The past few days, about 800 individuals from the industry gathered in San Francisco for the NAED Executive Leadership Conference (formerly the NAED Annual). NAED claims that attendance was very strong based upon the number of companies that attended (with […]
We might be saying goodbye to GE in the electrical industry in the near future. Although the Appliance group is going first, could lamps be far behind? According to www.wsj.com today, “General Electric plans to start an auction for its […]
While not much has been publicly said about private labeling / corporate brands (one distributor’s euphemism for this sourcing strategy), a number of large, European-influenced companies continue to develop their product offerings. And with margins being squeezed, operating costs increasing […]
A little levity for the weekend, and a comment on the value of change orders to contractors … where the real money is. It helps when the “normal” change order price differential is some 40 to 60% higher material cost […]
Much has occurred over the past couple of months and many manufacturers and distributors have cut to the bone in an effort to preserve profitability. These cuts have focused on people, programs (in the case of manufacturers) and products (in […]
BtoB magazine recently had a list of leading b-to-b ad agencies. Over 125 agencies were listed and we thought manufacturers could benefit by knowing some of the company that others keep. Our industry’s end-user marketing initiatives have a tendency to […]
Just some things we’re hearing in the marketplace that are doing a good job of eroding margin for many… While much has been discussed about private labeling and some chains continue to pursue this, some things to consider: HD Supply […]
We were reviewing Purchasing magazine this morning and noticed that there were a number of articles relating to various metals markets. With metals (copper, zinc, aluminum, steel) having significant impact on the electrical industry, we thought a recap and some […]
This past week we attended the EquityEDN meeting in Atlanta and thought we share some observations. Almost 350 member attendees, representing 197 companies, attended the meeting. While we didn’t count the number of manufacturers, all on the EquityEDN list attended […]
As we’ve mentioned, (article in EW) there are a number of niche applications that represent opportunity for distributors. With business slow, what better way to differentiate yourself than helping your contractors capture business (they need it) and to help end-users […]
