According to today’s Wall Street Journal, it appears that Epicor, the provider of Eclipse to many electrical distributors, is up for sale again. Apax Partners, the private equity firm that purchased Epicor in 2011, and eventually Activant, reportedly is again […]
Omni Cable, a leading supplier of specialty wire and cable to electrical wholesalers is seeking a West Coast Regional Vice President. West Coast is currently considered “west of Rockies”. Role is responsible for business development and operational responsibilities for 3 branches […]
Earlier this month the headline that many were commenting on was “U.S. Hiring Slowed Dramatically in May; Jobless Rate Falls to 4.7%“. The story emphasized that non-farm payroll was up only 38,000 jobs and that March and April data were revised […]
The recent Border States acquisition of Shealy Electrical Wholesalers surprised many while enabling Border States to now spread its reach to the Atlantic Ocean. The estimated $2 billion distributor now reaches 18 states, touch three border and employ 2200 people at 97 […]
An issue we’re starting to hear more and more about is Joint Business Planning (JBP). We started hearing rumblings just before the NAED National from some larger distributors and manufacturers that the planning process was taking too long (not getting […]
LightFair, the pre-eminent lighting tradeshow, was held back in April with large crowds in San Diego. Prior to the show we reached out to some distributors and asked them if they would be willing to share their observations as, given […]
As mentioned last week, one of the topics of various sessions, and with distributors, was eCommerce and eSales. The companies that are viewed as more progressive, perhaps more profitable and who are positioning for future growth are driving their business […]
Economic forecasting is almost like meteorology. People get paid for looking at data and projecting information into the future. As a distributor or manufacturer, these projections can help you forecast a baseline for your business. And, like in meteorology, the […]
The first session of the NAED National was a session titled “Predator or Prey”. The challenge is that session attendees walked away asking “why was it titled that?” Perhaps the answer is in this quote. The “predators” were the panelists […]
Last week’s NAED National, held in Washington DC, was well attended with approximately 700 registered attendees. The seminar sessions, for the most part, were well attended with 125-150 or so attending each of them and, perhaps unplanned, there was a […]
