Our customer base saw stable growth in 2021 with the recovery and threat of COVID-19 lingering. Although demand for equipment is high, our distributors are being reserved in their current stock due to concerns of another economic shutdown.
Manufacturers and distributors have lived with the negative effects of broken supply chains and a decline in forward ordering in a robust economy. As a result of these downfalls, the environment has changed. For example, placing orders nine to 12 months in advance has become more of the norm.
The top challenges we encountered in 2021 were broken supply chains, lack of ability to source needed materials, and the impacts of inflation. IRock’s distributors will need to focus on forward ordering and accurate forecasting while increasing rental rates and adjusting to inflated costs.
IRock’s end users will need to adjust the pricing of their services, assuming the replacement cost for machinery and wear items will be significantly higher.
The major factors affecting our 2022 outlook are continued demand with a broken supply chain. The shortage of shipping containers, qualified employees, inflated costs and the impacts of COVID-19 will continue to be issues through 2022. Detailed preparation with calculated risk will be keys for success in 2022.
Nate Russell is director of sales and business development at IRock.
Featured photo: IRock