Market Analysis

Currently the Acme Widgets is the market leader with 40-50% of the market share. AW are manufactured in Chicago, IL. Our two largest customers are Widgets Are Us and Widget Supply with a significant drop in annual volume as smaller companies fill in.

Product availability was a strong differentiator but the competition has not been running out of product as they did in the past. Our quality is good and on it’s way to great but it’s not there yet. Our multiple manufacturing locations are a selling point as we are often closer to the customer than the competition (although the customer doesn’t typically pay freight on widgets). The name “Acme Widgets” is a strong brand name in the market and well respected. Our VP is a well respected industry veteran and looked to for market information or predictions. We sell through a nationwide network of distributors.

The widget market is dominated by plain widgets. These products are commodity products and “comfortable” to the engineers/designers/owners when specifying a system. These are also the lowest margin products that are difficult to differentiate yourself on.

Acme also manufactures “engineered” widget products – Widget-Blend, Widget-Max, Widget-Pro and Widget XXL. These products offer a cost savings to the customer based on installation requirements.

For instance –

Plain widgets can be both roll grooved or threaded but you may not be threading so you don’t need all of that wall thickness so you could use any of the engineered products, Widget-Blend being the cheapest.

One of the goals over the next 12-18 months is to increase the awareness and specification of Acme's engineered products. The awareness of product alternatives is needed throughout the chain – from distributors to owners/developers – to create change.