WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN YOU HEAR YOUR FACTORY MIGHT BE CLOSING?

Here is a situation that nobody wants to be in.

You’ve been with your current factory(s) for a few years, gotten comfortable with their production procedures, options and personnel. 

Then you start to notice reductions in staffing at the factory, the service department wanting you to do more of the repairs and sending them the invoices, a different sales rep calling on you and phone calls going to answering machines more than ever before.  What’s going on?

It’s what happens to companies when the recession hits them!  I find it interesting that almost every factory wants an application completed by the builder before they will sell to them but what about factories giving their current builders a financial report about their business!

I have written over the past year about factories and builders taking deposits and either using the money for other things or simply keeping it and not producing anything and going out of business.

Over the weekend I received several calls about a major PA modular company telling their employees that they will not be called back from layoffs and that the factory may be closing for a few months and maybe forever if sales don’t improve. 

I will report this to you if I can verify the calls.

My advice  for builders is to have a conversation with your factory owners or managers NOW and try to get a sense of their problems and frustrations.  Maybe some changes on your end will help them.  I have seen too many factory owners and builders relying simply on the sales rep to be the source of information between both sides. 

So before you switch factories, make sure you have gotten the REAL story about their financial health and talk to the owners.  Any factory that weathers this storm will be stronger when it turns around and who do you think the factory owners will want to work with then…the ones that jumped ship or the ones that stayed loyal and helped the factory through this crisis?