1H 2020 Manufacturing M&A Report

If there has ever been an ode to uncertainty for the manufacturing sector, it’s 1H 2020. The first half of the year started with the threats we knew – tariffs, trade, fickle consumer habits, and the cyclical nature of the economy – and then dove head-first into the unknown realm of the global COVID-19 viral pandemic. And if there’s a sector that responds quickly, for better or worse, to external factors, it’s manufacturing. For the record, 2020 has been the year of external factors. Early into the pandemic, we witnessed an explosion of consumer demand for manufactured goods as people stocked up for stay-at-home orders, the heyday of the toilet paper industry. Then an unemployment rate that was well below 4% prior to the pandemic rocketed to nearly 15% by April. Even with a rebound as the half ended in June, unemployment hovered around 11%…