July 25, 2011 - Modern Distribution Management

July 25, 2011

United Stationers Sales Up 2.9% in Second Quarter

Strong growth in industrial supplies and janitorial/breakroom were partially offset by declines in technology and furniture.

United Stationers Sales Up 2.9% in Second Quarter Read More »

Wolseley Agrees to Sell UK-based Build Center to Saint-Gobain

Wolseley and Saint-Gobain have also entered negotiations for the sale of Brossette, Wolseley’s plumbing and heating distribution business in France.

Wolseley Agrees to Sell UK-based Build Center to Saint-Gobain Read More »

Download this Issue in pdf: July 25, 2011

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Download this Issue in pdf: July 25, 2011 Read More »

Price vs. Value: How Distributors Position Their Businesses – Part 1

When it comes to positioning and messaging, the overwhelming majority of distributors in a recent MDM survey have three things in common:

About 90 percent of distributors believe that they deliver more value than their competitors for a comparable price.

More than 88 percent of distributors place a large emphasis in their messaging on a handful of features: product selection, availability, speed of delivery, pre-sales technical support and professional sales representatives. If everybody is messaging on the same items, it means that nobody is really differentiating.

Nearly 70 percent of distributors use informal methods for positioning and messaging.

This article, the first in a two-part series, explains why distributors hold this belief about their value and shows how they can develop differentiated messaging around a broader set of features.

Price vs. Value: How Distributors Position Their Businesses – Part 1 Read More »

2Q MDM-Baird Benchmarking Survey: Positive Trend Continues

Robert W. Baird & Co., in partnership with Modern Distribution Management, conducted a survey of nearly 600 distributors and manufacturers to gauge business trends and the outlook for the distribution industry in diverse sectors. Here is a summary of second-quarter results.

On average, respondents to the latest quarterly MDM/Baird survey said second-quarter revenues were up 9.7 percent year-over-year. In the first-quarter survey, respondents indicated …

2Q MDM-Baird Benchmarking Survey: Positive Trend Continues Read More »

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