Business Outlook Report: Free-Fall Finished?
28 Construction Equipment Distribution www.cedmag.com January 2010 Business Outlook 2010 Free-Fall Finished Citing misplaced priorities in Washington, construction equipment distributors prepare for life on the floor for many months more. By Kim Phelan Business OutlOOK 2010 no one is happier to see the door closed on 2009 than construc-tion equipment dealers, who saw their revenues plummet anywhere from 25 to 75 percent, even 100 percent in extreme-case regions such as Florida, California, Arizona and Georgia. And while, as some say, each day you wake up is another day closer to the recovery, that longed-for event tangible improvement for distribu-tors may not arrive till at least Q2 '10 and more likely into 2011, according to written dealer feedback on CED magazine's annual Business Outlook Survey conducted in November, as well as other industry sources. It was no surprise that 87 percent of the 125 dealer executive respon-dents saw revenue declines in 2009. Among those, 29 percent reported their '09 revenues were down more than 40 percent over 2008; nearly