Product Data is More Than Back Office and Websites

Back almost 30 years ago when the original 20 distributors and 20 manufacturers came together to form IDEA, the goal was to reduce operating costs, which was defined as reducing errors in data when it was communicated between the two

Featured
More INSIGHTS

ABB Rep Nexus Power Plans for PE-Powered Growth

Nexus Power, an independent electrical manufacturer representative that covers 11 western states and serves the industrial, construction, and utility markets received a “strategic” investment from Madison River Capital, a private equity firm. This is MRC’s first investment in the independent

Prysmian Talks to Atkore … Done. Sold $3.8b Deal?

Back in June Atkore settled its legal issues and  The reason for the question is: Bill Waltz announced his retirement last year, after starting a succession process. The company announced it was going through a strategic review and then asked

Signify Q2 Earnings … Nebulous with a Cloudy Outlook

I was reading the Signify Q2 earnings report and was, quite frankly, confused. The company had just come off its Capital Markets Day where it is trying to communicate its strategy and, presumably, sway analysts that it is a good

Rexel North America Carries the Day in 1st Half

Rexel opened the second half of 2026 with a clear message: North America—especially the U.S.—is the company’s growth engine, even as tariffs, commodity inflation, and macro uncertainty pressure margins and demand across the broader distribution landscape. Some key highlights from their

More

Research & Resources

Energy Transition Projects – Powering Opportunity

For years we’ve heard about the need for grid modernization and once of the concerns regarding the growth of data centers is power generation. Industrial factories also play into this. Power generation construction, and subsequent maintenance, is, and will, represent

Without Data Centers, Is There a Construction Recession?

Recently I saw two news stories that got me wondering. The first was New York State’s moratorium on data center construction. The second was a county here in North Carolina that also implemented a moratorium, and the newscast went on

Q2 Lighting. There is a Pulse plus Acuity and Signify Share

The lighting industry continued to undergo much change in Q2. Aside from a number of small manufacturer acquisitions / mergers, lighting agents merging, and the final “implosion” of Cree Lighting, we also had LEDucation, Signify’s Capital Markets Day, Acuity’s earnings

Economic Cluster Mapping Leverages and Accelerates Sales

As manufacturers and distributors seek areas for growth as well as beginning their 2027 planning (yes, there are manufacturers looking this far ahead), Chris Sokoll from DISC shares an idea called “economic clustering” and highlights how this complementary market approach

What’s Going on with Wire?

Recently Chris Sokoll (from DISC) and I were talking about copper, which led to a discussing the wire / cable market. We all know some of the dynamics: Raw material cost fluctuations, which have resulted in an increase. Tariff dynamics

More

Supplier News

nVent’s 2H 2026 Results Driven by … Data Centers

nVent announced their results for 2Q 2026 on July 31. They reported record quarterly sales of $1.5 billion, up 53%, and 47% organically, and adjusted operating income was $323 million, up 61%, riding a historic data‑center boom while simultaneously navigating

Savoy House – Supporting Distributors, Joins NAED

Last month NAED announced Savoy House as a new manufacturer member. While I know none of us can know every manufacturer that serves the industry, this one piqued my interest. Merrimack Group, an M&A firm specializing in the lighting space,

More