Respondents generally felt upbeat about prospects for the second half. More than half, 57.8%, expected sales to rise in the second half vs. the second half of 2009, including 30.8% who predicted increases of more than 10%. Gloomy prospects were foreseen by 14.5% of respondents who said they expected second half sales to decline by more than 10%, and 19.3% who predicted a drop of between 1-10%.
A query about margins found 48.2% of respondents saying they were “slightly below what we planned,” while another 21.7% said they were “far below” their plans. On the positive side, 28% of respondents said margins were “slightly above” plan, while only a single respondent indicated margins “far above” expectations.
A question about lead times elicited the following responses:
- “We’ve run into a few problems with longer delivery lead
times” - 42.7%
- “Most delivery lead times are running about normal” -
40.2%
- “We’ve run into many problems with longer than usual delivery lead
times” - 13.4%
- “Most delivery lead times are faster than normal” - 3.7%.