The first US acquisition of the second half of the year and the third Canadian acquisition since July 1st were announced yesterday. Rexel’s Mayer division and Lawson Products, Canada, made acquisitions. Mayer Electric Acquires Electrical Supplies Inc , an operating […]
Marketing, as a function for manufacturers and distributors, has grown significantly in the electrical industry. It is no longer only events and premiums for distributors or new product launches and catalogs / collateral for manufacturers. It now is responsible for […]
As a company grows, the importance of process improvement and training grows with it. Further, to achieve continuous process improvement, the concept of “processes” needs the proverbial “seat at the table. Companies need pertinent benchmarks to drive success (after all, […]
The second half of the year has started and the first week brought acquisitions / mergers and news that will, and could, influence many other factors. In most industry acquisitions, the acquisition of one company by another typically has most […]
George Santayana, the Spanish philosopher said, “if we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it!” Our economy is certainly changing quickly, as is our industry Many of us tried fighting the DIY market when they began selling […]
Electrical distributors, manufacturer representatives, and lighting agents face a continuous challenge with project quotations … the need for speed. Contractors, and specifiers, want everything yesterday. And once they finally place an order, they want the submittal information “yesterday.” In addition […]
Since 2020 the electrical distribution industry has seen 102 (or so) distributors sell their business. Additionally, we’re seeing manufacturer representatives and lighting agents undergoing ownership transitions. In many instances it is due to lack of family business succession planning. You […]
The US lighting market continues to be “challenged” according to our Q2 Pulse of Lighting (click here if you’d like to order for only $35) report and affirmed by this Acuity’s Q3 earnings report this morning (they are on a […]
Lately I’ve had conversations with a number of reps, distributors, and manufacturers that involve “technology” but not in the conventional sense of the tools / software but more as it relates to functionality / capability for the future, does their […]
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate in MDM’s Top Distributor podcast with Mike Hockett and Tom Gale from MDM as well as Craig Webb from Webb Analytics (who talked about the Building Supplies industry) and […]
