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Robert W. Baird & Co., in partnership with Modern Distribution Management, conducted a survey of more than 500 distributors and manufacturers to gauge business trends and the outlook for the distribution industry in diverse sectors. Here is a summary of fourth-quarter results and distributor and manufacturer expectations for 2013.
Even with uncertainty and a disruptive mid-week holiday schedule, respondents to the fourth-quarter 2012 MDM/Baird Distribution Survey passed the revenue expectations they had in the third-quarter survey. Fourth-quarter revenues were up a modest 3 percent overall for respondents, slightly higher than the forecast 2.4 percent growth. All segments represented in the survey reported positive growth in the quarter.
Respondents expect revenues to grow 3.4 percent in first quarter 2013 and raised full-year expectations to …
I’ve been a hockey fan since the 1960s. But someone has to say it: Stop paying attention to Wayne Gretzky’s advice about skating to where the puck will be. It’s been beaten to death countless times by consultants and motivational speakers.
For a long time, it worked well to follow the Great One’s advice. Good distribution companies played where the puck was – they executed well in established markets. Great distribution companies could see where the puck was going – they dedicated resources to find and monetize emerging growth opportunities.
Growth is harder to come by today; market …
Brady Industries, Las Vegas, NV, a janitorial supply distributor, has acquired Boulder Creek Supply, a Boise, ID-based company.
Boulder Creek was founded in 1999. With this acquisition, Brady Industries expands its geographic footprint to seven locations with plans for further expansion in 2007.
"The Boise acquisition compliments our regional coverage of the Idaho market, said Travis Brady, president of Brady Industries. "With branches in Salt Lake City and Idaho Falls, this acquisition strengthens our regional service capabilities."
Brady Industries supplies janitorial supplies and commercial cleaning equipment and service in the Las Vegas market. Brady has expanded its offering to include a complete warewash product line along with its already extensive kitchen cleaning and sanitation program.
The Di-Dro Manifold System product line is complementary to Associated Spring's Nitrogen Gas Spring Manifold System product line. The addition of the Di-Dro Manifold System product line expands the company's reach in high-quality gas springs for use in diverse industrial applications requiring high force and/or compact dimensions. Applications range from tool and die manufacturers, to industrial robots, to dump trucks to waste compressors around the world.
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Stockholm, Sweden-based AxIndustries has acquired AB Sverull, a distributor of bearings, transmissions and seals, also based in Sweden.
Sverull has annual sales of SEK 125 million with more than 45 employees  ; at offices in five cities.
After the acquisition, AxIndustries will have annual sales of more than SEK 600 million in bearings, transmissions and seals. It has mroe than SEK 1.1 billion in sales overall. AxIndustries is a part of Axel Johnson International.
Sverull will continue to be run as an independent company in AxIndustries.
Altra Holdings, Inc., Quincy, MA, has agreed to buy power-transmission product manufacturer TB Wood's Corporation, Chambersburg, PA, for $24.80 a share.
TB Wood's, with sales of $118.9 million in 2006, will become a fully owned subsidiary of Altra.
“TB Wood's is a great fit with the existing Altra platforms and meets our disciplined acquisition philosophy perfectly, said Michael L. Hurt, chairman and CEO of Altra. “The acquisition of TB Wood's broadens our growing coupling product line and adds engineered belted drive systems as well as adjustable speed electronic drives and systems to our product portfolio."
TB Wood's offering of elastomeric couplings fills a gap for Altra and will expand engineered coupling revenues by more than 50%. ...
Saint-Gobain's Building Distribution Sector has acquired Galvano Groothandel BV (the Netherlands), Schulte Tiefbau (Germany) and four companies belonging to the Norman group (Channel Isles).
Galvano Groothandel BV is a plumbing-heating wholesaler in the Netherlands. With estimated sales of 84 million euros in 2006, the company has 177 employees. Through this acquisition, Saint-Gobain Building Distribution establishes a foothold on the Dutch distribution market for plumbing-heating products and strengthens its European Division dedicated to this market.
Germany's specialist civil engineering distributor, Schulte Tiefbau operates 13 branches specializing in water supply. With sales of 62 million euros ...
Distributors, to say the least, are facing more uncertainty now than in recent memory.
In a recent MDM Webcast, Manage the Panic of 2009: New Rules for New Economic Realities," Evergreen Consulting's Brent Grover says we are now seeing the worst business conditions in his decades of work in the industry.
"Distributors are not accustomed to dealing with this uncertainty," he told participants. "Or the speed of decline in demand and prices."
Now more than ever leaders need to avoid hunkering down, and instead strategically prepare their companies for the upswing. When the downturn does reverse course, fewer companies will emerge, ...
