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Breaking news in Wholesale Distribution
Hardware and renovation products distributor and retailer RONA, Boucherville, Quebec, has acquired Noble Trade Inc., a plumbing and heating supply wholesaler in Ontario with annual sales of about C$150 million. The purchase price was close to 7X EBITDA, RONA executives said in a conference call.
Noble Trade was created in 1998 with the merger of Trade Plumbing Supplies and Noble Plumbing Supplies. The company has posted average annual sales increases of 27 percent since 1998. Most of that growth was organic, with either new stores or sales growth at existing stores, said Noble President Michael Storfer.
Storfer said Noble sold to RONA because it had resources it needed to grow the business. We thought they were the most entrepreneurial, and would allow us to continue to …
Strategic Distribution will soon shed the costs of public ownership when it sells to Platinum Equity. The two-year decision-making process was explained for shareholders in an SEC filing last month. MDM distills the details in this article.
Competitive pressures, a history of operating losses, limited stock liquidity and trading volume, and the cost of complying with Sarbanes-Oxley all played a part in leading Strategic Distribution to give up the public life and agree to sell to Platinum Equity for $10 a share, or $30 million, last month.
An SEC filing in late January details Strategic’s decision to go private. In addition to selling the company, management also considered a liquidation of Strategic’s assets.
Several suitors took up …
W.W. Grainger, Chicago, IL, has released its updated 2007 catalog with more than 138,000 MRO products, an increase of 23,000 over last year.
Last year, the distributor increased its catalog by 40 percent, adding 39,000 new products.
This year Grainger has added more than 7,000 plumbing products, including high-grade pipes, valves and fittings; 4,000 material handling supplies such as conveyors, hoists and casters; 5,000 fasteners including nuts, bolts and screws; as well as 1,600 security products including locks and hinges.
The company expects incremental sales from its ongoing product expansion to account for 1 to 2 percentage points of its growth in 2007. The new catalog has more than 3,000 pages.
In addition, online Grainger has added new search and …
Adam Fein, president of Pembroke Consulting, identifies four key trends in Facing the Forces of Change: Lead the Way in the Supply Chain, put together every three years by the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors. He described these trends in a presentation at the NAW annual meeting in Washington, D.C., last month.
No. 1: Private Label
Adam Fein, author of Facing the Forces of Change: Lead the Way in the Supply Chain, says the use of private-label products will expand substantially over the next few years.
Benefits of a private-label strategy include capturing the manufacturer’s margin, and the ability to control profit from the top to the bottom of the supply chain. Customer relationships often improve thanks to lower …
Roofing and building product distributor Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc. reported sales in the first quarter 2007 increased 11.9% to $380.2 million in 2007 from the same period a year ago. Organic sales declined 5.5% in 2007 but increased 2.3% on a per business day basis.
The existing market growth rate was still below the high pace of recent quarters and can be attributed, in part, to a significant slowdown in new residential construction, a flattening of inflation and the prior-year extensive re-roofing and reconstruction activities in some of the company’s markets following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A negative sales trend continued into the first month of the second quarter of this year, which may not be reflective of the entire quarter’s sales results due to the …
U.S. Electrical Services, LLC, Exton, PA, has agreed to buy the electrical supply business of Max Goldman, Inc.
Max Goldman, Inc., New Rochelle, NY, has maintained a presence in the Westchester County market for more than 100 years, supplying electrical supplies and lighting fixtures.  ;
US Electrical Services, LLC a Delaware limited liability company with principal offices of operation in Exton, PA., a wholesaler-distributor of electrical products and related services.
Related Links:
US Electrical Services to Buy Hampden/Zimmerman Electric Supply
US Electrical …
Code Hennessy & Simmons LLC, Chicago, IL, has made an equity investment in Mainline Supply Company, Charlotte, NC, a distributor of underground infrastructure products in the Southeast.
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Mainline specializes in underground water, sewer and drainage utility products that transmit potable and non-potable water to treatment plants, storage towers and pumping stations. The customer base includes municipalities, developers and utility contractors in residential, commercial and municipal construction projects.
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Mainline has 1,800 customers in 16 branches in seven states in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
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We are poised for continued growth through geographic expansion, new product introductions and …
The Timken Company, Canton, OH, reported sales of $5 billion for 2006, up 3% from a year ago. Sales exclude Latrobe Steel, which the company sold in December and has accounted for as discontinued operations.
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Timken benefited from strength in global industrial markets, partially offset by declines in demand from the company’s North American automotive customers during the second half of 2006.
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Timken benefited from strong industrial markets in 2006, although lower automotive demand constrained our overall performance, said James W. Griffith, Timken’s president and CEO. More importantly, we advanced sweeping changes across the company, including initiatives to grow in Asia and key industrial markets, investments to differentiate our …
Hardware and renovation products distributor and retailer RONA, Boucherville, Quebec, has acquired Noble Trade Inc., a plumbing and heating supply wholesaler in Ontario with annual sales of about C$150 million. The purchase price was close to 7X EBITDA, RONA executives said in a conference call.
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Noble Trade was created in 1998 with the merger of Trade Plumbing Supplies and Noble Plumbing Supplies. The company has posted average annual sales increases of 27% since 1998. Most of that growth was organic, with either new stores or sales growth at existing stores, said Noble President Michael Storfer.
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Storfer said Noble sold to RONA because it …
84 Lumber Company, Eighty Four, PA, a privately held supplier of building materials and services to professional contractors, posted $3.92 billion in sales for 2006, holding steady from 2005.
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“Despite a tough year in the housing market with starts dramatically down in the second half of the year and material prices depressed, we saw benefits from our three-year strategic growth plan launched in April of 2006. We increased market share and sold more product, which are positive signs as we move into 2007, said 84 Lumber Company President Maggie Hardy Magerko.
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The company is on track to add at least 23 new stores this year in high-growth markets, as well as 11 component manufacturing …
