Rexel Reports

Rexel’s corporate culture contains a strong element of arrogance and elitism that is beginning to play itself out in the distribution channel. Many manufacturers will continue to do business with them simply out of expediency but most will “hold their nose” when they do. Rexel has some very real and dire issues to face and I doubt if the current management character is up to the challenge.

I Agree with above and then add the private branding initiative which is alienating many premium manufacturers. Do you think those manufacturing sales reps are supporting Rexel or taking their business elsewhere? We will continue to hold our nose and do business with Rexel whil supporting true partners elsewhere.

A significant culture change, and must not have had the private label benefits they thought would occur. Chris Hartmann’s timing was perfect (although T&B has its own challenges)

“Oh well, h_t happens” and they helped it to happen.
Unfortunately some of that same attitude has rubbed off on other large national distributor chains. Maybe not in the private labeling arena but in areas where they expect that the manufacturer should pay for ‘marketing plans’ that really don’t generate market share or new business.
I personally think that we distributors need to change our attitude to one of being partners with manufacturers.

Thanks to their French corporate masters,and their drive to force private labeled products on North American users maybe they can retreat to the vineyard and whine.
Most American companies understand that they have to earn a profit on each job….not cut the bottom out of the market every chance they get.
Keep up the good work.

Does anyone know how many Gexpro branches have been closed?

18+ is what I think I heard at NAED Eastern…but not really sure.

I have seen Rexel buy vibrant, successful Independents and over the course of 24 to 36 month reduce them to a pile of *hit. Our business exist on three pricipals
1-Good people
2- Great Relationship and
3- Say and doing what you promise.
Rexel has a knack for chasing away talented people, reducing inventory, and coming up with all sorts of programs that benefits Their bottom line. not once do they take into consideration the needs of their customers or suppliers

When times improve, I think Rexel/Gexpro will lose many key employees.

It is a matter of time before they chase away the remaining talent.
In the meantime we’ll do some business with them.

Believe me, they chased me away.

I glad to be away from the management philosophy of, “Don’t tell me what is wrong, just deal with it.”

Dont tell me what is wrong, just deal with it is exactly right.

That is definitely the approach of Rexels direction. The bad point is that is their approach to customers, vendors and employees.
In our region 90% of remaining employees are waiting to jump ship as soon as the economy turns better. Rexel continually changes pay structures on demand and often times makes these changes retroactive several months without warning. This year saw a 25%+ commission and 25%+ base salary cut for all sales staff while reducing on hand inventory well over 50%. Many times Rexel promotes sales gimmicks and promotions that cause the sales staff days of work with no revenue back in exchange for your time.

On top of these issues their standard practice of heavily adding their profits on the front end before the sales staff sees the true cost makes it impossible to make any profit for the commisissioned salesmen.

Rexel arrogantly boasts how big they are but they have forgotten how to treat employees, vendors and customers.In time Rexel will vanish
and the service of companies that really are in it for the long term will prevail

The stories will continue–mighty Rexel must learn, they can buy private companies and most everything that goes with it including buildings, inventory, trucks, and accounts. What they cant buy is employees loyalty, this is something that is earned through trust and respect, truly believing you are part of something good and you’re hard work will help build a sucessful future for all.

The U.S. Rexel is owned and operated by investers (bankers) with no scruples, their agenda is to make the numbers at any cost without regard to employees.

After a career of 40 years working for different companies its apparent Rexel doesnt have what it takes, Integrity.

This is all sad but soooo true!

The truth about Rexel investors, these are private equity firms (PE) with large sums of cash and unregulated. CD&R and Merrill Lynch have controlling interest and looking for huge returns in 5 to 7 years. The plan is buy it, strip it, flip it. Consequently they must move fast, closing stores of duplication, reduce employment levels, round up manufacturers for financial and product support, and prepare to market the “New Rexel” for big profits. Sound like fun, this depends where you are in the food chain.

Rexel used to be a good place to work but in the last year or so it has become a place that just sucks the life out of you. We are losing customers at an alarming rate, word is out that we are a joke in the industry, we have no inventory, and customer service has become a thing of the past. Management is more concerned about policy than actually caring for the customers needs, they will do things the Rexel way or they can go elsewhere (and they are) and forget about the employees needs, we are mere numbers and all expendable. It has become apparent that they believe profits lost in a down economy can be reduced by taking it from their employees any way they can, if they could take our babies formula and sell it on ebay for profit they would. The shareholders in this company should take a long hard look because the people currently running it are running it straight into the ground. It makes absolutely no sense what is being done.

Last post… you in Ohio? Or is it like this everywhere?

same thing happening in canada

i worked there in the North carolina market with rexel for 9 years only to be let go by by a regional manager who has no entegrity and will lie to his boss and HR to get people out of his way that he doesnt like. they just closed four stores here and i hope they close the rest. they do not know how to treat people or the customer. they should take a look at the regional manager here and blame him for all the bad things going on and let him go. the way he has treated people will not be overlooked. he puts on a smile and acts like he is your best friend when all the while he is sticking a knife in your back.

Upper management lets people go without research into their background and finding out how that person could maybe be an asset to the company in other areas. Some jobs were eliminated lately. Letting go people that could do any job in the building from warehouse, sales, any operation that it takes to run the company. This sent shock waves through our region . Questions from competitors about stability. They now have a reputation for not caring about employees. The competiton is now ready to pounce and take advantage of their lack of good judgement. When a company lets go of employees that are well known in the industry what do they expect. When the economy gets better people will be looking.