Although it is not November, I wanted to start this message with a “Thank you” to our customers and employees – without whom, NHI would not have fared well at all over the past year. Thanks to all of you, we have found a way to keep swimming, upstream though it may be, toward a recovery. 2020 was a long year in many ways, but so much changed that when I look back it seemed like a blink of an eye. All the slowed down activity in the first part of the pandemic was replaced by a flurry of activity in our business in the fall. We went from not knowing what impact it would have on our customers to seeing a big uptick in business and struggles in getting people hired during a health crisis.

While our first quarter business for 2021 was strong, we have seen headwinds in the labor market remain, and experienced new material availability and cost issues that escalated from just rumblings in the fall. There were also global issues like port congestion and container availability above and beyond the normal levels we experience. While all of this remains a challenge, I would still rather deal with this than what we faced in March and April of 2020. These types of business problems mean that things are getting back to normal and that is a very good thing.

So, we are buckling up our seat belts for a bit of bumpy ride in Q2 as we traverse these material and labor issues with a relentless focus on supporting our customers by being the best total value supplier in your supply chain. We may still have many challenges ahead of us over the next several months, but with more than 60 years of manufacturing custom solutions for our customers, our team is ready to manufacture a solution with quality, safety, and efficiency in mind.

I look forward to the day when I can see you all face to face again, to talk about how we can improve our relationship and support your businesses as an even more reliable partner into the future.

— John Batten, President & CEO