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Breaking news in Wholesale Distribution
Actuant Corporation, Milwaukee, WI, has acquired BH Electronics, Munford, TN, for $30 million in cash.
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BHE produces dashboard control panels and electronic assembly systems, primarily for the marine market. BHE generated $35 million in sales in 2006, and has 450 employees.
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BHE will operate within Actuant’s Electrical Segment. Actuant has sale of over $1.4 …
Pro-Build Holdings, Denver, CO, supplier of building materials to professional contractors, has purchased Crosslin Supply Company, a distributor of lumber, millwork and building products in the greater Nashville, TN, market.
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Crosslin, with facilities in Franklin, Spring Hill and Smyrna, TN, is a family-owned and operated business.
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The team at Crosslin Supply will be a great addition to our existing team in the Nashville area,” said Buddy Ables, president, Pro-Build East Region. “Nationally, Nashville ranks in the top 20 markets with respect to permit activity. This acquisition will allow us to better serve our new and existing customers by expanding our network of facilities and …
NetSuite Inc., San Mateo, CA, a vendor of on-demand, integrated business management application suites that provide ERP, CRM and e-commerce functionality for small and medium-sized businesses and divisions of large businesses, has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on its intended initial public offering of its common stock.
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The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been …
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in June for the fifth consecutive month, while the overall economy grew for the 68th consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business.  ;
Following a weak first quarter, the manufacturing sector rebounded in a strong fashion during the second quarter. In June, manufacturing expanded at its fastest pace since April 2006 when the PMI Index registered 56.9. This performance appears sustainable in the third quarter due to the current strength in New Orders and Production.  ;
The 12 industries reporting growth in June & mdash; listed in order & mdash; are: Petroleum & Coal Products; Chemical Products; Plastics & Rubber Products; Food, Beverage …
Salem, OR-based Ultratape Industries Inc., a manufacturer of adhesive tapes used in cleanroom environments, has been sold to Hayward, CA-based Delphon Industries LLC.
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Ultratape produces pressure sensitive adhesive tapes for use in semiconductor cleanrooms, labs, pharmaceutical manufacturing and other particle-free and static-free environments. …
Carrier Corp. has agreed to buy E.B. Ward & Company/Valair, a Carrier distributor of residential, light commercial and commercial products. Carrier, a unit of United Technologies Corp., is a supplier with 200 locations in more than 20 U.S. states and Canada.
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The acquisition of E.B. Ward and Valair will strengthen our rapidly expanding sales and distribution network in California,” said Geraud Darnis, president of Carrier Corp. “This will enable Carrier to serve our customers directly in this large and strategically important market.”
E.B. Ward and Valair, with 140 employees and combined sales of $150 million, serve Carrier customers in Northern California and parts of Nevada.
Carrier Corp., headquartered in Farmington, CT, is a provider of …
The U.S. Supreme Court has made it easier for manufacturers to set minimum resale prices by overturning the per se” illegality of minimum resale price agreements.
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Instead, the Supreme Court ruled that challenges to minimum resale prices will be judged on a case-by-case basis by the “rule of reason,” a more flexible legal doctrine that requires the challenger to prove price-setting was anticompetitive and did economic harm.
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“Per se” was a much stricter enforcement that assumed that minimum price setting agreements were on their face illegal, regardless of circumstances. By changing the judgment from “per se” to “rule of reason,” the Supreme Court has made it more difficult for challengers of the law to win and less risky for manufacturers to set …
Real gross domestic product -the output of goods and services produced by labor and property in the U.S. -increased at an annual rate of 0.7% in the first quarter of 2007, according to final estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  ; In the fourth quarter, real GDP increased 2.5%.
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The GDP estimates released today are based on more complete source data than were available for the preliminary estimates issued last month.  ; In the preliminary estimates, the increase in real GDP was 0.6%.
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The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures and state and local government spending that were partly offset by negative contributions from private inventory investment, …
MSC Industrial Direct Inc., Melville, NY, distributor of MRO supplies to industrial customers throughout the U.S., reported sales of $431 million in third quarter 2007, an increase of 30.7% from the same period a year ago. Sales from the J & L Industrial Supply acquisition accounted for about 74% of the growth.
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Profit in the third quarter 2007 increased 23.6% to $45.8 million, compared with $37 million in the prior-year period.
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For the first nine months of fiscal 2007, sales rose 32.8% to $1.24 billion; J & L represented 72% of this growth. Profit for the first nine months was $126.6 million, an increase of 23.7%.
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MSC reported that the J & L integration was on track. MSC has completed the migration of the distributor to the MSC computer …
Influenced by the strength of the Canadian dollar, prices in Canada for manufactured products declined in May after six consecutive monthly increases. Crude oil pushed down prices for raw materials.
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From April to May, prices charged by manufacturers, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI), registered a  ; 0.5% decline after six consecutive monthly increases. The decrease in prices basically reflects a drop in the prices for motor vehicles and other transportation equipment as well as primary metal products and pulp and paper products.
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However, higher prices for petroleum and coal products tempered the decline in the Industrial Product Price Index.
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On a 12-month basis, the IPPI advanced  ; 3%, a slowdown from the  …
