There have been several articles released recently suggesting that fastener sales have been flat or down recently. The Fastener Distributor Index has had its lowest numbers in something like a year. I wrote something similar a month or so ago based upon what I was seeing out on sales calls. But, sometimes it is hard to generalize about a market because while middle America might be slow, the coasts might be booming because of strong aerospace business. With some of the articles I have read, they refer to specific companies and their respective results. Even the FDI is derived based upon the companies that respond and that number can change from month to month.
In my last post I mentioned that I enjoyed the All American Fastener Show because it enabled me to spend some quality time with people I do not get to talk to as much as I might like. I spent some time with Brian Musker of Fully Threaded Radio and Fasteners Clearing House (FCH). Brian explained to me that “drill downs” on FCH (the “S” is for scrubber) are down by 15% for the last four months, from May-August. Brian explained that a “drill down” is when a user finds an item of interest on FCH and then ALSO clicks on the name of the person or company that is listing that particular item. They are drilling down to see who actually has the item, which suggest they are truly looking for the item to see where they might get it.
I understand from listening to Fully Threaded discussions that there are over a million items listed on Fasteners Clearing House. The number of users and the number of drill downs are substantial. I told Brian that I think their tracking of “drill downs” might just be the most accurate indicator of overall commercial activity in the fastener marketplace. While I think Brian was kind of flattered by my suggestion, he pondered it for a moment and offered, “I think you could be right”.
I’ve suggested before that Brian and Eric (Dudas) should present their drill down information as an indicator of fastener activity on Fully Threaded Radio. My personal feeling is they have the best data available due to their extensive network of users. So, the good news is as of the All American Show, Brian said the September numbers looked a little bit stronger. Just a bit. But that was early in the month. Check back later cause those numbers might just be the best thing going.
Re; the FDI; time to ignore the index and SELL SOME SCREWS!
Amen. Unless you have 100% of the market share there’s always room to sell something.