DC Velocity - February 2010

ue to be driven to reduce warehouse
logistics costs.”
Some are already seeing signs of
growth. John Sarinick, vice president and
division manager for Beumer Corp.’s sor-
tation group and vice chair of MHIA’s
conveyor & sortation systems product
group, says his company started seeing an
uptick in the summer. “True proposals
turned up in the last quarter, and several
[were] due here in January,” he says.
“We’re hoping for a strong first quarter.”
Sarinick expects growth to be led by
dot-com customers, which are projected
to recover more quickly than their brick-
and-mortar counterparts. “Direct-to-
consumer is looking to be a strong market
for our products,” he says. Facility
upgrades will be another growth area,
Sarinick adds. “With the economy down,
customers are using automated systems to
get more out of their [existing facilities]
rather than building greenfield facilities as
we saw in previous years,” he says.

Bucking the trend

Not all equipment makers look back on
2009 as a disaster. Take TGW Ermanco,
for example. “It was a pretty dismal year,
but we did better than expected,” says
Strayhorn, who joined the company as
president last April. “Actually, the group
[which includes several material handling
firms operating under the umbrella of the
Austria-based TGW Logistics Group]
grew a little last year.”
The company is looking to build on
that growth by shifting its strategy from
supplying products to integrators toward
developing material handling systems for
end customers, Strayhorn says. “We are
still going to maintain relationships and
sell conveyor systems to our business
partners, but we are breaking out of the
box and approaching the market in a
direct fashion,” he explains. Strayhorn
says it’s necessary for the company to
“break out of the commodity box
[because] that’s the worst box you can be
in in our industry. It drives down margins
and limits growth.”
At least one company will look back
fondly on last year. “Schaefer had a great
year in 2009,” says Jack Lehr, vice president
of sales for Schaefer Systems, a large systems

integrator for automated warehouses and distribution centers. He expects business to remain strong this year.

“Blue chip companies in our mar-
kets took advantage of our services
to leapfrog their competition,” he
says. Specifically, Schaefer had suc-
cess with large food distributors,
major retailers, and electronic com-
merce fulfillment specialists. “They
went against the trend,” he says.
“Companies that are segment lead-
ers and had the capital took advan-
tage of lower construction costs and
the opportunity to get the lowest
cost per unit.” ;

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