Global Fastener News

December 12, 1979 FIN – What’s your forecast for the fastener industry in 1980?  Will it be up, down or sitting about where it is now?
Here are excerpts of prognostications offered to Fastener Industry News from fastener executives:

Gumbiner:  Recession Talk is Contagious

S.W. Gumbiner, president of Equality Screw Company:  “Our firm like all fastener distributors is feeling the recession in the third and fourth quarter of 1979, but unlike our counterparts we have elected to be aggressive instead of cautious. We have expanded our capacity by purchasing a new building and increasing our square footage two times.”

“Our overall plan is to eliminate all negative recession talk from any discussions we have. This philosophy surprisingly is contagious.”

“We intend to make 1980 a successful year for Equality Screw Company through hard work, positive thinking and good business practice.”

Equality Screw is a full line fastener distributor specializing in the woodworking field,   ©1979/2010 Fastener Industry News

Kornman: Energy Supply, Cost Will Influence Fastener Industry in 1980s

H.C. Kornman, president of the Townsend division of Textron Inc. – in continuous operation since 1816 makes Townsend the oldest fastener producer in the United States:  “While our growth in the past decade has been significant – more than threefold – it is with cautious optimism that we view the decade of the 1980s. We believe the key word of the 80s will be ‘change’ and that the basic patterns of the future will closely match the reality of the present. Worldwide upheavals and political unrest can no longer be considered temporary deviations.”

“The single most important influence affecting our company and the fastener industry in the 1980s will be the high cost/critical shortages of energy. Compounding this area of concern is continuing government interference and regulations, which tend to not only deter productivity, but to inhibit initiative and creativity – keystones of the Townsend philosophy of planned growth.”  1979/2010 Fastener Industry News

Tews:  4 Steps to U.S. Surviving as an Economic Power

Herbert A. Tews, president of Midwest Sintered Products, a company which originated the powder metal technology and process of manufacturing brass and stainless steel nuts, gave FIN the following ideas of what lies ahead.

“The outlook for 1980 is one of the U.S. economy showing no growth through the fourth quarter with double digit inflation and restrictive monetary and fiscal policies continuing through the year. By the first quarter of 1980 several major industries will begin to feel what the automotive and housing markets began to experience during the third and fourth quarters of 1979.

The key to profitable growth in the fastener industry in the U.S. in the early 1980s will be:

Increased emphasis upon product development, research and innovation.
Increased investment in productivity improvements in equipment and manufacturing processes.
Increased political awareness in the U.S., which to date has bordered on naivety in facing up to the free world competitive countries.
Acceptance of an internationally competitive depreciation policy to encourage all U.S. industries to rebuild our increasingly obsolete and unproductive capital equipment base.

If all four of these areas are not addressed promptly and constructively by both business and government, the U.S. will be a second-class economic power by 1985.”  ©1979/2010 Fastener Industry News