Not Again

The current economic crisis is not the first one that Goldens’ has weathered. George Boyd Sr. remembers the early 80s as the roughest time in a 100-year span for the company, and he dreads living through a similar crunch.

“Those of us that were around for the early 80s know we don’t want to experience that again,” Boyd said. The fact that Goldens’ was there and survived is little consolation, and Boyd predicts the industry will once again see substantial contraction.

In the last year, Goldens’ has struggled to increase pricing to accommodate rising operational costs. The company looks at its pricing monthly and may add surcharges accordingly but rarely increases cost. The Boyds know low-cost countries are too close of a threat, although as the value of the dollar has decreased, a lot of the advantages of foreign sourcing have been whittled away.

“We’ve had customers threatening to go to China balk because they were not seeing the savings they had hoped for while taking on too much of a risk,” John Boyd said. 

To stay ahead of the economy, Goldens’ is reviewing its operations to look for any area for potential cost-trimming, such as lowering internal reject rates and improving throughput.

“Right now our business is off, but not radically,” George Boyd Sr. said. “The next two quarters will be rough.”

Goldens’ will continue to run both its plants, which are complementary to each other and are specialized for separate types of jobs.

And, as the company has always been, it is picky about the jobs it takes on. Boyd said the company refuses to let the market set its price. 

“The ‘market’ is never anything except the lowest price that a buyer can find. At the end of the day, Goldens’ can only sell its product based on its cost, not the cost proposed by some other competitor,” he said. “We try to rely on our ability to provide competitive pricing based on our plants and reliable quality. We want to be competitive but not the lowest price because typically that’s not profitable. We’ll do what we always do—watch our bottom line and go after as much business as possible, but carefully. We aren’t taking up new work that we don’t feel confident in taking.”

Boyd said Goldens’ is committed to the two facilities and has been happy with the effect the new investment has made on production. How the recent upgrades will affect the future of the company may take another generation to determine.  MC