Profile coverage by Dustin S. Klein, Morgan Lewis Jr. and Kim Palmer
Out with the old, in with the new … at least that’s how the saying goes.
Cliché or not, New Year’s allows us to draw a line in the invisible sand and start anew. However, the same doesn’t always hold true for businesses.
Sure, Dec. 31 is the end of the fiscal year for some companies. But for others, Jan. 1 means little beyond personal property tax implications for inventory or assessing the value of a corporate office building or two for the previous year’s tax filings.
Whatever the significance, January is when most people put their lives and businesses into perspective, looking back at the year that was and gazing ahead at the year that will be. SBN looked at nearly 100 companies across Northeast Ohio, discussed what happened to them in 2002 and prognosticated what we believe 2003 holds for each of them.
For some, such as Smuckers, the answer was obvious: How will the company’s integration of the Jif and Crisco lines fare? For others, like Corrpro, the future is not so certain.
Beyond the headlines, a number of businesses experienced exciting events in 2002. Roadway Corp.’s marketplace opened wider with the closure of a competitor. There was a changing of the guard at RPM Inc. from father to son. And JoAnn Stores Inc. solved its warehousing, inventory and distribution problems, then watched its stock price shoot through the roof.
Admittedly, it’s easy to sit on the sidelines and make predictions about what will happen to the firms we’ve whittled from our list to tell you about. But what’s more important about these companies is that we believe each of them will have something significant happen to them during this year.
SBN plans to follow many of these companies’ stories in the months ahead, so keep your eyes on the magazine and our Web site (www.sbnonline.com) during 2003 for greater insight into why they are this year’s companies to watch.
