Bearing Points » economy

Tiffin Polls – What our customers are telling us…

Mark D. Knight — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:35:39 +0000

If you haven’t noticed, since launching our new web site in June of last year, we have been running Polls on topics that we thought would be of interest and that our customers would want to weigh in on. Some things you have told us are surprising!

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.

Weird, Wacky Weather

Mark D. Knight — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:13:59 +0000

Whether the weather has been good or bad depends on your perspective. Most would agree that it’s been a tough first six weeks of the year. I was in Alabama and Georgia last week calling on customers and got out the day before the snow hit! Of course, I came home to colder temperatures and more snow than most can imagine as you can see in the picture.

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 Market…

Mark D. Knight — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:44:24 +0000

What a year we have all gone through in 2009. Most of us follow the “market” or the “economy” and many of us read industry journals…more and more online. Where have we been, what happened and where are we going? We may not have all of these answers for years to come.

I think what’s important is that we get a more focused view of the markets we serve. I just read the other day where many technology and ecommerce stocks had a great 2009. Certainly, the performance of those blue chips affects the perception of what’s happening in the broader market, but is it really a good indicator for the markets we serve? Likely not.

Our view is that the Construction and Agricultural Equipment markets have bottomed with Construction being off nearly 50% since 2006 and some segments off 80 to 90%. The important variable for our business is equipment utilization rates. We estimate that telehandlers for instance peaked at 90% in 2006 and 2007 and fell to 10% in 2009. Optimistically, we are looking for telehandler utilization levels to double in 2010. We think that forestry fared far better in 2009, but only because that segment dropped in prior years before the overall market. Agriculture held up fairly well in North America…people have to eat!

We would like to hear from you…what are you seeing in your markets?