THE OWN-BRAND MARKETER DEBUTS IN THE 1997 CENSUS

The 1997 Census of Wholesale Trade has led the way by recognizing and reporting the activities of a huge, new type of business that has grow n explosively over the past 20 years. The Own-brand marketer (O-BM) pe rforms all the functions traditionally bundled with domestic manufactu ring except that production is typically outsourced offshore. Previous ly, O-BM sales and margins had been intermingled with those of several functionally incompatible types of wholesalers, causing serious misin terpretations and distortions in many domestic and foreign trade-relat ed measures of industry performance. The 1997 Census will substantiall y alleviate these problems.