2011 results for companies in the GLTAAC program are in. Established clients increased sales by an average of 18% last year, and fully 75% of established clients grew sales in 2011. (It should be noted that this is on top of a strong 2010, when firms in the program averaged a 23% growth in revenue.)
Employment also grew at a solid pace in 2011. Headcount increased 5% overall, with 66% of client companies adding workers last year.
Bottom-line performance was strong as well. 85% of firms were profitable in 2011(less than half were operating in the black before they entered the program).
“This is a truly significant accomplishment on the part of the firms in this program,” said Scott Jacobs, Director of the GLTAAC at the University of Michigan. “While we expected the numbers to be good, we didn’t think they’d be this good – or this broad-based.”
Across all 3 states of GLTAAC’s service area (Indiana, Michigan and Ohio), sales, employment, and sales per worker (a proxy for productivity) were up in 2011.
Similarly, the good results were spread across a wide spectrum of industries and markets. Not surprisingly, the strongest market last year appears to have been automotive, as most import-injured auto suppliers rebounded significantly. Machine builders and other capital equipment producers, as a group, also did particularly well. As anticipated, the weakest markets for companies in the program were defense and construction, but even these were not uniformly poor – some GLTAAC clients that primarily serve the defense and construction industries posted excellent results too.
“The data show that our manufacturers are making significant progress towards improving their overall competitiveness,” said Jacobs. “Their hard work, coupled with the highly-targeted, highly-focused business improvement projects made possible through the TAAF program, are making a big difference. Over half of our established clients have grown revenues to where they were at a year before they entered the program – and, for over a third, 2011 was their best sales year ever.”
