News
Breaking news in Wholesale Distribution
Release taken from Statistics Canada.  ; All dollars are Canadian.
Canadian manufacturers had a strong March, following a slight increase in factory shipments in February, as previous supply disruptions caused by the rail strike and the refinery fire in Ontario were rectified.
In March, manufacturers shipped goods worth an estimated  ; $50.1  ; billion (Canadian), representing a  ; 2.8% gain over the previous month. For the first quarter, shipments were up  ; 1.0% compared to the fourth quarter of  ; 2006.
Using constant dollars, which take price fluctuations into account, the volume of shipments rose  ; 1.6% to  ; $45.1  ; billion, the fourth increase in five months.<br ...
HeidelbergCement AG, Heidelberg, Germany, has agreed to buy Hanson plc for about & pound; 8 billion (US$15.8 billion). The transaction forms the second largest building materials group worldwide.
  ;
HeidelbergCement is one of the top producers of building materials worldwide, with its core products being cement, ready-mixed concrete and concrete products, aggregates, building materials and other products. It had sales in 2006 of & euro; 9 billion (US$12.2 billion).
  ;
Hanson supplies heavy building materials to the construction industry, with sales of & pound; 4.1 billion (US$7.9 billion) in 2006. Its products fall into two categories: aggregates, which includes crushed rock, sand and gravel, ready-mixed concrete, asphalt and cement-related products; and building …
The Home Depot, Atlanta, GA, reported first-quarter profit of $1 billion, compared with $1.5 billion in the same period in fiscal 2006.
  ;
Sales for the first quarter totaled $21.6 billion, a 0.6% increase from the first quarter of fiscal 2006. Total sales in the retail segment declined 4.3% to $18.5 billion, and comparable store sales declined 7.6%.
Total sales in the HD Supply segment grew by 46% to $3.1 billion, reflecting sales from acquired businesses. Organic sales were down 6.5%.
  ;
The housing market continues to be a challenge, and erratic weather conditions across the United States negatively affected our spring selling season,” said Frank Blake, chairman & CEO.
  ;
Earlier this year Home Depot announced that it was conducting …
March U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $371.1 million, according to AMTDA, the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association and the Association For Manufacturing Technology.
  ;
This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was up 34.9% from February, and up 1.4% from the total of $365.89 million reported for March 2006. With a year-to-date total of $945.27 million, 2007 was up 7.1% compared with 2006.
These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTC program.
  ;
The U.S. Manufacturing Technology Consumption (USMTC) report, jointly compiled by the two trade associations representing the production and distribution of …
The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods increased 0.7 percent in April, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported.  ; This advance followed a 1.0-percent rise in March and a 1.3-percent increase in February.  ; In April, the index for finished goods excluding foods and energy remained unchanged for the second consecutive month.  ; At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by producers of intermediate goods rose 0.9 percent following a 1.0-percent increase a month earlier, and the crude goods index fell 1.5 percent after increasing 3.2 percent in March.
  ;
Among finished goods, prices for consumer foods moved up 0.4 percent in April following a 1.4-percent increase in the previous month, while …
This is the pdf of this issue of Modern Distribution Management. Apply the full $24.95 pay-per-view cost toward an annual subscription (within 30 days of purchase), which includes two issues a month plus access to more than six years of online archives and market data. Call 1-888-742-5060 or email info@mdm.com to …
When a distributor loses focus on its relationships with core customers and suppliers, the company opens a door to competitors, new and old. It’s often not a case of mistreatment as much as benign neglect or not keeping up with shifting needs at the customer.
Increasingly, new competitors from different product sectors have found some good growth in other distributors’back yards with tangential products. And in some cases they can pick up some of the longstanding business that wasn’t in their core by packaging a better value proposition. But too often distributors tee up those opportunities and don’t recognize that it’s happening.
That model is at full force as more cross-channel competition grows, and consolidators look to package as much volume as possible into their …
Industrial Lubricants represented a market in 2006 of $3.2 billion, according to estimates by Industrial Market Information, Minneapolis.
  ;
These charts show the top ten industries, by SIC code, consuming these products; and the 2005 end-user consumption of these groups sorted by the nine government market regions. …
GE Supply will now be named Gexpro. The name change follows the acquisition of GE Supply by Rexel, Paris-based distributor of electrical supplies. Gexpro, a $2.7 billion unit, will continue to operate as an independent Rexel banner in the U.S. More …
Barnes Group Inc., Bristol, CT, has renamed its Associated Spring business segment Barnes Industrial. The Associated Spring brand will remain within the Engineered Springs SBU.  ; More …
DXP Enterprises, Inc. has agreed to buy Delta Process Equipment, Inc., a $23 …
March 2007 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading-day differences but not for price changes, were $346.3 billion, up 1.8 percent from the revised February level and were up 8.4 percent from the March 2006 level. The February preliminary estimate was revised downward $0.6 billion or 0.2 percent. March sales of durable goods were up 2.1 percent from last month and were up 6.6 percent from a year ago. Compared to last month, sales of computer and computer peripheral equipment and supplies were up 6.1 percent and sales of lumber and other construction materials increased 5.9 percent. March sales of nondurable goods were up 1.5 percent (+/-0.7%) from last month and were up 10.1 percent (+/-2.0%) …
