September 25, 2006

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 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

industrial facilities, sometimes described as “tweaks,” constitute “modifications” under the Clean Air Act and therefore subject them to EPA’s NSR permitting process which typically takes more than a year.“Such an interpretation, favored by environmental groups, would expand the scope of the program and impede the ability of manufacturers to innovate and of electric utilities to

Don't introduce all new labeling Don't introduce new ways of formatting (example: show $ sales in 1,000s) Don't change sequence of fields Don't omit information relied on today Use similar terminology, formatting, and ways of presenting data that the users are already used to seeing. Let's buy it.The benefit of an out-of-the-box solution is to

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

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

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%