January 2006

The Home Depot has announced plans to grow its supply division to $23-$27 billion by 2010. The Atlanta-based DIY giant wants The Home Depot Supply to become the nation’s No. 1 diversified wholesaler. In just the past year, The Home Depot Supply has grown by 143%, according to numbers provided at an investor conference. HD Supply’s […]

Applied Industrial Technologies, Cleveland, OH, reported a 13% increase in sales to $456.1 million for the fiscal 2006 second quarter ended Dec. 31, 2005. It recorded a 53% jump in profit. For the six months ended Dec. 31, 2005, sales increased 10% to $899.3 million from $817.2 million in the same period last year. Profit was

Lawson Products Inc., Des Plaines, IL, said it is facing an federal investigation into whether Lawson representatives have provided inappropriate gifts to purchasing agents, including government purchasing agents.The probe, by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, follows a search warrant executed in December for records and files at the company’s headquarters.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co., Los Angeles, CA, has agreed to acquire steel service center Earle M. Jorgensen Company, Lynwood, CA, for $934 million including assumption of $291 million in net debt. The price is a premium of 25% over EMJ’s share price as of Jan. 17, 2006. The transaction is expected to be completed

trying to figure out who is next,” he said. He said that Home Depot already has a strong position in the construction market, so it may try to further push into the industrial MRO market.Hughes Supply stock was up about 18% at the end of trading the day the acquisition was announced.The Home Depot said

The development and adoption of business transaction standards are about best practice business processes. The implementation of standards, on the other hand, is boring and confusing. That’s been part of the problem in getting standards off the ground in industrial channels, where there is a high degree of fragmentation. A summit meeting on standards this

channels because of increased visibility. While this blockbuster deal shifts the competitive landscape dramatically for a few product channels immediately, and longer term potential threats elsewhere in other product sectors, it may offer some potential benefits in the near-term for those in search of an exit strategy.Rising CostsHealth insurance costs continue to be a headache

Forecasts for 2006 show overall construction will slow with an increase of 3 percent compared with the 8 percent increase seen last year. Top growth markets for the coming year include institutional, commercial and manufacturing construction.McGraw-Hill Construction/Dodge, an economic engine that generates monthly construction starts data for the industry, predicts an overall increase of 3

1.3%The capital equipment index advanced 1.3 percent in 2005, after climbing 2.4 percent in 2004. In December, the capital equipment index advanced 0.1 percent after a similar decline in November. The indexes for metal-cutting machine tools and for mining machinery and equipment turned down in December. Prices for agricultural machinery and equipment, as well as

href=”/pub/1_1/breaking-news/2952-1.html”>More … >MSC Industrial Direct Co., Melville, NY, a distributor of MRO supplies to industrial customers in the U.S., reported its earnings were up 12.4% in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2006. Profit was up 22.9%. For the first quarter of fiscal 2006, net sales rose to $295.9 million from net sales of

YOUR PRESENTER: Bruce Merrifield, Merrifield Consulting GroupHow can you turn the art of innovation into a systematic science to generate new streams of profit? To avoid repeating the past, what experiments will you try in 2006 to stimulate more effective innovation management? For those in independent wholesale distribution channels, the days of making lots of

Monomoy Capital Partners LLC, New York, NY, has acquired Barjan Products LLC, a $140 million distributor of consumer products to travel centers, truck stops and convenience stores. Monomoy paid $20 million in cash and assumed liabilities.In an unusual transaction structure, Monomoy acquired Barjan’s assets directly from a syndicate of 13 banks led by General Electric

November 2005 U.S. machine tool consumption was up 8.3% year-to-date compared with 2004, with a year-to-date total of $2,766.59 million. Machine tool consumption totaled $245.04 million in November, according to the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association and the Association for Manufacturing Technology. This total was down 2.5% from October 2005 and down 6.9% from the

Kennametal Inc., Latrobe, PA, has acquired a European supplier of ECM (Electro Chemical Machining) technologies and solutions VMB, Diva-Tec and VMB Entgrattechnik. The German company will be combined with Kennametal’s ExtrudeHone ECM group. Kennametal Inc. is a $2.3 billion global supplier of tooling, engineered components and advanced materials consumed in production processes. ExtrudeHone, a supplier of engineered

Maxcor Inc., New York, NY, announced that it will buy the Ex-Cell-O group of companies from IWKA. The acquisition will expand Maxcor’s portfolio to 11.Ex-Cell-O, a global producer of machine tools and systems, specializes in manufacturing solutions for automotive chassis and powertrain components. The acquisition includes operations in five countries Germany, U.S.A., U.K., France and