The Ignorance of the Financial Community (and some Executives)

Nothing makes your day like watching a financial news show and being told you do not exist. I was watching over lunch just a few days ago. They were discussing imports. The host commentator said, “We have no manufacturing base” (referring to the United States).

Ignoring years long reshoring gains and recent developments after the CHIPS Act, it appears some in the Financial Community still think that the US is a Services Economy. Where the main activity is providing services to consumers and businesses, instead of producing goods.

It is frustrating that we, the manufacturing sector, must continually fight this battle. Whether it is the  financial types that regard us as those dirty and greasy guys. Or Senior Executives that feel they need to chase offshore pricing because they read in the WSJ about their competitors doing it.

Even after the collapse of the Supply Chain during COVID, financially focused businesspeople refuse to acknowledge the importance of domestic manufacturing.

In Minnesota alone there are over 8,000 manufacturing companies.  Minnesotan manufacturers employ over 320,000 workers. Which accounts for 11 percent of private sector jobs in the state. Yet, wages in manufacturing make up 15 percent of all wages paid in Minnesota. Manufacturing represents the single largest private sector component of Minnesota’s GDP totaling $53 billion or 13.6% of Minnesota’s total GDP in 2021. We are more than carrying our own weight in Minnesota.

PlastiCert counts itself among those firms. We ARE part of the US manufacturing base. Manufacturing (injection molding) complex and technically advanced composite components and assemblies for OTHER OEM manufacturers around the United States and North America.

We produce complex low and medium volume injection molded components and assemblies. We use a myriad of engineered resins. Both address our customers’ technology challenges. We do insert molding and multi-shot molding with quality results that are the envy of most molders, foreign AND domestic. Recent history shows us taking in struggling programs from others molders as much as designing molds and production for new programs from existing customers.

What we do not manufacture are inexpensive (a.k.a. CHEAP) high volume consumer products. While those too are capable of being profitably manufactured in the US, the financial community and some senior executives think this is best done offshore. When their faucet gets shut off AGAIN, we will laugh (to ourselves) and then accept their phone calls asking if we can recreate their molds and ramp up production as quickly as possible.

Need to mitigate your risk? Are you having problems with your existing molder (foreign or domestic)? Do you need a QUALITY technical supplier? Give PlastiCert a call. We are within or a few time zones away and can help you sleep better at night!