The fast food, headphone, and hard-drive industries are increasingly becoming more fragmented as new competitors continue to enter the market. Americans are estimated to spend nearly $200 billion this year on fast food. The U.S. market for headphones is expected to rise almost 25% to over $3 billion this year. Solid-state drive (SSD) shipments are predicted to at least double this year to 83 million units worldwide due to lower-cost laptops, tablets, and other portable devices. Despite these positive trends within each of these sectors, industry fragmentation will eventually cause the following three companies to surrender sooner than later.
Fast food options favor the consumer
Lower expectations have favored the chain recently. Of the 160,000+ fast food locations in America today, roughly 6,200 of those locations belong to The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN). Back in 1990, Wendy’s had just 3,700 locations as it produced sales that exceeded $3 billion annually. With 2,500 more locations today, inflation, and an American population that grew by over 65 million, Wendy’s produced just $2.2 billion in sales for 2012. Comparing net income totals, 1990 resulted in $39.4 million whereas 2012 saw just $7.1 million.
More options have clearly benefited consumers over the years, and as quick casual restaurants like Chipotle and Panera Bread add to the mix of choices, not being a first choice among Americans when it comes to fast food will continue to hurt The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) in the near future.
The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) has been increasing the rate of closing its poorly performing locations annually up from just 43 in 2010 to 135 in 2012. It also recently announced the sale of 425 company-owned locations to franchises. Both decisions are expected to help boost profit margins and the bottom line. However, it may be too little too late as the restaurant industry, and fast food in particular, continue to become more fragmented.
Headphones are too trendy
It would be hard to find a more fragmented industry than the headphone business. Skullcandy Inc (NASDAQ:SKUL) has seen its stock decline over 71% since its July 2011 IPO of $20/share.
Financially, the company has heard better news. The first- and second-quarter results for 2013 showed year over year net sale declines of 30.4% and 29.9%, respectively. Net sales in the first half of 2013 have been just $87.9 million, far from the pace of its 2012 total sales of $297.7 million.
The competition has greatly impacted Skullcandy Inc (NASDAQ:SKUL). For example, Dr. Dre’s Beat Electronics entered the market five years after Skullcandy, but its annual sales hit $500 million just three years after entry. By comparison, Skullcandy has never produced TTM sales past $300 million. In addition, the $5 billion global headphone market is also the focus of larger electronics powerhouses like Sony, Panasonic, and Bose.
Skullcandy Inc (NASDAQ:SKUL) may already acknowledge defeat to some extent. In last year’s annual report, it mentioned about entering into the gaming peripheral market and it already has expanded into non-related headphone product lines like clothing and apparel.
In the end, the headphone market is too competitive and trendy because the human hearing range isn’t changing from the 20 to 20,000 Hz range. When you consider that there are no true competitive advantages in the headphone market, you realize that that trends and fads are the real margins and add to the bottom line.
