Broken Supply Chains Threaten Ruin at a Growing Number of Small Firms

  • Lack of goods, rising prices choke profit and cash runs short
  • The good news: turnaround investors have plenty of idle money
Containers await transport at the Port of Long Beach this week as cargo ships sit moored off the coast of Long Beach, CaliforniaPhotographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg
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A growing cohort of smaller companies that survived the cold depths of the pandemic say now they’re in danger because the economy is too hot.

Mattress sellers, flooring manufacturers and makers of clean energy equipment are warning that stretched supply chains and runaway freight bills have pushed them to the brink of ruin. Unlike global giants, they don’t have the cash and scale to hire their own cargo shipsBloomberg Terminal or pass on the soaring expenses, forcing them to seek private bailouts.