November 20, 2008

Grainger to Combine Lab Safety Supply, Industrial Supply Businesses – UPDATED

Companies, Facilities Maintenance (MRO), Free, News, Subscriber Only, Top Distributor Sectors / MDM Staff

Chicago, IL-based Grainger, broad line distributor of facilities maintenance products, will combine its Lab Safety Supply (LSS) and Grainger Industrial Supply businesses, President and CEO James Ryan announced at the distributor’s annual analyst meeting.

Our Lab Safety business has under-performed,” Ryan said during the analyst meeting. “We’ve hit a wall with growth … We are going to take aggressive action to unlock the potential of that business.”

The company says the combined businesses will allow Grainger to leverage volume with suppliers for better pricing, improve product assortment and information, better logistics service for Lab Safety Supply and Grainger customers, and optimize the existing network for better service and cost.

Mike …

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Manufactured Home Market May Be the First to Recover

Building Materials/Construction, Economic Trends, Research & Analytics, Subscriber Only, Top Distributor Sectors / Lindsay Young

Manufactured housing, at least according to one Forbes article, is likely to be a stronger market than homes by the national builders when everything starts to rebound. Why? Because there will be more incentive to buy them. Apparently, the U.S. government will be including them under its favored lending programs and the Federal Housing Administration is increasing loan limits for people buying manufactured homes but not the land underneath.

FHA loans, according to Forbes, have grown popular lately because the loans allow for a low down payment. The agency has gone from backing 2% of U.S. mortgage debt in 2006 to a third of all home loans in 2008, Forbes says.

Read the full article at forbes.com

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Study: Supply Chain Technology Market to Grow 7% Annually in Next 5 Years

Free, Subscriber Only, Technology / Lindsay Young

AMR Research has released a study that estimates the supply chain management technology market will grow 7% annually for the next five years, despite current economic conditions. The market is currently at $6.5 billion. AMR Research says: The supply chain, and the technologies that support it, will play an important role in helping companies deal and thrive in an economy that is going to be quite unlike anything we’ve seen in the post-war era.”

The five major forces at work, and how technology will help, according to AMR:

High inflation – Inflation will force supply chain managers to play an important role in protecting product and company margins through cost control and increased efficiencies in their operations.
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November 20, 2008

Grainger to Combine Lab Safety Supply, Industrial Supply Businesses – UPDATED

Manufactured Home Market May Be the First to Recover

Study: Supply Chain Technology Market to Grow 7% Annually in Next 5 Years

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