PULSE OF THE INDUSTRY - Diagnosiss Decade of Increasing Inactivity and Profit Blockage Present Condition: Pulse a Little Weak but Steady Prognosis! Recovering Slowly

摘要

So, here we are in the final month of the first quarter of a new decade. Certainly no one in the fastener industry is going to miss the decade just past. About all we can do at this point is look around and see who is still standing. With that in mind, we talked to a number of our leading fastener suppliers. The consensus was that they took their hardest hit in 2009, with reported sales declines ranging from 10 to 40 percent. The average drop in sales was about 30 percent for the year. According to several, it would have been worse except for an upturn that began to take shape in the last couple of months of the year. Just about everyone we talked to is a little weak but relatively healthy and standing tall. To compensate for reduced income and activity, there were some cutbacks in hours and/or staff. For many, attrition was enough of an adjustment to weather the storm and experienced employees were retained.