News
Breaking news in Wholesale Distribution
NESCO, Canton, MA, a full-service electrical distributor serving electrical contractors, national retail accounts, commercial and industrial companies, and institutional accounts, has acquired Yankee Electric Supply.
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Yankee Electric Supply is headquartered in Winooski, VT, with branch locations in Winooski and Morrisville, VT, and in Lebanon and Woodsville, NH. Both Vermont locations also have a Lighting Showroom. Yankee Electric Supply will continue to operate under its name as A Division of NESCO, Needham Electric Supply.
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“For the past year, NESCO has been actively researching opportunities to expand into northern New England,” stated Joseph A. Cincotta, CEO of NESCO.
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NESCO and Yankee together will have 12 locations throughout the New …
SKF, Stockholm, Sweden, reported sales grew 11% in the second quarter 2007.
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Sales were strongest in the Industrial Division and Service Division, as well as strong in the Automotive Division. SKF saw better sales growth in Europe, Asia and Latin America than in North America.
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The manufacturer expects stronger demand for its products in the third quarter 2007, especially in Europe and Latin America. Demand is expected to be relatively unchanged in North …
Wolseley plc has reported it will close 24 more Stock Building Supply branches, primarily in the Midwest. The closures include a 370 headcount reduction.
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The announcement comes after closing 22 branches and reducing headcount by about 4,500 in the past year, or a quarter of total employees.
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Wolseley reported sales at Stock were down nearly 15% in the first 11 months of the fiscal year; commodity price deflation caused revenues to decline a further 10%. Profit was down two-thirds.
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Lumber and structural panel prices, when combined, account for 45% of Stock’s revenues; they have fallen by 21% and 27%, respectively.
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Stock’s results were offset by strong organic growth in the U.S. plumbing and heating business, improved performance …
ACR Group, Inc., Houston, TX, distributor of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment and supplies, reported profit dropped more than 50% in the first quarter ended May 31, 2007. Sales were down 4% to $59.5 million.
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ACR, which just agreed to be purchased by HVAC distributor Watsco, said the year-over-year decline in revenue and profitability was attributable to a weakening in key geographies, including Florida and Nevada, with high exposure to residential new construction end-markets. ACR also blamed the slow results on cooler- than-normal weather conditions.
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ACR had more than $240 million in annual sales in …
After a slight decrease in April, manufacturing shipments in Canada remained virtually unchanged in May (-0.1%) at  ; $49.7  ; billion. Manufacturing shipments had trended slowly downwards throughout most of  ; 2006, before posting a strong first quarter in  ; 2007.
Manufacturers continued to face several challenges during May. The Canadian dollar appreciated significantly against its American counterpart, reaching a 30-year high by the end of May. In addition, the Labour Force Survey reported a  ; 0.6% drop in manufacturing employment during the month, a loss of  ; 12,300  ; jobs.
Despite these challenges, the volume of manufacturing shipments, using constant dollars, rose  ; 0.4% to  ; $45.5  ; billion. After increasing in seven …
Industrial production rose 0.5 percent in June after a decrease of 0.1 percent in May. At 113.4 percent of its 2002 average in June, total industrial production was 1.4 percent above its year-earlier level.
Manufacturing output moved up 0.6 percent in June; excluding motor vehicles and parts, factory output increased 0.4 percent after having been unchanged in May. In June, the output indexes for mining and utilities registered gains of 0.5 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.
For the second quarter as a whole, total industrial production advanced at an annual rate of 2.9 percent after an increase of 1.1 percent in the first quarter.
Capacity utilization for total industry moved up to 81.7 percent in June; the rate was 0.6 percentage point below its …
The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods decreased 0.2 percent in June, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported. This decline followed advances of 0.9 percent in May and 0.7 percent in April. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by producers of intermediate goods rose 0.5 percent in June after increasing 1.1 percent in the prior month, and the crude goods index moved up 0.3 percent following a 2.0-percent advance in May.
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Among prices for finished goods, the index for energy goods fell 1.1 percent in June after rising 4.1 percent in May. Prices for consumer foods decreased 0.8 percent following a 0.2-percent decline in the previous month. By contrast, slightly counteracting the downturn in finished goods …
Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation, Cleveland, OH, reported sales of $3.25 billion in second quarter 2007, up 4% over the same period a year ago. Profit was $246 million, a decrease of 3%.
End markets were reported to have declined by 4%, due principally to the anticipated decline in the NAFTA heavy-duty truck market.
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The manufacturer reported slightly stronger growth in the electrical markets, offset by weaker-than-anticipated conditions in the North American hydraulics markets.
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Eaton has closed seven acquisitions in the first half of the year, with the majority of acquisition spending in aerospace and electrical power quality.
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Business Segment Results
Second quarter sales for the Electrical …
Grainger, Chicago, IL, reported sales of $1.6 billion for the second quarter ended June 30, 2007, up 8% versus the same period a year ago. Profit was up 12%.
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For the six months ended June 30, 2007, sales were $3.1 billion, up 8%, and profit up 15%.
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U.S., Mexico
Sales in this segment, which includes branch-based businesses in the U.S., Mexico and China, increased 8% in the second quarter. Of the 8% growth, an estimated 5 percentage points came from the company’s two growth initiatives in the U.S., market expansion and product line expansion.
Sales growth was reduced by 1 percentage point due to the continued wind-down of low margin contracts with integrated-supply customers as the company exits the remaining contracts throughout …
This week has seen a good number of large and small acquisitions in the distribution and manufacturing world, along with an interesting move by cutting-tool supplier Kennametal, a change in the tech landscape, and a not-often-seen move by industrial/PVF distributors McJunkin and Red Man Tool and Supply.
McJunkin and Red Man have announced a merger of equals,” which means they will form one company with close to $3 billion in annual sales, but the CEOs will share leadership and the new company will have two headquarters (story).
According to Investopedia, a site I frequent, a merger of equals is …
