Dear Clearfield Customers,
Like many of you, here in Minnesota, life is starting to establish its next normal. For those vaccinated, masks are gone, and plans for family gatherings, summer picnics and just “going to the mall” are returning.
For business, many of us have embraced the working from anywhere environment. I like many, have established a new productive routine within my home office, but still yearn for the collaboration that is most evident when we can work alongside each other. Our new hybrid model is a lifestyle that high-speed broadband enables.
The teaming of the country’s recognition of fiber-fed broadband as the enabler of personal productivity and economic vitality, the pandemic-induced see-saw in demand, as well as natural disasters that shut down factories, have all put strain on our global supply chain. As a result, our commitment to you our customers, to deliver progressive lead-times and on-time deliveries to those promise dates, has been challenging. Our research indicates Clearfield maintains its leadership position in lead-times and on-time delivery, but our performance over the last 60 days has not been to our standards.
Many of you have seen the images of intermodal shipping containers sitting idle at sea while the ports are crowded and await unloading. But you may not be aware that the serious power outages caused by the winter storms in Texas, resulted in drastic shortage of the resins and other petro chemicals that are produced there. The shortage in those resins has affected industries from power boats to telecom.
Our component suppliers are telling us that it will take some time for the supply chain to re-establish inventories, safety stock and the workforce to meet today’s surge in demand. Each day there seems to be a new “glitch”. For example, last week we were told that the huge spike in home building has resulted in a global shortage of screwdrivers! As we ship nearly 20,000 screwdrivers annually inside of our fiber distribution hubs, this created a new void. As a result, we have designed a screwdriver that will be manufactured to our spec at a precision metal shop in Germany. Who knows what will be next! But I promise, we will continue to do everything we can to regain the performance you are accustomed to experiencing with Clearfield.
Sincerely,
Cheri Beranek
President & CEO
Clearfield, Inc.
