Metal machinery businesses in Central Illinois are vulnerable to market downturns because they don’t sell products to enough different clients. That’s the result from a new study presented by The Economic Development Council of Central Illinois. Jennifer Daly is the group’s CEO.
She says a large majority of metal-based businesses sell their products to earth-moving companies like Caterpillar and Komatsu:
“Which is wonderful when that industry is doing very very well. And when that industry has a hiccup, it means that these small manufacturers really struggle because they’re not diversified.”
Daly says the study proposes local manufactures collectively hire a marketing person to connect metal producers with a variety of customers. It also identifies other potential clients where local metal producers can do business. But it’s not clear if local manufacturers could decide to pay money into a so-called manufacturing cooperative to boost business.