Two-Thirds of Manufacturers Expect 2027 Revenue Growth, Only 25% Trust the Margins

Two-thirds of manufacturers expect revenue growth in 2027, yet only one in four is very confident of hitting profit targets. That gap — optimism on the top line, doubt on the bottom — is the central finding of Wipfli's "Manufacturing Pulse Survey," and it says a great deal about the year ahead.

The Milwaukee advisory and accounting firm surveyed 342 manufacturing facilities in Q4 2026. Overall sentiment has reached its highest level since 2022, supported by stronger growth expectations and improving business opportunities. So the mood is good. The margins, less so.

What does this change for shippers and carriers?

Quite a bit, actually. Manufacturers who expect volume but distrust their own profitability tend to behave in predictable ways: they chase growth selectively and squeeze every other line on the income statement. The survey confirms the first part — 52% of respondents say they're becoming more selective about which opportunities they pursue. That's a shift toward quality of business over quantity, and it usually means freight buyers who are more demanding on price and service at the same time.

For carriers and forwarders, a demand recovery without pricing confidence downstream is a mixed forecast. More production generally means more freight. But customers under margin pressure push hard on rates, and the survey suggests they have little room to absorb increases.

The cost problem hasn't gone anywhere

Higher costs of doing business remain manufacturers' leading concern, ahead of talent and wages, continued inflation, and raw material pricing. Tariffs are still in the mix too: Section 232 measures affect 71% of survey respondents — roughly seven in ten plants, a striking share for a single trade policy instrument.

Pricing power is the weak link. Only 29% of manufacturers managed to pass through most of their requested price increases in 2026. Another 45% passed through some. In plain terms, fewer than a third of plants can hand their cost inflation to customers, and just under half can hand over part of it. The rest absorb it, cut elsewhere, or wait.

That arithmetic rarely ends well for anyone in the supply chain who sends them an invoice.

Growth without guaranteed profit

Laurie Harbour, partner at Wipfli, put the tension plainly: "Manufacturers have good reason to feel more confident going into 2027. We're seeing stronger demand, better quote activity and real opportunities for growth, but growth doesn't automatically translate into better profitability."

It's an honest formulation. Demand is returning, quote activity is improving, and the pipeline looks fuller than it has since 2022. But as Harbour notes, volume and margin are different animals, and manufacturers know it.

The result is a sector preparing for expansion with operational discipline at the front of mind. Persistent costs, labor challenges, and pricing pressures keep profitability firmly in focus even as sentiment climbs.

The read-through

For logistics providers, the practical takeaway is a customer base that will grow shipments in 2027 while resisting cost increases at nearly every touchpoint. Roughly one in four manufacturers believes in its profit plan; the other three are hoping demand does the work pricing power won't.

Expect 2027 to reward carriers and 3PLs who can prove measurable savings rather than simply quote a rate — because their customers' own customers have stopped paying for excuses.