Year In Review
===

Joe: [00:00:00] Oh, we're rolling. Yeah. . 

Vince: See, when you get old enough, you kind of lose focus. It happens. Joe just celebrated, uh, a birthday as he approaches his half century 

Joe: mark. Dude, I am so far away from 50, just saying, I mean, I'm not just turned 30 . I'm getting. Yeah, 45. Feel like I'm 25 after waking up and moving around for a couple hours, getting the kinks worked out, hearing the snap, crackle, pop maybe a little bit.[00:01:00] 

Vince: Hey, so interesting stat folks. Um, we were looking at some of our stats from 2022 on the Industrials podcast, and one thing that jumped out to me is 87% of the viewers of our episodes are not subscribers. So my reaction to. Thank you for watching. First of all, uh, we appreciate you guys tuning into the episodes that we put out, uh, over 2022.

Uh, but if you haven't subscribed, please do so. It doesn't cost you a single penny. It takes you like one second to do it. So if you feel obliged to hit that SCR subscribe button, please do so. We'd, we would greatly 

Joe: appreciate that. Mostly thank you to the 13% of the people that are subscribed. That's correct.

We like you more . [00:02:00] 

Vince: Uh, so we did a year, a kind of a halfway or a midway through the year review, uh, back in, in July, a little bit different setting. We weren't in the studio. We were, uh, fortunately, uh, enjoying the, the Tuscan countryside. But, 

Joe: uh, we were on on remote location, right? Yeah. Yeah. R and d, r and d for sure.

Um, 

Vince: But, uh, now, now it's, uh, time to kind of look back at the, at the full year in review, and particularly that second half of the year. Um, and how, how things have gone. And then, and then at the very end, we'll, we'll touch on what we think. Uh, this, this year we're one month into it. What 2023 looks like. 

Joe: Um, did you know that 2022 was the year of the water tiger?

I did not know that. That's the year we just concluded. The year of the water. Tiger. Water tiger. Okay, I'll write that one down. Yeah. I don't know what a water tiger is. If it's an actual like, Like big cat that's just likes to like, play in the water or, or is it like a type of flour or a plant? I have no 

Vince: [00:03:00] idea.

I'm gonna go with a, uh, a tiger that likes to, that enjoys hanging in the 

Joe: water that, that works. Yeah. Yeah. 

Vince: I just refer to it as the year the deuce, deuce, you know, that's just, it's not quite the water tiger, but it is what it is. Uh, so you got a few notes. What, how would you blanket statement summarize the second half of 

Joe: 22?

The second. Uh, well, the second half of 2022 was actually, I would say a, um, really the beginning of change from the first half of 22. If you said, describe the first half of 22, I would say, well, the first half of 22 was like pretty much all of calendar year 21, um, where 2021 as almost a 12 month calendar year.

Really wasn't different from January of 21 to December of 21, and everything in between was the same. Mm-hmm. , it's frenetic, crazy, lots of price increases. Incredibly strong business demand. Still a little covid [00:04:00] hangover for sure. Um, and, uh, just trying to keep up with things and, and find, find inventory and so on and so forth.

The first half of 2022 was carryover of 21, where we had continued price increases. Uh, strong business demand. I would say inventory, the ability to find and maintain inventory started to level off. In the first half of the year, uh, things were, were very good. The second half of 2022, we have start. We started to see some change, which is right.

Carried into this new year. Um, business demand remained very. , um, their materials continue to increase, although at a slowing rate. Um, things like freight costs, labor costs, things directly impacting business that are indirect costs [00:05:00] that are tied to business started to really catch up with some of our direct costs of like materials and, and costs.

Good sold, uh, in terms of increases, and a lot of that was tied. You know, inflation was obviously a big buzzword, right? But mostly in the second half of the year. Um, rising interest rates really started to kick in the last half of the year. And as we know from, uh, just as recent as yesterday, uh, that, that the rates continue to increase, um, cost of living.

General consumers really started to catch up in the second half of the year. The price of fuel, which obviously came back down some, uh, or went down some, it's kinda starting to come back up some, it's just the normal, it's kind of that normal game. Um, So I, I think there definitely has been a little bit of a shift in the second half of the year, especially the fourth quarter where we are, we started to see some corrections, and by correction, I mean softening in some of the specific industries that we serve when it comes to [00:06:00] business demand.

Um, . But then of course there was one big thing specific to us project-wise, that was from the acquisition standpoint, uh, that really kind of changed the landscape for us, uh, or added to the landscape for us. That's has, has taken and continues to take a lot of attention and energy. Uh, and it, and it mostly in a good way though.

Yeah. 

Vince: Um, I would, I would agree with all that I. . We, we stayed busy throughout the whole year, but to SharePoint, the interest rate hikes have started to certainly have their effect. Um, some industries have took a dip, uh, especially those that tend to lead the economy. Um, RV for example, has taken a dip for sure.

Uh, but like I said, they tend to lead things down and then of course, hopefully leave things on the way. , um, other aspects still remain busy from the backlog. Um, the interesting thing as we look into 2023 now that we're a month into it, um, when, when do some of these other industries start taking their dip?

And we, we, we expect [00:07:00] some of them to do that. , but to the extent of that dip, we don't know. We, I've had multiple conversations where people have talked about they think it will dip to 2019 levels, and if you look at the, the percentage on that versus 2022, it, it sounds worse than it really is. But if you talk to most companies and say, well, how did you do in 2019, not, not figuring 2020 through 2023 or 2022, but how was 2019 or 2019 versus 2018?

They, most people say it was a record year for. . So sure it's a step back from where you are today, but, uh, it's not, it's not the end of the world, that's for sure. It's not 29, it's not 2009. 

Joe: Certainly. Um, don't bring up those memories. Um, 2019, you know, I've gone back and looked at our numbers because if you compare back the last couple of years, it's, it's a, it's sort of a false flag.

In 2020 in particular, was, was a completely jacked up year because. Really [00:08:00] the first quarter of 2020 for us was a, a nice continuation of 20 18, 20 19, and moving forward. And then obviously at the very end of March is when Covid hit. And April we, our revenues for April, about 50% of normal. Um, and then, you know, may, June, July, as we've told that story kind of started to client back out.

And then once you hit end of third quarter of fourth quarter of 2020, all the way through the end of the third quarter of 2022. I would call that like extreme covid bounce, um, you know, consumer demand. Um, uh, com. Com combined with. , um, sales growth through price increase. So if you really want to kind of net it all out, you've gotta say, okay, in our world, how many units, how many gallons, how many each is whatever unit measure you want to use, have we sold comparatively, uh, this 20 quarter of 23 that we're in now [00:09:00] to the same quarter of say 19, because in 2021 and, and two, if you had price increases, 20%.

Well then your sales day, if they're only 20% higher, that means you're actually going backwards. Yeah. Uh, and, and, and product sold. So, uh, that's something we're taking a, a very close look at and keeping an eye on. Uh, but yeah, going back to 2019, it was, we were doing, we were doing well. We were, we were growing our market share and, and obviously it's all related sales growth and, um, in, in a, in sort of a twisted way.

maybe 2023 will not only offer us a chance to catch our breath a little bit, but also in, in 21 and 22, you were just so busy trying to get orders out the door or in the same light, so busy trying to find inventory to bring into the door to then turn around and send back out. That it really distracted us from.[00:10:00] 

what I would call organic growth efforts that distracted us from, uh, growing our marketing game. It, it distracted us from growing our organic sales game, um, and from, and really some operational projects that we had going on because it was sort of, you know, five alarm fire, all hands on deck. Maybe in 23 things will become more manageable, not that we wanna go backwards in numbers, but.

But growth will become more manageable in a way that we can continue to build out all the things behind the scenes that will perpetuate continued growth in 23, 24, 25, and so on. Yeah. Without going into 

Vince: specifics, um, I think there's no question 23 is going to be more of a foundational year in that some things that we did, you know, fourth quarter of 2022, um, and some other things that have been offshoots of that already.

Um, is gonna cause us to have to do some things this year to then kind of further expand and [00:11:00] build out that, uh, I, I'm excited about. I think it's certainly it's due. Um, and those are things that then will help propel us even further in the latter part of this year. And 

Joe: in 2024, certainly, uh, you know, there were some things in 2022 talking about year in review.

One of the things of 22 that's continued to. Hangover in 23 is the job market. Yeah. Um, and I, it's, I think that's one thing that's probably helping continue to support the overall economy, despite the, a word that you hear in the news and, and, and, and again, do see some correction in some places. Um, , but it's, it's the, you know, the job market, being as strong as it is, is great overall for a consumer ba, you know, consumer spending based economy that we have.

Um, but really sucks, uh, for us and for other, you know, for other businesses, for a lot of businesses that are trying to hire people. It's interesting that you hear some of these large companies, the Googles, the Facebooks, a lot of the [00:12:00] tech pace companies in particular that are having layoffs, although I think that.

Plenty of tech companies out there that are just sucking those people back up probably. Um, but going out and finding good quality, uh, hardworking team members, uh, has been a challenge. Yeah. 

Vince: Hey, so if you're listing or watching this podcast, we need customer service concierges, which is customer service reps, uh, codes, consultants, sales reps, chemicals, consult.

Sales reps, uh, anyone from the industry with technical knowledge. Uh, we are looking for some technical coatings and chemicals, consultants, tech reps, essentially. Um, and then a variety of operational positions. So, hit us up in the comments or, or, or connect with us at, uh, contact us@susa.com and, uh, we will, we'll ha be happy to connect you with what openings we have currently and see if we can't, uh, see if we can't hook up.

Um, operationally speaking. , as we just kind of touched [00:13:00] on, there's, there's some things that I think, um, will, will come about in 23 to make us more efficient. I think people are looking for where can I gain more efficiencies? I can't, I can't maybe find all the bodies that I need, uh, right away. So how can I make up for that with improving my efficiency, whether that be automating certain things, um, using technology, whether that be in robotics or software or what have you.

I know we're look looking at a few things, but I think that will al also take shape, uh, this year, uh, more than ever just because some of the vibe we got from some of the trade shows in 22, uh, for example, I w F in Atlanta, um, there was a big, seemed to be a big buzz about companies who are smaller to mid-size investing in a lot of that, um, uh, robotic equipment.

in the past was maybe only reserved for the, the big guys who had, you know, bigger checkbooks. 

Joe: Yeah, I mean, um, coincidentally I've been working a lot of nights. [00:14:00] Uh, I'm almost complete with building a new robot of myself. Um, I'm just gonna take 20 points for the off and, and have a robot do all my work for me.

I'd be interesting. I'm guessing you were talking about different kind of robotics. Yeah. Oh shit. All right. Well, that was worth a. 

Vince: So you're not doing that? 

Joe: No. no. Probably wouldn't 

Vince: work out. Well, uh, guys, in your comments, let us know what, what things that you guys are gonna do in 23 that's different, maybe something different that you've, you guys have never done before.

Um, speaking of being industrious, trying something new that's gonna, IM, that you feel is gonna drastically improve your business. Uh, going forward that you, that you never went down before, um, that would be, I'd be curious to see how, how everyone compares to the answers there. Um, 23, you know, one of the slogans we had, I call it 22, the year of the Deuce Deuce, 23.

I'm saying LFG and 23 because I think if. [00:15:00] Some, some of, some of the things we did in 2009 to prepare for 20 10, 20 11, um, I think lines up relatively well for what we're doing now to catapult through 23 and into 24. Um, what stands out to you as some of some of the basic things that other companies should consider doing now?

Um, when or if their business happens to be down a little 

Joe: bit? Uh, the, the. Word is cash. Yeah. Um, you should, any business right now come, I mean, during the good times, they say save during the good times. Spend and the, and the hard times because when, when there's economic correction, typically prices come down, deals are offered.

And if you are flushed with cash, you can go out and, and buy things at a, a discounted rate. Right. Uh, which will only serve you better as things. come back out of that, that [00:16:00] trough as a business cycle, um, you know, repairs itself or corrects itself in a positive way. Um, so for us, we are definitely taking a strong focus on cash, um, on maintaining, uh, collection of accounts receivable and keeping those under control.

Um, is. as, as our customers and their customers and, and the, you know, the whole food chain. If, if you see things starting to slow down and, and people aren't managing cash, And ultimately someone's not getting paid. If they're not getting paid, they can't pay their bills. And you know that that road apple flows uphill and it flows downhill.

Um, and so we're really keeping a close eye on managing our accounts receivable. Make sure that those standard control, um, and that's challenging as always, cuz you sometimes you have to have. Conversations or difficult conversations with customers that, you know, we're everything we do, I think every business in some way is a relationship business.

Uh, and we try to be a [00:17:00] relationship business. But some people think that, you know, you if it's relationship, it's all relationship. Well, no, it's still business. There's, there's gotta be a good mix of both. Um, and, and if you're not going to. , maintain strong principles of business, then you're not gonna have a business.

Right. Um, so if number one is cash management, number two, um, you know, I, I look for us as, as you kind of mentioned this, 2023. . And as it kind of goes back to my comment about maybe having a chance to breathe a little bit and get back to doing the things that really support organic growth and expansion, 2023 to me is going, I don't know if it's going to be the launchpad here necessarily, or if it's sort of like building the launchpad and and building the rocket.

And then maybe the latter part of 23 and the 24 is gonna be the actual launching of things. 2022 looking [00:18:00] backward. Again, like I said, it was a lot like 21 where you were just trying to get product in the door and product out the door. That there wasn't a lot of, you know, strategic planning and strategic execution was, was challenging, uh, because there was so only so much bandwidth.

That one, you know, that one has, uh, 20, I think getting back into that 23 into 20. Of really saying, okay, strategically speaking, where are we, where, how are we going to grow over the next 12 to 24 months? And then obviously beyond, but like near term 12, 24 months. And then using it, you know, using that work we're going to put in here in the next, over the next six to 12 months to launch us, uh, from there.

So I'm, I'm actually really excited. There's just in a, in a, um, I guess I say this sort of tongue in cheek, but, um, . So to the downside, we almost have too many opportunities. Mm-hmm. too many, too many opportunities to go after. Um, that we have [00:19:00] to, to really sort of eliminate some off the list or back burner some.

Right. Because you can't take advantage of all of 'em at once or else you'll never get done. You'll never get any of 'em done. Um, but we do have some really awesome opportunities in front of us that if we can execute our strategies, our strategic plan for 2020. appropriately or successfully. Um, then we can, I think we'll look back and say, despite any economic contraction that took place, um, in any one industry or across any industries, we'll go look back and say, okay, we, we, we had a good year because we grew market share.

We diversified our market share, we diversified our product offering, and we brought on new products that helped us, um, you know, Avoid feeling any turbulence over the next, you know, calendar year? Yeah. 

Vince: I'm clearly no economist. Um, but I'm pretty bullish on 23 in general. It's not gonna happen like [00:20:00] wild out, outrageous numbers, but I'm, I'm fairly bullish on the rest of this year, um, with one exception.

And that, that black Swan event being the, uh, I guess. Unrest that exists right now with, um, the pocket of Ukrainian Russia, and then what some other countries may be doing, um, thinking that they might pile on to try to spread us thin. And that, that is a little concerning right now. 

Joe: Yeah. I mean obviously anything, any sort of geopolitical unrest or beyond, uh, unrest or beyond these days?

Um, I mean, not getting, not getting into politics, but, um, there have certainly been, you know, the, the current events of, of our country and the world. Um, there are, there are definitely some concerning issues and things to keep an eye on that could impact, uh, the, the economy and [00:21:00] ultimately our business or our industry coatings and, and manufacturing in general.

I, I, I have faith in the resilience of, of the US and, and not, I mean the us the government so much as the US as as people. Um, I have faith in the resilience that we can get through any sort of challenging economic time. And I think 23 is gonna be a good year. I, I'm a little leery of the latter half of the year and some little, you know, I think it's gonna be like whacka.

You know, like you're gonna, you're gonna knock one down and another one's gonna pop up. Um, but it's, it's going to be manageable 2024. I don't have that crystal ball. Um, but again, if we control what we are able to control, I think we'll be just fine. Yeah. Can we take that as the bank ? Uh, I know some of our bankers have to be listening and they're actually Oh, I'm sure.

I think they're, they're opening up the vault.

Vince: Well guys, we'd like to see your comments on what your predictions for 2023 are. [00:22:00] Um, again, it's always good to hear from those of you guys who are listening or watching and, and get your input. Um, also in addition, if you have any guests in mind that you'd like to see you on this podcast in 23, please let us know as well and we'll do our best to, to have them on.

Um, or any topics in particular you want us to cover. We do have a couple episodes coming up, uh, some focusing on, on B2B market. Or industrial marketing and other aspects of the, the industrial marketplace that, uh, we'll be happy to, uh, to launch those once, once they're ready. So if you have any other ideas though, let us know.

We're happy to take a look at 'em. Um, anything else you wanna wrap up with? Uh, 2020 in review? 

Joe: Twice, one in review or 2022, what year view was on 

Vince: 22 , 

Joe: the Douce Dee. Um, No, I mean, I feel like, uh, it's only been, we're only one month, 2023 and 2022. Seems like it was a decade ago already. Yeah. Uh, but I guess [00:23:00] that's the way it, it works.

No, I'm, um, you know, I'm pretty proud of our company. I'm proud of all of our teammates. Um, our, we've got a, yeah, I was talking to someone just yesterday and we were talking a little bit about the job market and I said, you know, we have very little turn. Uh, we've got a lot of longtime employees that work their asses off for us and are really not just, are they?

They good at what they do and they hard are hardworking, but they're also good people to be around. Um, and I said, you know, I. . I, I, I, that to me, if you said, how do you know if you're doing something right, it's, I don't know what we're doing right necessarily. Uh, but the fact that we've got people that show up day in and day out and, and, and work hard to, to take care of our customers and kind of uphold the values of the company mm-hmm.

uh, that tells me that something that's going right. Um, and I think that finding additional teammates that can fit in that mold [00:24:00] to support our existing group. that that tells me how good 2022 is, and if we can continue that, then that tells me that that gives me faith that going forward things will continue to work well for us.

Yep. 

Vince: Agreed. All right guys, that's it for this, uh, follow up or year and review episode. Thank you to all of you guys for watching us over 2022. We look forward to seeing you all. Uh, join us in 23 and for those of you guys again on the Cecil YouTube channel, you're checking us out there. If you haven't hit that subscriber button, please do so and also hit the little notification bell so you can be alerted when new episodes drop like this.

Very one. Thanks guys. And don't. Be industrious in 23. Thanks.[00:25:00]