September 2006

The Timken Company, Canton, OH, announced it would be cutting 700 jobs, or 5% of its Automotive Group employment. The manufacturer blamed the step on worsening conditions in the North American automotive industry. Declines in North American automotive production are expected to negatively impact the company’s overall third-quarter and full-year 2006 results, which continue to benefit […]

Mayer Electric Supply Co., Birmingham, AL, will acquire the distribution operations of Higgins Electric Inc., Dothan, AL.The service, construction, air compressor and motor shop departments of Higgins are not part of the sale, and Higgins will continue those operations, the Birmingham Business Journal reported.Higgins operates in south Alabama, northern Florida and west Georgia. The company

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for August 2006:  Building PermitsPrivately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,722,000. This is 2.3 percent (1.2%) below the revised July rate of 1,763,000 and

July U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $278.47 million, according to AMTDA, the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association and AMT, The Association For Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 14.6% from June but up 26.5% from the total of $220.21 million reported for July 2005. With a

The Home Rubber Company, Trenton, NJ, has acquired Ivanhoe Rubber Company, Tullytown, PA, whose customer base is focused on rubber molders and OEM accounts throughout the country. “Our partnership with Home Rubber makes sense on every level,” says Ivanhoe chief Richard Dobuski. “I’ve concentrated on high-end, highly technical and mill spec compounds for the past 15

Steel service center Worthington Industries, Inc., Columbus, OH, saw sales growth of 12% for the first quarter ended Aug. 31, 2006, with sales of $778.7 million. First quarter 2007 net earnings were $43.2 million, up 52% from the same period last year.OutlookDemand in two of Worthington id=bwanpa5>’s key end markets, commercial construction (especially office buildings)

Facility Solutions Group, a national energy-service company (ESCO), will acquire O.K. Electric Supply Co., Perth Amboy, NJ, a full-line electrical distributor focused on the energy retrofit market on the East Coast. Through its Energy Solutions division, a fully functioning ESCO, the 87-year-old O.K. Electric Supply serves industrial and commercial customers in the New York and New

Global electrical distributor The Rexel Group, Paris, France, has acquired two more distributors in North America. The announcement follows the recent acquisition of GE Supply, GE’s electrical distribution business, which essentially doubled Rexel’s sales in the U.S. Rexel acquired DH Supply, a U.S. distributor of electrical and telecommunications products based in Doraville, GA. With this acquisition,

was widespread, with all three components contributing to the drop. The slowdown in the US housing market (July housing starts in the US hit their lowest level since November 2004) continued to buffet wholesalers of lumber and millwork in July, as the trade group posted a fourth consecutive monthly decline (-6.3%). Wholesalers play a key role

their technology before you buy? Wainbee was able to download software before making a commitment.Wainbee’s Rodger also recommends finding a vendor that will ensure consistency in the set-up of the network. The same person set up the network at all of Wainbee’s branches and offices, except for one and Rodger says that was the only

For the year ended July 31, 2006, UK-based Wolseley plc, global distributor of plumbing and heating products to professional contractors and a supplier of building materials and services, reported annual revenues for the group increased by more than 25% to $25.32 billion and profit rose by 24.7% to $1.57 billion. U.S. operations accounted for 59%

The following case study is excerpted from Driving Growth and Shareholder Value: The Distribution Value Map” by Neil Gholson and Mark Schloegel of Deloitte Consulting LLP and published by the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.A U.S. distributor serving customers in construction, industrial, and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) markets did a few important things very well:Retained business

Modern Distribution Management’s August Inflation Index, which measures a cross-section of industrial supplies, was up 0.47% from the previous month, and up 4.45% from August 2005. Summary of MDM Inflation Index for the past 12 months: August 2006 Index 265.2July 2006 Index 264.0June 2006 Index 263.0May 2006 Index 262.1April 2006 Index 262.1March 2006 Index 262.1Febuary 2006

W.W. Grainger, the North American provider of facility maintenance products, has opened its first facility in China. The Master Branch, in the Shanghai suburb of  Minhang, will initially stock approximately 20,000 products businesses and institutions need to keep their facilities running. Grainger has also recently published a Chinese language catalogue featuring all the products carried in the Master Branch

declining sales are forecast by only 11.6 percent.ABC Supply Co., Inc., distributor of building materials, tools and supplies based in Beloit, WI, will open a new branch in Erlanger, KY, in October. The new location will include a 3,000-square-foot showroom and a 60,000-square-foot warehouse and carry lines of residential and commercial roofing and siding products,

Sales. July 2006 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, were $331.7 billion, up 0.4 percent from the revised June level and were up 12.6 percent from the July 2005 level. The June preliminary estimate was revised downward $0.7 billion or 0.2 percent. July sales of durable goods increased 0.1 percent from

The Timken Company, Canton, OH, has joined with Garlock Sealing Technologies, an EnPro Industries company, to expand its line of industrial seals to include large-bore seals and bearing isolators, beginning in November in the U.S. and Canada.  These products will be available to authorized Timken industrial distributors and are used in applications across a range