It’s now about 30 days to the AD and IMARK national meetings. Graybar just held their national meeting. Manufacturers and distributors should be well underway in their individual planning. 2017 joint business planning is quickly upon us and, in continuing […]
Yes, Amazon Business is a competitor to distributors. It is also an opportunity for manufacturers given that it represents an additional distribution channel to reach customers. Why? Because some customers desire to purchase through a different mode. Why are they […]
A continued growth area for distributors is energy efficiency. While new construction, almost by definition, will utilize “energy efficient” products, the renovation market is where there is continued growth potential. It requires companies to be aware of the benefits, their […]
Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer as well as the unofficial beginning of the 2017 planning season in the electrical industry. While we know a number of manufacturers and distributors who have started to embark on their planning […]
2016 has been a challenging year for many industrially-oriented electrical distributors. Between the decline and ripple effects of oil and gas markets, the strength of the dollar constricting the OEM market, the agricultural equipment market stagnating and economic growth being […]
Earlier this week Cree announced its 2016 fourth quarter fiscal year performance. The following are notes from their investor call but, the end result was essentially “what’s going on with Cree?” given that the stock essentially tanked thereafter. From their […]
What do Crescent Electric and Walmart have in common? They both have recently made eCommerce acquisitions … and probably for the same reasons. And both, probably, have been frustrated with the pace of their eCommerce initiative. Consider this: Walmart just […]
Earlier in the week we covered distributor quarterly earnings and now we’ll cover some manufacturers – Eaton, Emerson, Pentair (Hoffman & Erico) and Littelfuse. Eaton From their slide presentation: Overall organic sales, company-wide, down 4%, which isn’t as meaningful for […]
Last week the electrical industry’s major, publicly held, distributors shared their Q2 performance. Reading their quarterly reports highlights that there continue to be industrial challenges, they are responding differently to the MRO and construction markets. So let’s look at WESCO […]
It’s Q2 earning season, providing distributors (and manufacturers) with an opportunity to benchmark their performance, gain insights (or confirmation) on what they are seeing in the market and possibly learn a little from publicly held companies. First up is Grainger whose […]
