We’ve done several things at Tiffin to drive growth.  New product development is key…we’ve expanded the markets we are able to serve.  We’ve sought out input from our customers on how we can better meet their needs.  We have also gathered competitive intelligence to better understand our strategic advantage.

Where we thought, along with a number of economists, that the construction market was bottoming in 2010, it now looks like it is bottoming in 2011.  New Housing starts in February hit an all time low.  Thankfully, they showed some improvement in March.  While further strengthening in the market is expected, it is anticipated to be slow in coming.

The current Poll on our website, asking about the outlook for 2011, shows the following results:

37% – more of the same

36% – slight improvement

14% – vast improvement

13% – worse than in 2010

We would like to get your insights and hear your thoughts on the markets.  Feel free to respond or take the Tiffin Parts Poll on our website to weigh in on what you expect 2011 will bring! 

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!

The Forestry market has taken off in the past few months and it’s good to see.  The general sentiment I’m hearing is that this isn’t short lived and will be sustained.  Tiffin’s been committed to this market for well over a decade and we’re actively adding to our product line to meet our customers’ needs.  We are the leading aftermarket supplier for Prentice and Hydro-Ax replacement parts and are working to build on that line as well as all of the other brands we support like John Deere and Tigercat.

We’re also the leading aftermarket replacement parts supplier for SkyTrak and Lull telehandlers and are building our line to support JLG and Genie branded rough terrain fork lifts.  While utilization rates have remained depressed for this market, we are positioning Tiffin to be the leading supplier of aftermarket parts for all major brands of telehandlers by the end of 2010. 

While new forklift equipment sales continue to be off, sales of Industrial Engine replacement parts are up over 2009.  Equipment is being put back in service as market conditions slowly improve.  We’ll be making a major announcement later this month regarding an addition to our product line as the first in the market to offer parts for a popular engine that up to now has been prohibitive to rebuild. 

At Tiffin, we’re committed to helping our customers be successful.  Industry leading availability, high quality and personalized service set us apart.  Let us know what we can do for you!

What is your most important buying criteria?

-Availability – 37%

-Quality – 30%

-Price – 22%

What is the telehandler utilization rate in your area?

-50% said 20% or less

-70% said 40% or less

How much will your market improve in 2010?

-30% said it will get worse

-50% said that it will get worse or stay the same

What is the biggest factor affecting the markets you serve?

-General state of the Economy – 47%

-Weather – 33%

-Employment – 20%

This tells us that we are pretty much split down the middle.  Half of us believe that things will improve in 2010 and half of us don’t.  Frankly, telehandler usage estimates were higher than expected.  We had estimated that in 2009 they were 10% to 15%.  When considering factors affecting the markets we serve, the Economy, Weather and Employment are all interrelated.

Every month or so we will be asking a new question so check it out!  If you have a question you would like us to ask, let us know…

Note: The Tiffin Poll shows in the left side margin on all of our web pages.

Hawaii was the only one of the 50 states that didn’t have snow last week, yet Vancouver had to truck snow in before the Olympics and with temperatures in the 50s, they have blossoms blooming on the trees.

On the good side, I did read the other day that over 92% of the US is now drought-free. This is the best it’s been since the early 1990s. Here’s hoping that it’s a sign of good things to come in 2010. As the weather clears, more equipment will be running which will be good for employment and in turn the economy!

How much impact does the weather have on your customers and the markets you serve?

The general sentiment seems to be that once the weather clears that logging activity will be up in the Spring over last year since the mills are in dire need of wood.  Once their needs are met, there seems to be some sense that the price of wood will drop and the logging segment will fall back to last year’s levels.

It was surprising to hear that several dealers had sold all of their Skidders and were waiting on delivery of more.  It was not a surprise to see how little new inventory was sitting on the lots.  The most sales activity seems to be with 2 and 3 year old equipment.

If there were bright spots, it seemed to be with equipment that moves dirt, whether it be for road construction or mining.  In general, the feeling was that 2010 may be the same as or just slightly better than 2009 and that the market won’t show marked improvement until 2011.

We want to know…what are you seeing in the markets you serve???