Folding Cartons: A Strong Message

Foreseeable future

Markens is starting to see what he calls "green shoots," with the business environment starting to loosen up. "There seems to be a glimmer of hope; people are becoming somewhat more optimistic," he said. "I am cautiously optimistic for the last half of 2009."

Petrelli is also seeing indications of a turnaround. "Although I'm certainly not an economist, I have seen some encouraging signs of recovery with recent increases in our own company's backlogs and new project activity from major customers and key target prospects. I think the balance of 2009 will be much stronger than the first half and that opportunities for 2010 appear to be bullish at this time. As we are currently developing our 2010 operating budget, we are forecasting a top line growth for the first time in two years."