FIN SURVEY

What was your company’s biggest challenge in 2010?

“Sales” was easily the most frequently mentioned problem in the End of 2010 FIN Survey.  In addition to those who used the word “sales” in the fill-in-the-box response, related mentions included “fastener orders,” “lack of volume,” and “demand.”
 

Margins were a related issue, with comments such as: “Maintaining gross margin” and “maintaining margins that we’ve enjoyed the past 45 years!”
 

Related to margins is “price” and multiple FIN Survey respondents face price issues: “Vendor price increases” and “customer price pressure.”

 

Supply

“Shortage of certain steels from China Steel (Taiwan), resulted in long lead times to get product made by our Taiwanese partners.”
 

“Trying to keep up with copper cost increases.”
 

Getting Inventory

Finding employees has frequently been mentioned during the better economic years since the FIN Survey was first conducted in 1979. 
 

With unemployment still high throughout 2010, there were a few employee needs mentioned. One FIN Survey participant did cite the problem of  finding “knowledgeable employees.” 
 

For another with apparently strong sales if was a “good” problem of “keeping up with demand and finding people.”
 

Other specific problems included: “Cash flow,” “delivery performance,” “efficient growth,” “getting a couple of new lines,” “improving operations,” “inventory management” and “opportunity.”
 

There also are “happy” problems: “Managing the various opportunities presented to us,” one distributor reflected. ©2011 GlobalFastenerNews.com