Global Fastener News

Kerr Lakeside Monthly Shipments Grow

Jason Sandefur

Kerr Lakeside Inc. is shipping more fasteners than it did four years ago, but with a work force that has declined 30% to 68 employees, the Plain Dealer reported. President Charles Kerr said he expects 2005 to be a decent year for business, but he also worries about his customers losing business to China, which would reduce demand for his fasteners.
Kerr told the Dealer that higher industrial demand at Kerr Lakeside has led to the first back-to-back months of million-dollar shipments for his company in more than four years.
“There”s more than enough work to keep everybody here occupied,” Kerr noted.
But Kerr also has noticed that business for some customers in Ashtabula County and around Youngstown is slow, while distributors who sell in regions such as Texas and Illinois are doing better.
That disjointed picture seems to reflect the findings of the Federal Reserve Board”s Beige Book report, which had the Ohio region reporting “little change” while other regions in the middle of the country reported “modest” or “moderate” gains, and some on the East Coast and in the South said the pace of expansion had picked up.
“You could quibble with the results, but this region is growing more slowly than other districts across the country,” said Richard DeKaser, chief economist at National City Corp. in Cleveland. DeKaser said the slower growth results from the region”s high concentration of fairly mature manufacturing industries that are challenged by tough competition from imports.
“We have a fairly large manufacturing concentration that”s not creating jobs in any appreciable way,” he said. “That tends to ripple its way through other sectors like housing and retailing.” \ �2005 FastenerNews.com