Adjustments

I am in the process of completing our Electric State of the Industry (SOI) report that will appear in the July issue of Signs of the Times magazine. It chronicles 2009 results, so I knew it would be ugly. It is. Last year’s report was the first time (in a quarter century) that the average respondent had less sales than the prior year. For 2009, the average respondent’s sales were off 13%, compared to 2008. And we can’t account for the sign companies that went under last year.

Optimism for 2010 is guarded. Sign companies anticipate spending less money on equipment than ever, according to a decade-old question. Yes, they expect 2010 to be better, but only 2% better, which still means significantly worse than 2008.
But there is a copper lining. An average profit margin of 8.9% fits in the middle of responses for both the past three and past seven years, ranging from 6.4% to 11.8%.

Finally, however, there is a true silver lining, one that salutes the sign industry’s ability to adjust. Although profit margin may be considered the SOI’s most important number, second is probably sales per employee. For 2009, that number is $148,524, the highest number this survey has ever seen, going back to fiscal 1983. Kudos to the sign industry for its resiliency.