MDM spoke with Seth Erickson, vice president of product merchandising for Grainger, about the $6.4 billion facilities maintenance distributor’s product expansion and private label strategies.

Chicago-based Grainger continues to add product to its portfolio, a long-term strategy to provide one-stop shopping for its customers. The strategy, says Seth Erickson, vice president of product merchandising, is driven by customer requests. 

We have found that in MRO efficiency is king, and the more efficient we can make our customers, the more valuable we are to them,” Erickson says.

In fact, he says that as the economy slows, distributors and their customers must become more efficient and strategically reduce costs by consolidating purchases. “We …