News
Breaking news in Wholesale Distribution
According to recent news reports, St. Gobain has put its abrasives unit up for sale. Forbes reported that AFX News carried the news, but St. Gobain would not comment on the possible sale.
St. Gobain’s abrasives unit had 2005 sales of 1.4 billion euro, 4% of the Group’s total.
The Home Depot, Atlanta, GA, has announced it will evaluate strategic alternatives” for its HD Supply business, including a possible sale, spin or initial public offering of the business.
  ;
In a release, the company said a transaction is not definite. HD has retained Lehman Brothers as its financial advisor. HD said it would not disclose further developments with respect to HD Supply unless the board of directors has approved a definite transaction.
  ;
“Today’s announcement is a continuation of the strategic review we did in November,” said CEO Frank Blake. “We are undertaking this action today because of our desire to increase our …
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 …
A  ; Purdue University research project by Steve Epner is trying to understand key reasons why distributors adopt technology. Please take this brief survey now — less than five minutes to complete. Your participation is completely confidential and makes a difference in the quality of the results. Only summary data will be published. Watch MDM for results in June! Please invite other distributors you know to participate by using the “Forward this e-mail link above. The more responses we have, the more we can learn. Thank you!
Take the survey …
For a printable pdf of these statistics, click here. …
Abrasives represented a market in 2006 of $2.76 billion, according to estimates by Industrial Market Information, Minneapolis.
These charts show the top ten industries, by SIC code, consuming these products; and the 2006 end-user consumption of these groups sorted by the nine government market regions.
Click on Related Document below to view a pdf of the chart and end-user consumption by region.
…Modern Distribution Management’s December Inflation Index, which measures a cross-section of industrial supplies, was up 0.23% from the previous month, and up 3.47% from December 2005.
Summary of  ; MDM Inflation Index for the past 12 months:
December 2006 Index  ; 267.1
November 2006 Index 266.5
October 2006 Index 265.9
September 2006 Index 265.6
August 2006 Index 265.2
July 2006 Index 264.0
June 2006 Index 263.0
May 2006 Index 262.1
April 2006 Index 262.1
March 2006 Index 262.1
Febuary 2006 Index 261.2
January 2006 Index 260.2
December 2005 Index 258.1
Please click below on Related Document to view a print-ready pdf of the  ; MDM Inflation Index for December 2006, listing the ten …
Home Depot will consider strategic alternatives for its HD Supply unit, including a sale, spinoff or initial public offering. Nothing is definite. Today’s announcement is a continuation of the strategic review we did in November,” said CEO Frank Blake. “We are undertaking this action today because of our desire to increase our focus on our retail business. With annual revenues of $12 billion, HD Supply is a healthy, growing and vibrant business and we are undertaking this evaluation to determine whether there are strategic alternatives with respect to HD Supply that would optimize shareholder value.” HD said it would not announce updates to its review unless the board of directors approves a definite transaction …
As reported by The New York Times this week, it did not take long for private equity firms to call the new HD CEO and wave some serious money (some analysts estimated $9 billion for a division doing about $12B in revenue in 2006) to take the HD Supply distraction off his hands. That is how the mainstream media and some analysts are painting it.
At one level, it wasn’t surprising based on the departure of the chief exec last month and the arrival on the board of an activist investor none too happy with the company’s wholesale foray into distribution.
For many independent distributors with some memory, it sounds eerily like another lesson in the properties of oil and water. There have been multiple failures of manufacturers trying to run profitable distribution …
Prices charged by manufacturers in Canada, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI), were up  ; 1.4 percent in December from the month before thanks to a significant increase in prices for petroleum and coal products, primary metal products, and motor vehicles. Higher prices were observed in the majority of product groups.
On a 12-month basis, the IPPI rose by  ; 3.6 percent, a higher rate of growth than the year-over-year increase recorded between September and November. The upward pressure came mainly from higher prices for primary metal products, pulp and paper products as well as fruit, vegetables and feed products.
Petroleum, Coal Drive Prices
On a month-over-month basis, manufacturers’ prices were driven by …
