Converter Outlook: Part I (CONT’D FROM PAGE 24)
and the next two generational segments will push into the market. We hope! One of the issues that has been going on for years in this country is we took a break in popping out babies thus we have a population shortage right off the bat. Something we will begin to see next year is some of the Boomers coming back into the workforce as “for better and for worse but NOT for lunch” hits home and some of our wisdom kings will come back to work. Get these folks if you can and have them teach and train. Our wisdom base is getting sucked out of the workforce. Our founder Bill Hanan always hired young people. Now, of course this was somewhat self-serving to Bill, but he did know that backfilling his company with young people kept him young and his company flourishing with vibrancy and new ideas. “We also need to consistently train everyone in our company, even if we are a small company. Technology is changing so fast we can’t even see it. This is one of the most important aspects of moving companies forward. We have many resources to help us inclusive of online training and even the AICC has adapted towards the leader of rel- evant online training to keep our skills sharp and our eyes on the advancement of our workplace humans. “A very smart friend of mine, Clay Shaw from Batavia Container, tells me that labor is the next Covid. Clay is a brilliant leader and is spot on. Omicron and the variants to come will always be around, however, our employees may CONTINUED ON PAGE 28
as we all learn to move away from contracts and move to market pricing. Our business models all changed over the last three years due to Covid and we all (most of us) learned to price according to all the dynamics in the mar- ketplace not just some pie in the sky guess of linerboard transactions. There are lots more to a price of a box than just raw material costs. “What does this have to do with 2022? Tons! Okay, I really didn’t mean tons, I meant those that have learned to pass on increases other than tonnage costs will do well in this next year and many years to come. It is the same in ev- ery other industry. Those industries that have pricing pow- er will perform well next year from a bottom-line perspec- tive and a stock value perspective. The low-cost producer will be left in the dust if they can only raise prices along the lines of linerboard escalations. This is one of the reasons why the term ‘transitory inflation’ was minimized politically and from our folks on Wall Street. When prices rise and fall, businesses and industries can move accordingly in a market driven world. This is something Covid did disrupt the box business with and we all kind of shrugged it off. It is very meaningful as we move our businesses into future. “What else will be big in 2022? Labor costs will contin- ue to increase. This is Covid-driven and generational-driv- en but accelerated by the Big C. Many folks will not come back into the workforce. Many Baby Boomers have retired
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26 January 10, 2022
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