2010 YTD – Q3 Perspective

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less than a week away.  It’s a good time to reflect on the past year and to look ahead to 2011.

From our perspective, we certainly have seen some improvement in 2010 over 2009…at least, in total.  Forestry is up 50%.  In fact, it’s the best year we have seen in this segment of the market since 2004!  Other markets we serve are up over 30% including Pettibone and Forklift Engine Parts.  We believe the housing and small to mid size commercial construction markets have bottomed in 2010.  This is based on government and industry reports, customer input as well as what we have seen with our own Rough Terrain telehandler parts sales.

What does the future hold?  No one knows, but there are some indications that we will continue to see gradual improvement in 2011. 

• Based on industry reports, we believe that Forestry will hold up and show further improvement in the next year.
• It’s hard to imagine Construction getting worse and most of the prognosticators and others we talk to in the industry seem to believe the numbers will improve; although, it may take years before we get back to what we were seeing 2005-2007.

That being said, we believe that there is an opportunity to outperform the market.  What is it that your customers are looking for?  What do they value?  For Tiffin, our customers have told us that availability of quality parts that are priced fairly is most important.  And that’s what we are committed to providing.

• We’ve expanded our product lines to provide our customers with a wider range of parts based on what our customers have been telling us they need.
• We are adding new product lines to serve a broader market with parts for brands of equipment we haven’t supported in the past like JLG and Genie Telehandlers and various brands of Skidders.  Look for announcements in the coming weeks!

Thanks to all of our customers for their support.

All the best during this holiday season!