“Throughout the pandemic, our residential line continued to see strong sales as homeowners remodeled their homes and,
in particular, their outdoor living spaces.” — Heather Shannon Senior Brand Marketing Manager Perlick
Emphasizing Communication Managing those longer lead times requires increased cooperation between channel partners. One of the key ingredients in a successful partnership between manufacturer and dealer continues to be clearly setting expectations and maintaining an open line of communication, whether struggling mightily with shipping delays or barely at all. “We have added more staff to our customer service and logistics teams to improve our communication and are working with new freight carriers to address the demand,” says Shannon, observing that freight has been Perlick’s biggest challenge over the past four months.
Communication has been a priority at Champion Industries as well. “It is really the frequency of communication that has improved,” Means says. “The information we receive from our vendors changes daily and keeping our dealers informed is paramount. Our business is still a relationship-based business and we believe, in the long term, transparency will be rewarded.”
Noting how rapidly lead times can fluctuate, Maahs adds, “Each week, we communicate to our staff what our lead times are by product category, so they can take that communication to reps, dealers and customers. With how quickly the market can change today, we believe it’s crucial to communicate transparently and frequently with our valued channel partners.”
Cooperation between channel partners may be enhanced by the fact that everyone is living a shared experience, professionally and personally.
“Dealers understand the supply chain and freight issues. It’s affecting every industry, not just ours,” Shannon says.
“It’s impacting every part of our lives, even as consumers,” Maahs adds. “The heightened supply chain challenges have increased lead times for everything from buying a car to a piece of furniture.”
Rising Costs
Drastic price increases are also proving to be quite the battle. “The biggest challenge to all our businesses is inflation and the squeeze that is felt when trying to transfer it to the end-user,” Means explains. “Price increases, contract modifications and surcharges all take time to implement, leaving the manufacturer or dealer exposed. The current inflation is affecting all segments at once: freight, lumber for pallets, labor, raw materials – and the list goes on.”
Stainless steel and cold rolled steel alone have increased in price by 20 and 278 percent, respectively, since mid-2020, so what recourse do dealers have? “Inflation is severe on materials like steel,” Maahs says. “Going into 2021 strategic planning, my assumption was that with the damage done to the operator by COVID, they would be very price sensitive. So, Alto-Shaam has really focused on product cost out and process cost removal. It wasn’t a revolutionary thought process, but it really helped offset some of the extreme material inflation for our customers and partners.”
Similar to lead times, clear communication is crucial when it comes to setting price expectations. “We announced our Aug. 1 price
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