PUBLISHER'S VIEWPOINT
July 2006
Want to Know the Future?

For some reason, many of the best ideas jump into our view during meals. So it is with our plan for giving many of you an early peek at our 2007 forecast of the foodservice equipment and supplies market.

I was having dinner with John McDonough, then of Hobart Foodservice, now president of the ITW Food Equipment Group in North America, last October in Milan. We were both there for HOST, the large show held every two years in Italy. I mentioned we were thinking of doing a forecast seminar in ’07. And he said, “Please do it early enough so we can use it in our planning cycle.”

We will, John. In fact, we have scheduled two forecast meetings for this year. Our first, which we call the President’s Preview, is scheduled for July 27 at the Eaglewood Resort in Itasca, Ill., convenient to Chicago’s O’Hare Field. My forecasting partner John Muldowney, principal at Clarity Marketing, will help me with the forecast, as usual. We’ll look at the macroeconomic environment, operator trends and outlook for materials prices. Kent Motes, president of AutoQuotes, is joining us to discuss trends in price increase. And John and I will make our informed guess of what the future holds for the E&S business in the last half of ’06 and of course ’07. We also have a panel of larger operators coming in to help those attending understanding the needs and pressures of their world.

"We've designed both forecast meetings to be fly-in, fly-out."

Our second forecast meeting is set for Oct. 4 at the Pittsburgh Hilton Hotel. This is the same site and the day before the beginning of the Allied Buying Corp’s Fall Conference. This one is subtitled Focus on Channels. Muldowney and I will do our revised ’07  forecast again, though with a new regional spin we think dealers, service agents and reps working locally will find useful. We want to thank Tom Wilhelm and the ABC board for allowing us to co-locate with their meeting.

We also have a couple of interesting panels planned. We’ll start with folks representing the industry functions to get an idea of what’s impacting their businesses. And not least, we’ll have a panel of operators willing to address the topic of how they evaluate and hire dealers. I don’t think anyone has ever tried this one.

We’ve designed both meetings to be fly-in, fly-out for many folks in the East and Midwest. We also have limited room blocks at both hotels if you want to come the night before.

We’d love to have you at one of the meetings. For information, go to www.fermag.com and click on the button for the meetings. You’ll find details and agendas and registration forms you can download. Or call our sales assistant, Jessica Scurlock, at 800/986-9616. She’ll fax or e-mail you the information. Hope to see you soon.

Cheers,

Robin Ashton
Publisher