“Hoping for easing in supply chain pressures and cost inflation as capacity catches up with demand,” says Will Symonds, president of Anaheim, CA-based housewares company Oggi.
“Pent up consumer demand, low interest rates, access to capital and M&A all will contribute to growth,” says Mark Rubenstein, CEO of A Head for Profits LLC. “The landscape is volatile for sure, but it won’t dampen growth and investment.”
“Good demand, but we can’t find people that want to work,” says Roberto Contreras, CEO of Sunrise, FL-based Moderno Porcelain Works, echoing many that some challenges remain.
Among those challenges:
“The Covid omicron variant combined with 60 million U.S. citizens opting out of vaccination almost assures us that we will be dealing with the pandemic for at least another year,” says Tim Zimmerman, CEO of Merrill, WI-based Mitchell Metal Products. He adds: “Supply chain issues are becoming more acute for us as we head into the first quarter of 2022. Our typical lead time to customers of 48 hours to a few weeks (depending on the product) has now extended out to as long as 16 weeks. It is impossible to manage our facility efficiently as a result.”
“I thought we’d be done with the pandemic and back to a post-Covid normal by the end of 2021,” says Bob Green, president of Pittsford, NY-based marketing agency The Verdi Group. “Now I’m not even sure if we’ll have a ‘new normal’ by this time in 2022.”
“Things can’t continue at this level,” says Mark Buller, executive chairman of Canadian kitchen cabinet manufacturer Superior Cabinets, which in 2021 acquired Wichita, Kansas-based R.D. Henry & Co. “Inflation probably will slow things down,” he says to explain his downgrade of the business environment from a 10 today to a 6 by this time next year.
“Increased regulation and tax increases, along with higher interest rates will act as a brake on the economy,” agrees Bill Osborne, owner of Sutherland Springs, TX-based real estate company Osborne Properties. “Inflation and wages will run above 2 percent.”
Steven Leafgreen, CEO of Casper, Wyoming-based Western Vista Federal Credit Union echoes the sentiment: “Inflation, increased wage expenses, supply chain issues [are] slowing the loan demand.”
Overall, 39 percent of CEOs say they expect conditions to deteriorate over the next 12 months; 30 percent forecast no change at all, and 32 percent say they’re optimistic things will improve—a divided tally that reflects current uncertainties. When we asked CEOs the same question at the beginning of the year, the forecast was much more lopsided: 63 percent then forecasted improving conditions by now vs. 20 percent who expected them to deteriorate, and 18 percent who expected no change.