Last week WESCO and Grainger released their fourth quarter reports and shared some comments looking forward. As the two seem to be a barometer for the industrial market (overall, not always from a company performance side), we looked to see […]
Recently I’ve spoken with a number of distributors who have shared that business is up and in some areas it is being driven by residential growth in their market. Frequently this growth is new home construction, however, sales performance at Home Depot […]
Acuity achieved a 10% organic sales growth last quarter while the Juno acquisition generated another 9%. Both become key metrics for distributors to benchmark themselves. Additionally, 66% of Acuity’s fixture business is now LEDs, another benchmark metric for distributors. Acuity’s […]
Happy New Year. And with a new year comes 2017 predictions. This year, at least at this time, there appears to be some economic optimism in the air. Whether it’s sustainable given that the economic and regulatory reforms that are […]
Over the past week we’ve been able to gain a sense of the distribution market with major distribution “networks” reporting quarterly performance. Last week we shared Rexel’s North American (and US) performance. Now we have insight from Graybar, AD and […]
You may remember the tv ads for The Clapper. The device where you clapped and the lights went on; clap again and they went off. It appears to be making a comeback, albeit as an analogy for Acuity and Cree. […]
Some insights from Encore Wire and Schneider Electric / Square D third quarter earnings. First from Encore and their analyst call: Unit volume for copper was up 1% in pounds and 4% in aluminum pounds in the quarter (while it results […]
Many at last week’s Dodge Data & Analytics Construction Outlook conference, which coincided with the AD North American Meeting at the same hotel, over 170 manufacturers and retailers attended to gain insights into 2017. While many came for the outlook […]
It’s now about 30 days to the AD and IMARK national meetings. Graybar just held their national meeting. Manufacturers and distributors should be well underway in their individual planning. 2017 joint business planning is quickly upon us and, in continuing […]
Yes, Amazon Business is a competitor to distributors. It is also an opportunity for manufacturers given that it represents an additional distribution channel to reach customers. Why? Because some customers desire to purchase through a different mode. Why are they […]
