Charles Aris hosts North Carolina manufacturers to discuss labor, inflation and onshoring

The Piedmont Triad chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) held a panel discussion in the Charles Aris Greensboro headquarters Dec. 15, opening the floor for local manufacturing leaders to reflect on 2023 and discuss the year ahead.

Sean Curley, managing director at Charles Aris Transaction Services, moderated the panel, which included Chuck Keeley, president at CGR Products, Geoff Foster, owner at Core Technology Molding Corp, and Adam Duggins, managing partner at New Page Capital.

Around 60 Piedmont Triad business leaders attended the event, and Sean opened the discussion by asking whether the supply chain and labor woes of 2021 and 2022 continued during the last 12 months. The panel overwhelmingly agreed Covid-era supply chain issues have mostly been resolved, and while the labor situation is improving, there is still work to do.

All agreed product sourcing is mostly back to normal, and as the conversation turned to exploring recent onshoring trends, the panel unanimously agreed that recent domestic sourcing is absolutely real and having a substantially positive impact on local manufacturers. This success stems both from the new and domestic businesses they are supporting as well as local sourcing within their own supply chains. In all cases, these changes have improved responsiveness and reliability in the supply chain and are having a positive effect on the bottom line.

Curley next asked the panel to share thoughts on the state of the labor market through the eyes of a manufacturer. Adam Duggins said “It felt like 10% of the workforce went away. (After raising wages to attract new talent) one side effect benefiting production workers is that the gap between white collar and blue-collar workers closed a bit.” However, these wage hikes weren’t only to attract new talent; many salary increases were a result of rampant inflation during the last 12 months, which panelists said they don’t expect to go away anytime soon.

Geoff Foster also mentioned his organization’s ongoing efforts to source local talent, pointing to a program his team started to spur youth interest in STEM and manufacturing: Molding Kids for Success. Although Central North Carolina is considered a manufacturing hub, there’s been a national, waning interest in STEM programs and the manufacturing career path across the board over the past several decades, so Foster hopes this nonprofit will help re-conceptualize the industry for young, local students.

The importance of company culture in manufacturing organizations also became a central theme during the ACG-sponsored event. Panelists said that having a strong company culture was the key to labor recruitment and retention, and all agreed the first step is opening lines of communication between workers and managers.

The panel finished with their thoughts looking toward the year ahead. Sean asked the group how pricing affected their bottom lines and how they’ve been able to keep pace with supply chain cost increases. Most said that while they are still addressing the margin disruption, the cost increases have slowed. Although each panelist had a different view of what business will look like in 2024, the overall sentiment and outlook was positive. Sean added that the Piedmont Triad is experiencing a “really great period of growth.”

To learn more about ACG and Charles Aris Transaction Services, contact Sean Curley at sean.curley@charlesaris.com or (336) 217-9125.