A little bit of a “mishmash” of things we’ve been thinking and seeing recently that we’d like your thoughts on marketing funds, Infor and GE Automation (and Industrial). Marketing Funds (Co-op and MDF) – distributors love them (and think they […]
It appears that companies in a number of industries are starting to shop … for other companies. Witness Dell buying Perot, Kraft making an offer to Cadbury, Emerson buying Avocent, Lewis Goetz buying International Gasket, HD Supply and ORCO Construction […]
We’re hearing from a number of sources that a number of the national chains, specifically Graybar, WESCO and Rexel (and possibly more) are selectively closing branches, primarily in what one manufacturer calls the “sand states” (Southwest / West Coast). This […]
Some interesting information has been shared by public companies over the past couple of days as well as some construction forecast information. Hubbell purchased Burndy this week, netting itself a $225M company for $360M. On the surface this appears to […]
No, we’re not talking bankruptcy (although GM did file today), but dealer management.Over the past month, Chrysler and GM have essentially reduced their dealer networks by about 1900 dealerships, (about 800 out of 3200 for Chrysler and 1100 out of […]
The recent NAED Electrical Leadership Summit (aka NAED Annual or National) was one of the quietest conferences we’ve been to in a while. While attendance was 50-60% below recent annual meetings, and was more like a regional meeting (the number […]
Over the past month we’ve talked to a number of distributors and manufacturers who are sensing a change. While business for many has been “challenging”, for some the steep decline has been mitigated. A number of these companies are transitioning […]
On November 9th we posted some thoughts entitled “Taking Advantage of a Downturn” where we quoted some research that proved that investing in sales and marketing during a downturn can enable a compaany to take share and grow their business. […]
The year started off with a division of a national chain changing marketing groups. IMARK announced that USESI, a member of Equity/EDN, had joined the group. In case you are not familiar with USESI, they are the sister company to […]
