In a penny nickel business, every penny counts. Which is why SPAs can matter. Increasing gross margins and, more importantly, net profitability, in today’s environment is extremely challenging. Publicly-held national chains such as Rexel and WESCO report net profitability in […]
In an age of analytics and process automation, two industry-focused companies have recently come together to enhance services for the industry … SPA (Strategic Pricing Associates) and Jigsaw Systems. SPA historically has been focused on improving distributor profitability through improved […]
SPAs, special pricing agreements, were originally conceived to ensure the integrity of local market into stock, and “street” pricing while providing distributors and manufacturers with a targeted sales pricing tool to deploy on an account-specific basis. The definition of “account-specific” […]
Competing on price is a “no no” for many distributors. Few want to say “the reason why people buy from me is price.” But, do all of your customers want to buy from you for your service, people or your […]
Home Depot’s retiring CFO’s interview last night with Jim Cramer on CNBC shared a glimpse of why electrical distributors who serve small to mid-sized residential and commercial distributors should be concerned. And it’s all about pricing. The home improvement (perhaps […]
Last week we released our Q2 Pulse of Lighting report and Acuity, the following day, released their Q3 earnings (they are on a fiscal year). The commonality appears to be “a market in flux”. While Acuity claims share increase in […]
We know tariffs can impact the electrical business. But rare earth metals? We’ve had tariffs after last year’s tariffs on steel, aluminum and a number of other products. The recent acceleration of tariffs on Chinese imported products (price increases from […]
For a word that wasn’t part of the national conscience, it is now front and center and bringing disruption to business. Tariffs. In an industry where price increases occurred annually, where pricing was stable except for copper, companies have now […]
Or are we talking ourselves into a recession? Since the fall and the beginning of planning season there have been some economists who have been warning of a second half 2019 slowdown leading to a 2020 recession. Their prognostications were […]
The first quarter of 2019 has been an interesting ride in the lighting space. There has been: The threat of increased tariffs and then the extensive of the existing tariffs. Some manufacturers raising prices to compensate for tariff increases, others […]
David Gordon
Channel Marketing Group
919-488-8635
