In the gathering ofinformation for the FDM 300 every year, we always come across companies thathave to be taken off the list. A few companies go out of business, a few othersare acquired by another company, or have sales that fall well below the minimumnumber (about $10 million in annual sales in 2014).

We have to locateand research new companies to fill the gap. If 10 companies fall out, we haveto get 10 new companies. We don’t seek any specific markets.

For the year 2014,10 companies were taken off the list: five  furniture manufacturers, two office/contract, onestore fixture, one components and one cabinet producer.

Which companies wereadded? This is what caught my attention. Five were cabinet manufacturers, twowere furniture companies, with one office/contract, one component and one millworkcompany.

I looked back at thethree previous years. There were 12 new companies in 2013, 11 in 2012, and also11 in 2011.

Adding up the fouryears (44 companies taken off the list, and 44 other companies added), theobvious thought is that a number of cabinet companies had replaced furnituremanufacturers, and this is partly true.

There were fivecabinet companies that went out of business during those four years, but 14that were added to the list. There were 19 furniture companies that went out ofbusiness or were removed, but there were 14 that were added.

In millwork, it waseven: eight companies taken off the list, and eight companies added. Office andcontract furniture producers were similar: five out and four in.

In store fixtures,six companies went out of business or were bought out from 2011 to 2014, andnone were added. Only one component producer left the list, with four companiesadded.

I would haveexpected many furniture companies to have gone out of business, and many small-and medium-sized cabinet producers to be added to the list of 300 companies totake their place. This is partly true, but it’s important to point out thatthere were almost as many furniture companies added as taken away.

We need to continueto look in all sectors for new companies. And we need to find a new storefixture company or two to add next year.