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It's like those people who sell Persian rugs. Their warehouses seem to catch fire alarmingly often (though strangely it never seems to damage the stock).

Never, ever, share a warehouse with one of these guys. At least not unless you also plan on having a "fire sale".

I spoke to the owner of a small manufacturer of electrical equipment last week. I won't be too specific to avoid identifying them (not too many manufacturers of electrical gear in Tassie....) but in short it's stuff that's used mostly in the commercial and industrial market and would be needed for new construction or renovation.

According to the owner, there was a huge slowdown a few months ago which he was assuming was related to the state election. But we've had the election and business hasn't bounced back, not at all it's still right down. He wasn't being political as such, just commenting that he'd assumed that regardless of who was elected, getting it over and done with might be good for business but this hasn't been the case.

Apparently it's not a case of them not winning tenders etc, there just isn't much work to tender for in the first place and they are now quoting on literally every job, no matter how small, they can find. Suffice to say he was very interested in knowing what works we might have coming up that they could tender for and pointed out that, being local, if we needed something in a hurry then they'd be more than happy to do whatever was needed to make it quickly. Apparently they have "just enough work to keep ticking over" but things sure aren't good.

Also had a visit from a salesman (actually the sales manager) from a company based in another state last week. They make some of the same items as the local company I've mentioned. So he's got on a plane, flown to Tas, on the off chance that this might generate a sale or two. Apparently he was flying to Melbourne the next day, then off to NZ.

Another one, supplier of custom built equipment (not electrical). They're offering a 40% discount if we take the one they've already got sitting there rather than building a new one that's very slightly different. Given that the one they've already got would have many potential buyers it seems that they're having real trouble actually selling things.

All of these relate to companies supplying equipment that would be used either for business expansion or to replace existing equipment which has a long lifespan. So it seems that there isn't much expansion going on, and that nobody is really replacing things until it's absolutely worn out and replacement is essential. In other words, businesses are conserving cash where possible by deferring expenditure on anything not absolutely critical right now.

Another one, pubs and especially nightclubs. I'm told (by someone who would know) that it's basically become a lot more competitive especially outside the peak periods. You can still fill a popular venue to capacity on Saturday night, but at any time other than the peak it's become harder to maintain volume especially for "generic" nights (regular DJ's etc not someone touring) that are run every week. There's apparently some nights (especially mid week) at certain venues that are actually cash flow negative now whereas once they were quite profitable, the only reason they're still running them at all is in the hope that competitors (who they believe to also be losing money) pull the pin first. Last man standing type of thing as the market isn't big enough at present to keep everyone profitable. The venues in question are in NSW and SA.