The market for many is reportedly “slow”, especially when compared to the supply-chain, inflation-driven market of the past few years. We’re hearing the market in the southeast and southwest are better and that those with intentional strategies in other markets […]
The rep world continues to change. While the past few years have been marked with rep consolidation, the emergence of the mega / “national” rep (really, they are all quasi-national), and reps expanding into new contiguous territories, we’re seeing a […]
The concern that persistently “high” interest rates would affect the acquisition market are proving unfounded. So far this quarter, the electrical distribution industry continues on the acquisition trail. Deals have included: HD Supply acquiring SRS. Graybar’s Valin business acquiring Dynamic […]
Spring is known throughout distribution as the time to get together with customers. For many it is an excuse to pull together a golf outing or, if you are a lighting agent, an opportunity to take customers to a factory […]
Recently Graybar announced record sales of $11 billion and, more importantly, a sales increase of 4.8%. Net income increased to $463 million. A “record” is nice, but any growth will generate a new record. While they serve some of the […]
Monday seemingly was just another day in the electrical industry … with acquisitions and mergers being announced. This time it was two acquisitions, which makes three in two days and, by my recollection, sixteen (yes, 16) in the past 60 […]
Last week’s NAED South Central attracted about 610 registrants to Dallas. This was Wes Smith’s inaugural conference as the new President of NAED (after a 40-year career as a distributor.) As is every conference, it was productive if productive is […]
What’s going on in the agent / rep world? As many know, the electrical distribution has gone through much consolidation in the past three years with almost 100 distributors being sold. It seems that independent manufacturer representatives and lighting agents […]
The month of January saw a few rep mergers / acquisitions announced that inevitably have enabled some to expand into new territories. Some have expanded their offering such as Visual Interest’s acquisition of Trifecta. Obviously lighting, or supply, is a […]
Feedback from distributors at the NAED Eastern and the NAED Western forbode a challenging 2024. The vast majority are expecting “flat” or nominal organic growth. Trends I observed from those expecting “more” are one’s that are in the Southeast or […]
