Heat Season Wrap up: How is Cadet Doing?
With so many news stories about businesses struggling, I wanted to personally update you on how Cadet is managing through this challenging period. We are ending what has been a surprisingly good heating season for Cadet: orders were steady throughout 2008, and overall similar to the prior year. Because Cadet provides a low cost and energy efficient heating solution we have typically enjoyed less volatility as market levels rise and fall.
However, 2009 is turning into a very dismal business climate and I fully expect a down sales year at Cadet. Our team is poised to maintain our high level of customer service, including product availability and support for all our channels to help them navigate through this year. We believe that zonal electric heat will continue to be the best solution for low cost installation and lower BTU consumption, which equates to lowest annual operating cost. To that end, we are researching technology to make our controls smarter, continuing our lean initiatives throughout our facility to remain the low cost provider, creating better programs to benefit our sales channels, and flexing our staffing needs to maintain excellent customer service. We have a dynamic team in place that assures that we will continue to be a strong manufacturer, business partner, and employer in the Northwest, for many years to come.
Please let me know if there is anything we can do to better serve you as this historic year unfolds.
Hutch Johnson
President