Many industry observers were shocked when they saw so many publicly held electrical distributors and electrical manufacturers report 20 percent declines in sales in the recent bevy of second-quarter 2009 financial reports. Not Herm Isenstein, president of DISC Corp., Orange, Conn., the leading provider of sales forecast data in the electrical market. Back in January he forecast a 27-percent decline in total 2009 industry sales and a 34-percent decline in the contractor segment. Herm is not one to brag, but he also nailed the rate of decline in industry sales during the last economic downturn in 2001-2003.
According to his firm’s data, 2009 will go down in history as having the worst decline in electrical sales in the past 35 years. Isenstein says the only time a decline in total sales for the electrical market even hit 10 percent was way back in 1975. DISC’s economic news is not all depressing — the firm’s current forecasts say electrical distributors, reps and manufacturers will see improving economic conditions in 2010 and double-digit sales increases in 2011-2013.