Team Insight

EQUIPMENT: GOALS/NETS production issues have created an opportunity for us to service a broader customer base, as stock and availability is king. e downside of course has been the exorbitant increase in the cost of doing business on the non-domestic or service elements of our business. Schirmer: e supply chain has certainly been a problem when it comes to nylon for netting and vinyl. Lead times for these items are exponentially longer and costs for them are much higher. Ogle: e broken supply chain has become a real challenge for everyone. Materials are two-to-three times the price and they take two-to-three times longer to receive. We have really had to plan ahead and order way in advance. In addition, we have to babysit almost every purchase order because supply is so unreliable. Livingston: While Bison sourcing approaches 90 percent of our inputs from domestic sources, we still suered supply chain issues from our domestic sources who sometimes rely on oshore suppliers. Ocean freight delays did as much as a four-fold increase in costs and has had a signicant impact of both availability and cost of those items that we get directly and indirectly from oshore. How has your company dealt with that supply chain challenge? Bawcum: We have adjusted accordingly with the rising costs. We made adjustments where we could to help mitigate the huge increase in production costs to try and help our dealers and distributors and have beefed up our in- ventory and maxed out container spaces and our warehouse space to make sure we have plenty of inventory on hand ahead of time. is includes working with our domestic factories to buy more now in anticipation of higher prices in the coming months. Ebersole: We have an outstanding network of partners that support our business. A few examples that have helped in the supply chain challenge would be new materials and new designs to help us expedite production. Meller: Our core competency features an operational heavy focus and nimble sourcing matrix. e most important aspect of our business has always been to maintain healthy and revolving stock levels. We've had to adjust out forward ordering outlook and stay on top of our factories, agents and international logistics on a daily basis in order to secure production space, containers and space on ships in order to service our customer base. St. George: We are fortunate to produce 85 percent of our products in our metro Indianapolis factory. We own the tooling to produce the remaining 15 percent of imported products through internal and strategic part- nership resources in the United States. While we did experience delays outside of our 24- hour ship goals, we did ship a vast majority of our orders by the required play date. By the fourth quarter we had returned to our product availability and shipping standards. Schirmer: We have tried to buy and stock as much raw material as possible to meet current and predicted demand and to stave o price increases. Ogle: We had had to plan ahead and follow-up constantly with suppliers in order to have our products ready and available for dealers. Livingston: Just like everyone else, we adjusted as needed by looking for new vendors for supplies or ordering earlier with the longer lead times in mind. Bottom line: What can dealers expect with product delivery in 2022? St. George: By the fourth quarter of 2021 we returned to fairly normal shipping and product availability trends. In 2022, we have had a few sold-out product SKUs, but the re- plenishment timeline has shrunk considerably. While it is challenging to predict double-digit sales growth, we feel fairly comfortable with inventory levels heading into the summer. Our team is ready to provide options to meet the needs of the market. Bawcum: For 2022 we bought heavy early. We are now seeing our containers shipped and delivered on time. Our domestic vendors also seem to be coming out of the weeds on production times. We are proud to say that our lead times are back to normal to include in-stock orders shipping the same day. Ebersole: A lot of our orders are uniquely 22 • Team Insight ~ May/June 2022 teaminsightmag.com Blazer portable or semi-permanent soccer goals come complete for any field and are built to last. Carron Net's Tournament Pickleball Net is a cost-effective regulation sized option for winch attachment.

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