This week, we've made a change to the availability of our many rankings and lists on our website. This data is now only available through a new subscription service.
The display portion of the program can be found at www.plasticsnews.com/businessdata and it does include downloads in MS Excel format.
Why the change? As you have probably seen in your own business, there are many advantages to running programs accessible over the internet. I've worked hard during my 20-plus-year stewardship of our rankings database to gather information on more than 6,200 companies.
When Plastics News made the move from Akron, Ohio, to Detroit, that database followed me on my laptop, creating an island of data, shared only through exports.
Now it's time to upgrade and take advantage of real-time changes from our news sources and our regular contact with processors.
In 2021, we added 161 processors to our database, of which 126 made it into the published lists. The plastics industry is buzzing with startups, mergers and acquisitions and a few closings. To date, 2,154 companies have fallen off our active list, that's a lot of research and it required a lot of survey forms.
I sometimes get asked for a link to the survey, but until now we never had a secure platform to capture changes. Fillable PDFs were the closest we could get.
Starting with our upcoming thermofomers ranking, I did send out our first links to a web-based survey form. But don't panic, paper surveys will still get mailed out.
It seems like everyone assumes doing business electronically should be a goal, but I could not disagree more. I get very excited to see survey forms come in the mail or over the fax. Even better is when we can talk over the phone.
I'm always glad to get any response, in any format. It's that personal interaction that helps keep us informed. We do more than just present the numbers provided. We analyze the results and get to know each firm's unique business. From address and top official changes to the addition of new lines and new plant locations, our database is the place we roll it all together and report on our industry.
As we develop our new tools, we'll be adding interactive charts and historical ranking data.
So how do you sign up for the new data subscription? There is a link for more information on our subscribe page, www.plasticsnews.com/subscribe