“Right now, consumers are continuing to hoard cash. I think it will be 2010 or 2011 before we get confidence back and consumers are out spending again.”
David N. Weidman, chairman, president, and CEO, Celanese Corp., on the prospects for full economic recovery.
“In commercial real estate, the weakness has really been in the homebuilder side. The overall commercial real estate has held up very well.”
Ralph W. Babb Jr., chairman and CEO, Comerica Inc., on fears of a serious downturn in the commercial real estate market.
“You know, Dr Pepper’s the only one with nutritional value. It feeds my family.”
Larry D. Young, president, director, and CEO, Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc., on a key virtue of the traditional Texas soft drink.
“The locations are available, even more important the people are available, and the interest rates are low.”
Randy DeWitt, CEO, Twin Peaks Restaurants, on why now is the “best time” to open new restaurants like Twin Peaks.
“Generally the strongest advocates of bankruptcy are lawyers. They recognize the tremendous fee opportunities [in a] bankruptcy proceeding that drags on for months or years … because that’s how you generate more legal fees.”
Carl Sewell, chairman, Sewell Automotive Cos., on reasons for the “popularity” of protracted bankruptcy proceedings.
“How do you compete? You compete, I think, by relationship-building. That’s also the most fun aspect of building
a business.”
Kip Tindell, chairman and CEO, The Container Store, on how the company has been able to compete with “mass merchants” like Wal-Mart.
“Some of the … projects [in our pipeline] are quite large, and those clients are recognizing they can get a great capital cost for their projects going forward today.”
Alan L. Boeckmann, chairman and CEO, Fluor Corp., on the fact that costs are relatively reasonable now for large-scale construction projects.
“We have an e-mail database of about 2.5 million of our most loyal guests, and we e-mail coupons [to them] regularly.”
Michael H. Magusiak, president and CEO, CEC Entertainment Inc., on how Chuck E. Cheese has stepped up its promotional efforts in the soft economy.
“I feel better now than I did a year ago because I know what we’ve got in our portfolio, and we’ve got our arms around it.”
Matt Hildreth, president and CEO, Amegy Bank of Texas, on potential problems in the commercial real estate sector.
