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BREAKING NEWS: Industrial Distribution Group
Agrees to Be Purchased by Platinum Equity
For your weekly news update and trends report, scroll down
after reading your ISA news in the yellow section.
The 2008 ISA Conference & Trade Fair has changed its
schedule. This year the Annual Meeting will open on Sunday, June 1 with
the Manufacturer Day of the Trade Fair featuring the Safety and BizTech
Pavilions. The second day of the Trade Fair will host Distributor Day; a
unique opportunity for distributors and independent manufacturers’
representatives to meet with their manufacturer partners in their
booths. The traditionally strong Conference educational programs will
begin with a series of luncheons with a wide variety of topics. (Click
here for a complete listing).
The Conference will continue on Tuesday, June 3, with a morning
series of workshops, concluding with an Awards luncheon and featured
speaker Dr. Alan Beaulieu offering an economic forecast for the
Industrial Supply industry and several of its customer industries. To
date, over 90% of the Conference attendees have reserved hotel rooms to
stay over Monday night, June 2.
Tom Haag, ISA's President and President of SGS Tool has reported
that, "it seems like members are valuing their conference attendance and
need to attend the entire conference to achieve all their business
goals. Monday night and Tuesday will be important to everyone that comes
to Chicago.”
Alan Gilbert, Chairman of the Conference Planning Committee and
Chairman of Quality Mill Supply Co. indicates that, "a strong
educational program will always attract a good crowd. And because we are
in Chicago, you can attend all the workshops, have lunch, hear a speaker
with an important message and be on your way home by 2:30PM.”
It is anticipated that the highlight of a strong conference program
on Tuesday will be the rolling out of a new ISA market share project
that will report manufacturer market share in dollars for 14 product
groups in 500 markets in the United States and Canada. Attendees at the
workshop, that will be repeated twice, will receive a copy of the
report. Click here for more information on the
education programs.
Click here for more information on the conference and
trade show. Contact ISA at info@isapartners.org or call 215-320-3862.
As a participant, you will
receive a copy of the Profit Report and personalized Profit Improvement
Profile. The report compares your firm with similar firms. You will also
have access to the Profit Toolkit Online. Deadline is April 15, 2008.
Click here to participate or for more information.
For questions about the survey itself, call Profit Planning Group at
(303) 444-6212.
Join financial expert and
tax authority Bart Basi and Jack Keough, editor of Industrial
Distribution, on March 12 for this Webcast on succession planning. Click
here for more information. ISA members get a
20% discount!
Hear
Meagan Johnson's hilarious spin on how to attract, train, market, manage
and retain people from each generation and not strangle someone in the
process. Click here for more information.
In this seminar,
attendees will work on a target account of their choice to gain
practical, hands-on tools for better face-to-face selling. Click here for more information.
Distributors
spend about half their gross margin dollars on employee wages and
benefits, yet they rarely invest a commensurate amount of time and
energy on selecting and retaining them. This seminar is an examination
of practices that may be working against your organization rather than
for it. Click here for more information.
COMPENSATION SURVEY: FINAL DEADLINE
EXTENSION IS TOMORROW: FRIDAY, FEB. 22!
Do not miss this opportunity to participate in the
bi-annual survey. Calling all Canadian companies - we need you to
participate in order to have a Canadian breakout! Click here for more information.
ISA and OfficeMax
have put together a special agreement that offers you significant
savings on more than 12,000 office products. You’ll even have
access to OfficeMax ImPress, the perfect partner for all your print and
document needs-from training manuals to marketing material to sales
presentations-and more! Whether you choose delivery to your office of
purchase products at a local OfficeMax retail location, you can expect
world-class service from OfficeMax. If you would like a Commercial
Account Manager to contact you about additional information, please call
(913)344-5722 and start saving today. Be sure to check out all of the
other cost reduction programs ISA has to offer at isapartners.org.
The ISA eBusiness Committee announces availability of the ISA
eBusiness Implementation Guideline. Click here for more information.
Feb. 18: We want YOU to participate: 2008 ISA Profit Survey
Details
Feb. 22: Employee Compensation Survey & Report – FINAL
DEADLINE EXTENSION Details
March 12: ZAP THE GAP! How to Solve the Multi-Generational Puzzle
Webinar Details
March 12: Exit Strategies for the Family Business Owner Details
March 18-20: The Four Pillars of the Sales Profession Seminar,
Dayton, OH Details
April 18: Deadline to receive ISA Conference & Trade Fair Early Bird
Registration Fees and to be listed in the printed conference program.
The program will be mailed in advance.
April 15: Profit Report - Deadline to Participate
May 21: How to Find and Keep the Right Employees … Without
Stealing from the Competition Webinar Details
June 1-3: ISA Industrial Supply Conference & Trade Fair, Chicago, IL
Details
Sept. 10: Developing an Inventory State of Mind Webinar
Nov. 19-20: Save the Date: ISA EBusiness Conference
Dec. 2: The Telephone Doctor Webinar
For more information on upcoming ISA events, go to isapartners.org.
Send name, title, email address and company
name of each colleague to info@mdm.com. Only employees of ISA member companies
will be added to the list to receive this weekly association update.
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MDM NEWS UPDATE: February 21, 2008
(Click
headline to view)
Publisher Tom Gale says Roy Otto,
former owner of Machine Tool Supply, Eagan, MN, has had an impact on the
distribution world in his nearly 50 years in the business. Gale first
met Otto about 25 years ago, when he was the chairman for a publications
committee in the state's tooling and machining association.
Gale writes: "He has been a teacher without seeming like one to many
people in this industry and beyond. He has been extremely generous in
sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm for the industry, and has been a
strong role model for hundreds of employees, peers, suppliers and
competitors."
More...
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What are the Benchmarks for Success in Distribution?
A successful benchmarking
effort begins with an understanding of common performance metrics. The
Annual Census of Distribution conducted by the MPI Group identifies
current performance levels for key technologies and processes—from
radio-frequency identification (RFID) to Six Sigma—in distribution
centers and warehouse operations. Learn how savvy distributors are using
benchmark metrics and adopting best practices to stay one step ahead of
the competition. Click here to read the Annual Distribution
Executive Summary.
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Help MDM better understand how
your company views the current economic situation in the U.S. We will
use the answers from this brief survey to better shape our economic
coverage and provide you the resources you need to succeed in business
in the next year. Provide your e-mail address at the end and we'll send
you MDM's newest Special Report:
"Business Planning for Distributors."
Take the survey here.
Raw material and energy costs
topped the list of cost pressure concerns in 2008, according to a recent
survey by Prime Advantage, a buying consortium for small and mid-sized
manufacturers. More than 46 percent of respondents agreed that raw
materials were a major concern in 2008. Energy costs were the second
biggest concern, with 17.5 percent, and logistics and supply chain costs
followed closely at 16.4 percent in agreement.
The survey also found that 66 percent of Prime Advantage members plan
significant capital improvements in 2008, including equipment upgrades
such as press brakes, turret punch presses, plus equipment for laser
cutting, robotic welding and stamping. Perhaps of most interest to
distributors though looking to make themselves indispensable to their
customers in the next year: 88 percent of respondents indicate plans in
2008 to improve at least one of the following: cost savings, efficiency
measurements or supplier diversity goals. Where can you step in? More...
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During an economic downturn, there
will inevitably be shifts in jobs from slowing industries to growth
industries, and people will need to respond and re-engineer their lives
and careers accordingly, according to this article in Forbes. Stories of
job losses and a rising number of jobless claims may create an
atmosphere of anxiety and fear in the workplace for both employees and
managers.
In many cases, companies in an economic downturn cut costs, but not
strategically, often making it more difficult for employees to do their
jobs. The wrong employees are laid off and the most promising employees
move to companies with a more stable environment. It is the progressive
leaders that use this situation as an opportunity to grab the smartest
people, this article says: "You cannot shrink your way to
greatness.”
More...
The Federal Reserve lowered its
projection for economic growth this year, citing damage from the double
blows of a housing slump and credit crunch, the Associated Press
reports. The Fed is also forecasting higher unemployment and inflation.
More...
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How can we know when the economy
is on its way to recovery? Thomas Duesterberg, president and CEO of
Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, Arlington, VA, writes in IndustryWeek to
look for a turn upwards in building permits and housing starts, a
turnaround in loan delinquencies and defaults, positive changes in
customer sentiment surveys, growth in consumer spending on durable
goods, increase in the inventory/sales ratio, an uptick in the
three-month moving average of business investment – especially in
nondefense capital goods – growth in imports (in the most recent
report, imports were in decline), and a sustained recovery in the value
of the dollar.
Duesterberg says in his article that though the federal fiscal
stimulus package and interest rate reductions are helping to keep things
steady, he feels the above listed factors will do more to revive the
economy.
More...
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HD Supply plans to start back on
the acquisitions trail soon, as well as grow organically. According to
this article at builderonline.com, the distributor (which was spun off
of Home Depot this year and sold to a trio of private equity firms) may
also eventually go public. If an acquisition is made in the near-term,
it will be a bolt-on, however, and not a platform buy like Hughes Supply
or National Waterworks were. However, the company's divisions, he told
builderonline.com, do not have any immediate need to grow via
acquisition and will also be looking for organic opportunities, such as
diversifying product lines, to grow.
More...
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ABOUT ISA ADVISOR
ISA Advisor is a weekly news and industry update provided as a member
service of the Industrial Supply Association. More information about ISA
member benefits and services is available at the web site of the Industrial Supply
Association.
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Management, on behalf of the Industrial Supply Association. 100
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