When The Cannata Report launched the first Survey 40 years ago, we aimed to provide independent, office technology dealers with a place to share their views on suppliers and competitors, and to acknowledge the manufacturers that stand out in supporting their channel partners.
These objectives remain just as important today. Our Survey results provide a deeper understanding of how office technology dealers are performing and identify specific areas of concern that are frequently of interest to their manufacturers.
We firmly believe that dealer comments and observations are an asset to other dealers who can use them to improve their businesses. Likewise, manufacturers find them helpful for improving their relationships with their dealer partners.
As in 2023, the COVID pandemic rebound trend continued in 2024, with dealers strengthening their core businesses and ramping up profitability initiatives by offering more products and services. This year, Xerox has its own listing (see abovr) due to a significant uptick in dealers indicating the OEM as their primary A3 partner. Xerox actually placed fourth in terms of the number of dealer respondents—ahead of Konica Minolta dealers (with 38) and Canon dealers (with 37).
OFFICE TECHNOLOGY BY THE NUMBERS
Survey questions assess where dealers stand in 2025 based on their 2024 performance. When referring to “last year’s Survey,” we refer to our 39th Annual Dealer Survey, published consecutively in our October and November 2024 issues, which references our dealer respondents’ 2023 performance.
We feature Survey results in our October and November 2025 issues and on thecannatareport.com. Results are also shared with non-subscriber dealers who completed the survey and provided their contact information.
METHODOLOGY
We conducted this year’s Survey online for the 12th consecutive year. This year, the Survey yielded 415 responses, 14 more than last year (after we deleted duplicates, those with corrupted data, and incomplete submissions). Across the history of the Survey, the numbers from dealers representing the “Big Six” OEMs—Canon, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), Kyocera Document Solutions America, Inc. (Kyocera), Ricoh USA, Inc. (Ricoh), Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (Sharp), and Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (Toshiba)—vary from year to year. As a result, some years are more balanced than others when accounting for the dealers who identify as their primary A3 suppliers. The past few years haven’t been as balanced as we would have liked. For example, only 37 Canon and 38 Konica Minolta dealers participated this year. In contrast, Ricoh, Sharp, Kyocera, and Toshiba dealers dominated with 86, 86, 59, and 57, respectively. This year, we have added Xerox to our chart illustrating the breakdown of survey respondents, which previously included only the Big Six, due to an increase in dealers listing Xerox as their primary A3 partner.
For most of the Survey, we used only the responses from those dealers representing the Big Six plus Xerox, totaling 404, compared to 375 in last year’s survey. The “Other” group includes dealers representing Epson, HP, and Lexmark. We note where we include responses from the “Other” group. All respondents’ information is included in the survey results related to total revenue, average percentage of revenue, acquisitions, production printing, areas of concern, and the Frank Award selections, which will be presented at our 40th Annual Awards & Charities Gala in mid-November.
NET RESPONSES
We were pleased to receive the second-highest number of responses in the Survey’s history: 415 compared to the record 458 in 2023—including a more diverse universe of responses, which is in large part due to the 41 Xerox dealers that indicated A3 as their primary A3 OEM. We believe this is a strong showing overall, especially considering the many acquisitions that have reduced the independent dealer population during the past 13 years. (Alsonote that some of the private equity-owned dealer organizations are no longer able to participate in the Survey.) Based on our own internal data and dealer lists, and several reliable OEM executive sources, we estimate there are between 1,500 and 1,800 dealers in the United States, which makes the number of returns highly significant.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We appreciate the efforts of ACDI, Kyocera, LEAF Commercial Capital, Ricoh, Sharp, Toshiba, U.S. Bank, and Xerox, all of whom provided subscription incentives to support this year’s Survey and partnered with us to actively and strategically generate dealer survey submissions.N
40th Annual Office Technology Dealer Survey Posts (Part 1 of 2):
40th Annual Office Technology Dealer Survey: Universe and Methodology
40th Annual Office Technology Dealer Survey: Executive Summary (Part 1 of 2)
40th Annual Office Technology Dealer Survey: Dealer Revenue Breakdown in 2024
40th Annual Office Technology Dealer Survey: Manufacturer Distribution
40th Annual Office Technology Dealer Survey: A3, A4, and Managed Print Services
40th Annual Office Technology Dealer Survey: Production Printing Can Improve Profitability
40th Annual Office Technology Dealer Survey: Managed IT Revenue Rose by Nearly 30%
40th Annual Office Technology Dealer Survey: Obstacles to Improving Profitability
40th Annual Office Technology Dealer Survey: Acquisition Trends
