News
Breaking news in Wholesale Distribution
Wholesale prices rose 1.1% in all of 2006, in contrast to the 5.4% rise in 2005, the Department of Labor reported. The government attributed the slower rate of advance to the index for finished energy goods, which fell 2% in 2006 after climbing 23.9% a year earlier. Otherwise, wholesale prices except foods and energy moved up 2% in 2006 following a 1.4% gain in 2005.
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At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by intermediate goods producers increased 2.8% in 2006 compared with an 8.6% advance in the preceding year, while the crude goods index declined 2.4% after moving up 21.1% in 2005.
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Wholesale prices rose 0.9% in December, seasonally adjusted. The rise follows a 2% advance in November and a 1.6% decline in October. At the …
Apollo Management, which also recently invested in Rexnord, has made an investment in Bradco Supply Corp., a roofing supply distributor based in Avenel, NJ. Bradco has more than 150 branches in the U.S.
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We are happy for the relationship with Apollo, said founder Barry Segal. In a short period of time we have become comfortable with the chemistry and we see this as a great opportunity to significantly grow the company.”
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Apollo is a private equity, debt and capital markets investor with offices in New York, London and Los Angeles.
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More Breaking …
The Home Channel News reports that more management changes are expected at The Home Depot following CEO Bob Nardelli’s resignation this month.
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Already, Harvey Seegers, president of Home Depot Direct, was replaced by Steve Skinner, who will oversee the online and catalog division. Skinner had worked under Seegers previously.
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John Campi, the senior vice president for global sourcing and vendor management, resigned as well. He will be replaced by Brian Robbins, HCN reported.
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Both Seegers and Campi came over to HD with Nardelli from GE.
When Nardelli left, Joe DeAngelo, HD Supply chief, was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, giving him more retail …
Global fastener distributor The Wurth Group, based in Germany, recorded 12% sales growth in fiscal 2006 to 7.74 billion euro, or US$9.9 billion. Outside of Germany, sales increased by 11.8% to 4.62 billion euro, or US$5.96 billion.
Profit grew by 16.5% overall.
In 2006, Wurth grew its staff by 8.2%, and its sales representatives by 5.6% to 29,020 worldwide.
The Wurth Group also expanded to Mongolia in 2006, bringing the group to 83 countries.
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Wurth Service Supply Reports 28.5% Sales Increase in 2005
More Breaking …
Ferguson has acquired Cal-Steam Supply Inc., a distributor of plumbing products with 10 locations in the San Francisco Bay area. Cal-Steam had sales of $148.6 million in the year ended Dec. 31, 2005.
Ferguson’s parent company, Wolseley, says the acquisition will benefit from its new Stockton, CA, distribution center to be completed later this year.
Ferguson has also acquired Guntersville Fabrication and Sprinkler Co. Inc. and Guntersville Pipe and Supply. Guntersville distributors and fabricates fire protection systems with three locations in the Southeast. It serves Ohio, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana.
Guntersville had sales of $31.5 million in the year ended Oct. 31, 2006.
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Hype and speculation tend to follow an industry consolidator. The announcement last week that Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli was ousted from his position over pay issues and lagging stock gains generated an inordinate amount of buzz. Some even claimed it is a repudiation of the Home Depot model itself and its relatively recent strategy to aggressively grow the wholesale distribution division.
Hardly. All we know versus a week ago is that HD has $210 million less to fund acquisition activities that instead went to Mr. Nardelli’s severance package (Wouldn’t you like to be chastised like that?). Now that will really slow the acquisition pace of HD Supply….
What’s lost in the shock value of the pay deal is that Home Depot’s net income in the most recent quarter, ended …
November U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $335.02 million, according to AMTDA, the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association, and AMT – The Association for Manufacturing Technology.
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This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 12.3% from October, but up 32.7% from the total of $252.38 million reported for November 2005. With a year-to-date total of $3,549.90 million, 2006 was up 29.4% compared with 2005.
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These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTC program.
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Though below the exceptional September peak, the November results continue to show strong purchases of advanced …
Sales
November 2006 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 $331.3 billion, up 1.0% (+/-0.5%) from the revised October level and were up 7.9% (+/-1.2%) from the November 2005 level. The October preliminary estimate was revised upward $0.4 billion or 0.1%. November sales of durable goods increased 1.2% (+/-0.8%) from last month and were up 7.7% (+/-1.8%) from a year ago.  ;
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Compared to last month, sales of motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and supplies were up 5.0% and sales of electrical and electronic goods increased 2.9 %. November sales of nondurable goods were up 0.7% (+/-0.7%) …
Modern Distribution Management’s November Inflation Index, which measures a cross-section of industrial supplies, was up 0.20% from the previous month, and up 4.04% from November 2005.
Summary of  ; MDM Inflation Index for the past 12 months:
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
November 2005 Index  ; 256.1
Please click below on Related Document to view a detailed calculation of the  ; MDM Inflation Index for November 2006, listing the ten …
