-competitive
- Greater demand for fluff-and-fold business
- Growing numbers of new investors and store locations
Factors seen to affect things more negatively were:
- Market oversaturation and high cost of construction/replacement
- Supplier price increases
- The economy and uncertainty surrounding the 2024 presidential election
- Increased talk of tariffs
- Insurance policy cost increases
REPLACEMENT BUSINESS
In the arena of replacement business only, an even larger share of distributors reported their 2024 sales were the same or similar to 2023’s.
Just 30.4% of distributors polled said their replacement business sales were higher in 2024 than 2023. By comparison, 55% surveyed last year said that segment was up for them in 2023 compared to 2022, 71% polled two years ago said it was up for them in 2022 compared to 2021, and 55% surveyed three years ago said their replacement business was up for them in 2021 compared to 2020.
In older surveys, the share was 31.8% in 2021 (results included the first nine months of the coronavirus pandemic), 61% in 2020, 58% in 2019, 68% in 2018 and 62% in 2017.
Just shy of 9% say they saw their 2024 replacement business decrease from that of 2023’s, while 60.9% say that business segment was the same or similar for them in 2024 compared to the prior year.
NEW-LAUNDRY CONSTRUCTION
Distributors were asked to list the number of new self-service laundries they built and/or to which they supplied equipment in 2024.
In this year’s survey, those distributors that built and/or supplied equipment to three or fewer stores accounted for 50% of respondents, which mirrored the survey results for each of the previous two years.
In earlier polling, that three-or-fewer share was 46.7% for 2021, 47.8% for 2020, 51.7% for 2019, and 58.6% for 2018.
Distributors building, or supplying equipment to, four or more new laundries in 2024 represented 50% of the total, which also mirrored the survey results for each of the previous two years. That compares to 53.3% in 2021, 52.2% in 2020, 48.3% in 2019, and 41.4% in 2018.
The number of new laundries that distributors were involved with in some way in 2024 ranged from none to two respondents reporting their companies each dealt with 18 new stores.
Thirty-five percent of distributors polled said their new-construction sales total for 2024 was higher than the previous year’s. In last year’s poll for 2023 results, that share was 40%. In earlier surveys, the total was up for 36% for 2022, 55% for 2021, 46% for 2020, 62% for 2019, and 46.9% for 2018.
Twenty percent of distributors said their new-construction sales total was lower in 2024 than in 2023, matching the results from last year’s poll. In earlier surveys, the share was 36% for 2022, 30% for 2021, 32% for 2020, 10% for 2019, and 22% for 2018.
The remaining 40% said that their new-construction sales total for 2024 remained the same or was similar to the prior year’s. That compares to 20% for 2023, 28.6% for 2022, 25% for 2021, 23% for 2020, 29% for 2019, and 31% for 2018.
Coming in Part 2 Tuesday: Equipment mix, and surveying store size
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].
