A new report from KPMG suggests that 85 percent of Canadian manufacturers are optimistic about the future of their business. The results came by way of KPMG’s Canadian Manufacturing Outlook 2012, which interviewed 150 companies from across Canada.
The report found Canadian manufacturers are more confident than last year and optimism had increased by nine percent over the previous survey’s results. More importantly, manufacturers have a more positive outlook than that of their global counterparts.
“Our survey tells us that Canadian manufacturers are confident in their business strategies, but investing in innovation, increasing efficiencies and managing risk are top-of-mind moving forward,” said Laurent Giguère, National Industry Leader, Industrial Markets, KPMG in Canada. “As smaller, niche players operating with a strong dollar, Canadian companies realize they need to innovate in order to compete with lower-cost global producers.”
The report made it clear manufacturers understand the importance that innovation can have on their business. More than 60 percent of Canadian respondents say the next wave of transformational innovation is underway or will be within the next 12 to 24 months.
Manufacturers also said that striving to increase productivity and create products at the lowest cost continues to be a priority. Half of the respondents said reducing labour costs are the cost control method they expect to be most important over the next 12 to 24 months.
The only real concern in the report was that Canadian manufacturers are not doing enough in the area of risk management. The report found that only five percent of Canadian companies use simulations to assess their risk management functions and that 17 percent of respondents don’t know how they will identify risk in their supply chain in the coming two years.
Companies with annual revenues under $100 million made up 62 percent of the survey’s respondents, while four percent was made up of companies with revenues over $1 billion.
For a full version of the study click here.
