News
Breaking news in Wholesale Distribution
3M, St. Paul, MN, has acquired the Rite-Lok global industrial adhesives product line from Chemence Inc., a specialty chemical company that manufactures consumer and industrial adhesives.
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The line includes anaerobic threadlockers, retaining compounds, gasket makers, thread sealants, structural adhesives, and specialty cyanoacrylate instant adhesives for industrial use such as metal bonding, plastics and rubber. The line also includes high-temperature, low-odor industrial adhesives and rubber-toughened flexible adhesives.
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More Breaking …
WESCO International Inc., Pittsburgh, PA, reports sales increased 20.3% to $5.32 billion, compared with $4.4 billion in 2005. Profit for the year was $217 million, double the profit of last year.
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The electrical distributor reported sales of $1.37 billion for the fourth quarter 2006, an increase of 11.3% over the same period last year. Profit was $58 million versus $40 million in the prior-year quarter.
More Breaking …
W.W. Grainger, Chicago, IL, distributor of facilities maintenance supplies, has released its updated 2007 catalog with more than 138,000 MRO products, an increase of 23,000 over last year.
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Last year, the distributor increased its catalog by 40%, adding 39,000 new products.
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As planned, for 2007 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.
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The company expects incremental sales from its ongoing product expansion to account for 1 to 2 percentage points of its growth in …
Danaher Corporation, Washington, D.C., reported sales for 2006 were $9.5 billion compared to $7.98 billion in 2005, an increase of 20%. Profit was $1.1 billion for fiscal 2006, up 25% over last year.
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Sales in the fourth quarter was $2.6 billion, an increase of 17.5% from fourth quarter 2005. Profit for the fourth quarter was $323.7 million, a 28.5% increase.
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The company also announced it has expanded its reporting to four segments. The four segments are Medical Technologies, Professional Instrumentation, Industrial Technologies and Tools and Components. The Medical Technologies business, previously included within the Professional Instrumentation segment, will now stand alone as its own reporting segment. Professional …
W.W. Grainger reported sales of $5.9 billion for fiscal 2006, up 6% versus 2005, and 7% on a daily basis. Profit for the year increased 11% to $383 million, as compared with $346 million in 2005.
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Sales in the fourth quarter were $1.5 billion, up 5% from the prior-year fourth quarter. Daily sales increased 5% in October, 6% in November and 5% in December. Income was $99 million, down 5% from last year.
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In 2006, Grainger installed SAP across most of the U.S. branch-based business.
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Branch-Based Segment
Sales in this segment in the U.S., Mexico and China, increased 5% in the fourth quarter. Of the 5% growth, an estimated 3 percentage points came from the company’s two growth initiatives in the U.S., market …
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This table highlights key financial metrics and trading multiples for 30 publicly traded distributors in the industrial and building products industries. Download the pdf in this article to see the data. Also find graphic illustrating median EBIDTA multiples for the same distribution companies.
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These materials,  ; prepared by Robert W. Baird & Co. for MDM are for informational purposes …
Click here for charts showing inflation by product group – 16 products, including tools, fasteners, machinery/equipment, fluid power, and others, are displayed in this document.
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This is an overview of wholesale price inflation trends in the past year for commodities in industrial and construction channels. Overall, core inflation rose 1.1 percent in 2006 -a significant slowdown from 2005. But the Federal Reserve still sees inflation as a potential threat in the next year, albeit at lower levels.
Thanks to a slowdown in energy price increases, wholesale prices rose 1.1 percent in 2006, in contrast to the 5.4 percent rise in 2005, the Bureau of …
Apollo Management, which also recently invested in Rexnord, has made an investment in Bradco Supply Corp., a roofing distributor based in Avenel, NJ. Bradco has more than 150 branches in the U.S. Bradco founder Barry Segal says the investment is a great opportunity to significantly grow the company.” More …
Global fastener distributor The Wurth Group, based in Germany, recorded 12 percent sales growth in fiscal 2006 to 7.74 billion euro, or US$9.9 billion. Outside of Germany, sales increased by 11.8 percent to 4.62 billion euro, or US$5.96 billion. Profit grew by 16.5 percent overall. <a href="/pub/1_1/breaking-news/3616-1.html" ...
As the lead article in this issue illustrates, the inflation threat largely driven in 2005 by energy price hikes has moderated, particularly the last few months of the year. Wholesale prices rose 1.1 percent in 2006, compared to 5.4 percent in 2005. But wholesale prices except food and energy – the core inflation rate – moved up 2 percent in 2006 following a 1.4 percent gain in 2005.
Distributors need to look more closely at the stats in their own sectors, as there are a lot of mixed signals. Materials for durable manufacturing increased 13 percent in 2006; prices for materials/components for construction increased 4.3 percent.
But as these pages pointed out (Adam Fein article in Nov. 10, 2006 MDM), distributors really need to watch steroid revenue growth produced …
