Times are tough, or are they?
The Manufacturing ISM Report on Business contracted (a reading under 50) in November, AGAIN. That’s because the 12 months prior ALSO contracted making 13 months in a row. Significant because the 28 months BEFORE that were all periods of growth.
PlastiCert has been reporting contraction as well. In 2023 we will be slightly under our revenues for the prior year. The bulk of that shortfall being in our mold design and build group. When a recession is being predicted, companies tend to hold onto their money. When that prediction of recession keeps sliding month after month out into the future, the Cap X dollars continue to be put on hold.
One HUGE bright spot is our new customer additions. Despite reduced expectations for tooling and some production, we welcomed five new customers in 2022 and seven new customers in 2023 YTD. Some were part of the reshoring phenomenon; some are the result of rightsizing. Rightsized customers are those customers that are low or medium volume and just did not mesh well with a molder that wanted to run more parts than they were ordering.
Such a transition to PlastiCert is almost always a positive experience. The prior molder needs capacity and has determined that their customer would be better served by not being a customer, and the customer gets better response and predictable delivery times from PlastiCert who has plenty of capacity. PlastiCert plans on having capacity, as our typical customer does not provide a forecast, they just order parts as needed and we respond in a timely manner because that is our business model. We perform for our customers ALL THE TIME!
Are times tough? Sort of, but we’ll know more as 2024 unfolds, but on the new customer front things are red hot! The great part is that PlastiCert is used to it and makes the low and medium volume business model work! Do you get good answers and vibes from your molder? Do you get delays and “soft” delivery commitments from your molder? Maybe it is time you switched to a molder that fits your business model. Give us a call!