For a company to recover from a severe broad-based economic downturn, the markets it serves must also recover or new markets must emerge. But the latest recession is making both a challenge for distributors as the U.S. moves into recovery mode.

“It’s about redefining success in the new marketplace,” says Julia Klein, president and CEO of specialty building products distributor C.H. Briggs, Reading, PA. “An adviser recently said to me, ‘If you’re a C student when the rest of the class is failing, you’re top of the class.’ And I think that’s a great way to look at it today.”

Here’s a look at what distributors MDM spoke to for this report are seeing in their major end-markets as of the first half of 2010. …