New DAS Survey: Sept. 11 Effect: One Year Later

© 2002 Door & Access Systems
Publish Date: Fall 2002
Author: Tom Wadsworth
Page 40

New DAS Survey
Sept. 11 Effect: One Year Later

How did the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, affect sales of door and access systems products?

To discover the answer to that question, we surveyed 48 DASMA manufacturers in late August, asking this question: "Looking back at your sales history since Sept. 11, 2001, how did the terrorist attack affect your sales of (these products)." We inquired about our six basic product categories in the chart below.

Note that we did not seek actual sales numbers, but we sought each manufacturer's opinion of the effect of the terrorist event on their sales over the last year. Of the 48 DASMA members, 30 of them (63%) completed the survey.

As the chart below reveals, gate operators seemed to realize the greatest sales gain, although the gain was minimal. Experiencing the greatest sales loss were: commercial sectional garage doors, rolling steel doors, and commercial operators. But again, that loss was minimal. Residential products, both doors and openers, were essentially unaffected.

Here are the actual results for each product, listed in order of the most positive sales effect to the most negative sales effect.

Sales Effect of Sept. 11

* Scale:
5.0 = Significant Sales Increase
4.0 = Small Sales Increase
3.0 = No Effect
2.0 = Small Sales Decrease
1.0 = Significant Sales Decrease

The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of manufacturers responding to that question.