On Monday we reported that we had heard that Maurice Electric, Washington DC, had sold their business (to USESI, which operates Electrical Wholesalers) (read the press release). Since then we have heard of a couple of other deals that are […]
Cleaning out the office and the newsletters we receive and wanted to share some observations: Tedmag.com and Bill Attardi’s EnergyWatch alluded to Philips changing the name of Advance Transformer to Philips Lighting Electronics. We asked a couple of distributors about […]
Recently we’ve spoken to a number of distributors about the operational aspect of their business. A recurring trend is the interest in improving cashflow. While a group of distributors have focused on better managing their inventory investments, many are looking […]
The recent issue of NEMRA’s Hot Wire had an interesting article on the marketing role that reps are now undertaking on behalf of a number of manufacturers: Representatives Shoulder the Marketing TaskMany NEMRA reps report that as a result of […]
Home Channel News’ August 11th issue provided insight into the lamp market. With incandescents effectively being banned by 2014, the future appears to belong to CFLs and LEDs. But with LEDs “at $50 for a light bulb”, what is the […]
I was speaking with a distributor last week regarding the opportunity to speak to their salespeople, and probably suppliers, at their upcoming Field Marketing Summit. Their desired topic is “How marketing can help / The role of marketing“. Our conversation […]
Interesting article in this month’s TED magazine entitled “The Myths of Buying Foreign Off-Brands” (article is not online). Interesting for a couple of reasons: The article is in TED, an association publication that includes manufacturers as affiliate members. This is […]
Last week there was a little reported story that mentioned that Haier, a Chinese appliance company, and Blackstone, a private equity firm that the Chinese government made a 10% investment in last year, were considering/bidding for GE Appliances, which includes […]
For distributors who seek to position themselves as information providers and manufacturers who recognize that contractors and end-users are more frequently turning to websites for more comprehensive information, company websites are becoming more important and more robust. The challenge, unfortunately, […]
Monday’s WSJ had an article that discussed the relationship between productivty and recessions. According to the article, productivity during the six recessions since 1970 grew only 0.8%, on average, whereas this year it has estimated to have grown by 2.5%. […]
