News
Breaking news in Wholesale Distribution
Grainger, Chicago, IL, industrial distributor, announced its Lab Safety Supply subsidiary has acquired McFeely’s Square Drive Screws, Lynchburg, VA. McFeely’s, with sales of $9 million in 2006, is a business-to-business direct marketer of specialty fasteners, hardware and tools for the professional woodworking industry.
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This acquisition will enable LSS to further penetrate the woodworking and construction markets,” said Chairman and CEO Richard Keyser.
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McFeely’s will be marketed as an independent brand by LSS. It serves more than 70,000 customers including woodworkers, handymen, home improvement professionals, construction companies and cabinet makers.
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Grainger had 2006 sales of $5.9 billion. It has 600 branches, 18 distribution centers …
Despite a soft first quarter, the U.S. economy should gradually improve through the end of the year, according to the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI Quarterly Industrial Outlook, a report that analyzes 27 major industries.
Manufacturing industrial production expanded at a 0.9 percent annual rate in the first quarter 2007, but the MAPI forecast envisions an improved 3 percent growth rate in the second quarter.  ; For the year as a whole, though, the report predicts that manufacturing production growth will decelerate from the 4.7 percent recorded in 2006 to 2.1 percent growth in 2007, before rebounding to 3.3 percent growth in 2008.
The manufacturing inventory correction is over, the inexplicable decline in exports has passed, the January 1, 2007, EPA diesel …
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 0.6% in the first quarter 2007, according to preliminary estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The estimate is based on more complete source data than advance data released last month, when the increase was estimated at 1.3%.
In the fourth quarter, real GDP increased 2.5%.
The increase in GDP was offset by negative contributions from private inventory investment, residential fixed investment and federal government spending. Imports, a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, …
Revealing the profit challenges and opportunities in the power transmission/motion control industry, a recent report from the Power Transmission Distributors Association supports forecasts made by PTDA members in late 2005 of moderate growth in sales with no change in gross margins in 2006.
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The Power Transmission Distributors Association announced the results of its 2007 PT Distributor Performance Report, based on 2006 data.
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When asked in October 2005 to forecast sales for 2006, 44% of distributor respondents indicated that they expected sales to increase between 5% and 9.9%. The actual sales growth rate for a typical PTDA distributor, as reported in the 2007 PT Distributor Performance Report, fell right in the middle of that range, with sales growth in 2006 …
Fletcher Building Limited, Auckland, New Zealand, has acquired Formica Corporation, Cincinnati, OH, for $700 million. Fletcher is a publicly traded material and construction company with revenues of US$4 billion.
The company has five operating units: Laminates & Panels, Building Products, Steel, Infrastructure and Distribution.
Formica will retain the South America operations and certain real estate in California.
Formica has 14 manufacturing and 33 distribution facilities across Asia, Europe and North America.
In the near term, Formica will be structured as a business unit within the Fletcher Building Laminates & Panels division. Frank Riddick will remain as president and CEO of Formica and the management team will remain with the …
Canadian sawmill operations are suffering thanks to the recent downturn in residential construction in the U.S.
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Calling the recent downturn the worst this industry has seen in decades,” Canfor Corporation, Vancouver, BC, Canada, announced it would close its Mackenzie sawmill indefinitely once the remaining log inventory at the facility has been processed.
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The move is part of a program to reduce costs to help the company weather the market downturn. Canfor is a forest products company with 33 facilities in Canada and the U.S. It is a producer of softwood lumber, and produces oriented strand board, plywood, remanufactured lumber products and specialized wood products.
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Home Channel News reported that Federated Co-operatives, which serves …
A Houston, TX, investor who alleged that private investment firm Key Principal Partners, LLC and corporate parent Key Corp. secretly cut him out of a 2003 deal to acquire one of Hawaii’s largest lumber suppliers has won a $36.5 million jury verdict against the companies.
A Honolulu circuit court jury found late Wednesday that the Key defendants breached their fiduciary duties, intentionally interfered in investor Richard R. Foreman’s attempts to acquire Honsador Lumber Corp, and violated Hawaii’s unfair competition statute.
Foreman alleged that he and a group of investors that included Key Principal Partners, LLC formed a partnership in 2003 to buy Honsador for $28 million. According to the lawsuit, Key wrongfully withdrew from the partnership and then secretly …
Columbus McKinnon Corporation, Amherst, NY, manufacturer and marketer of material handling products, reported sales for its fiscal year 2007 ended on March 31, 2007, were $589.8 million, up 6.1%. Sales in the fourth quarter were 4156.9 million, up 6.8% from the year-ago period.
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Net income for fiscal 2007 was $34.1 million, compared with $59.8 million for fiscal 2006.
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Profit in the fourth quarter was $11.1 million, compared with $47.8 million in the same period a year ago. Profit in fiscal …
Sun Capital Partners, Inc., Boca Raton, FL, private investment firm announced that one of its affiliates has acquired the automotive OEM fuel and fluid handling operations of Mark IV Industries, Inc., Amherst, NY/Airasca, Italy, which will operate under the name, Fluid Routing Solutions, Inc.
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FRS designs and manufactures highly-engineered fluid and fuel handling systems from six facilities in Florida, Michigan, South Carolina, Tennessee and Quebec. Products are sold to original equipment automotive manufacturers serving customers in North America, Europe, South America, Asia and the Pacific regions.
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Fuel system products include fuel filler assemblies, evaporation canisters, and coolant hoses primarily for original equipment channels. Fluid handling …
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