Brother In 2005-2014THE DECADE OF ‘The Comeback Kid”Times they were a changin. The year was 2005 sales. Amazon created a value and the ability to and the market was booming after the crash of offer you the best price of virtually anything you 2000. The crash of 2000 left the Dow Jones at wanted to buy, and deliver it within days. No 2,291. By the time 2005 came about, it had longer did you need to go to a store. Retailers rebounded to 10,500. Housing starts and were becoming nothing more than showrooms, the concept of everyone owning a house was where people with smartphones could scan becoming a reality. Retail sales and car sales an item, check its price on Amazon, and then continued to be strong and everyone was trying to purchase it with a simple click. live the “American Dream.” New immigrants from But as all cycles come and go, America had Korea, India and China were coming to America. worked its way to a happy place. By 2013, However, the world stopped in 2008 when the interest rates remained at all time lows; housing exuberance turned to despair. The fnancial starts were rising again and unemployment rates markets literally collapsed when the world dropped from almost 9 percent to 6.7 percent. found out that the mortgage-backed sub-prime The stock market had reached new highs (16,000) loans had little backing. The Dow dropped and companies were starting to hire again. to less than 8,500; people lost their homes; Once again, Brother, too, rode the wave and personal bankruptcies hit all time highs, as did completed its best year in 2013, achieving unemployment. 401k’s became 201k’s and more than $2 billion in sales in the Americas. America realized that children of the baby In addition to investing in two new acquisitions boomers may not be better off than their parents. – Pentax mobile printing business and Nefsis, a Bernie Madoff got caught stealing from the rich to video conference company (Omnijoin) – Brother the tune of over 15 billion dollars as he executed also expanded its business with Amazon, focused the largest fnancial Ponzi scheme in history. on other categories like high-end sewing and Climate change created fres, tsunamis and the embroidery, developed the direct-to-garment melting of ice caps. Two automakers fled for printing business, and expanded its printer line bankruptcy, and Lehman Brothers folded.into color laser and a high-speed inkjet line Through all of this, Brother continued to produce printer for commercial business. Brother also home, home offce and industrial products set a strategy for the future by expanding its reach at affordable prices as people tried to pull into new areas, like crafting, scanners, karaoke, themselves up by the bootstraps. Retail also and growing its gear motor business. changed during this decade as long time big box Brother continued to be the “family” that was retailers, like Sears and Kmart, suffered as they started by our founders back in 1908. During lost their identity against superstores and mega this very diffcult decade, Brother thrived by retailers, like Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart. doing what it does best – producing products But the biggest change to the retailing landscape with great reliability, value and adhering to our came from Amazon, the world leader in online motto, AT YOUR SIDE. 73 74