AICC Associates Ask (CONT’D FROM PAGE 1)
of the pandemic, whether we’re talking about HR issues, just the sheer amount of work we were producing during the pandemic and the effect on our people. It was a very difficult three years, now everyone’s taking a deep breath. The economy may or may not be diving off the cliff and we’re just going to wait and see. Palmeri: We are not optimistic really for 2023 and early 2024. Things are soft, we feel they’ll continue to be soft. We’re taking the appropriate steps. I mentioned earlier that I am convinced our industry is fairly off — at least the markets we serve. The good news is we’ll come out okay. Morelli : Are there similarities that you’re seeing today that you might have seen during the economic collapse in 2009-11 or is this totally different? Kirkpatrick : We operate two facilities, one in Seattle and one in Arkansas and we’re seeing that we’re going to remain down. We’re down about 10 percent overall and we see that continuing through the end of this year. Then looking at 2024, it is relatively flat to the 2022 numbers. Bertram : We have a manufacturing and converting facil- ity in Concord (North Carolina) and a fulfillment center in Concord nearby. I try to be optimistic all the time, however, what we see is with paper mill capacity continuing to rise, mills upgrading equipment just like we are, I’m concerned that that’s going to cause more price erosion, paper ero- sion for sure, prices. Hopefully, we won’t find all of us inde- pendents at a race to the bottom. Hopefully we can hang in there. We do see a lot of retail special projects moving upward a little bit, or at least not shrinking like the indus- trial side. But overall, we’re just trying to buckle down and do a good job with what we have and grow where we can. Morelli : Are we at the point where you are looking at countermeasures to protect your business for potential decline in the economy or are you operating with just some nervousness? Or are we getting to the point where you’re stashing away money and packing away for a long winter type of situation? Bertram : Stashing away and spending some of the stash- ing, sure. I think again this is time to right-size. Somebody asked me about a reduction in labor force. I have absolute- ly no intentions of that, it’s just not my style. I’m committed to coworkers and friends and family, so to speak, and the only time I ever see that being necessary for me, not ev- eryone, but for me is in disaster mode — I guess when you start losing money — we’re nowhere near that. Kirkpatrick : We implemented some cost savings mea- sures early in the year. We had a couple of key people
Quality & Consistency
t r t er Produce Be Quality G aphics ThermaFlo™ Brings HD Graphics To Corrugated Printing With a consistent cell geometry that promotes ink metering and due to our multi-hit technology - you can get extended volume ranges .
CONTINUED ON PAGE 24
20 May 15, 2023
www.boardconvertingnews.com
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator