MIA Offers Financial Study
The survey, conducted last year, contains an evaluation and interpretation of financial data provided by fabricators. Like its 2007 and 2009 predecessors, the report provides a comprehensive set of benchmarks on financial performance in the natural-stone fabrication industry to date.
The 23-page report is designed to provide fabrication shops with a tool to evaluate existing financial performance and to identify new ways to create improvement.
The report offers:
• an executive summary, providing an overview of the study results, with emphasis on the difference between the typical firm and the high profit company;
• detailed results, with in-depth reporting of return on investment, income statement, balance sheet, financial ratios and productivity ratios is provided in this section of the report. (Management commentary is provided to focus on the importance of these operating statistics.); and
• an appendix, providing an overview of the survey methodology and detailed information on the calculation of the financial ratios used in the report.
Paul Menninger of Capitol Granite and Marble in Midlothian, Va., says that, “The value of the MIA Performance Analysis Report to me and my organization at its basic level is two-fold: one, it quantifies what it is we do at all levels in ways we never dreamed of, particularly when addressing financial institutions and; two, it historically tracks my key performance indicators and anonymously compares them to other fabricators of similar size. The value created for the investment cannot be compared anywhere else.”
“The MIA Report provides a scorecard that allowed our company to improve in areas where we may not be doing as well as the industry as a whole,” adds Dick Laliberte of Ripano Stoneworks Ltd. in Nashua, N.H. “We have found that just looking at your own historical data does not uncover weaknesses that you may have in your company. By comparing yourself to your peers you can spot the areas that need attention.”
As in previous years, MIA contracted with Profit Planning Group, a profitability and compensation analysis firm, for the study. Participants’ proprietary financial data was kept strictly confidential; the survey results and final reports were provided at no additional cost to those firms that participated in the study.
The Performance Analysis Report is available to MIA members for $199, and to non-members at $349. Copies are being sold through the online MIA bookstore, and will also be available at StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas 2011 at the MIA booth.
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